You discount the Orkneys and Nottingham mass arrests as atypyical and not ideologically inspired. But they were indeed ideologically inspired, as subsequent enquiries by Jean La Fontaine and Elizabeth Newson made clear. The fantastic allegations of Satanic abuse rings were popularised by the NSPCC, kidscape and other "child protection" groups, as well as a number of influential social workers like Judith Dawson, and commentators like Esther Rantzen.
This is what Julie, taken into 'care' in Rochdale had to say about the way she was treated:
"No one told us why we were taken away. We thought me or my brother Daniel had done something wrong - or something had happened to Mum and Dad - and that was why we couldn't go home. ... It was like the family had been ripped apart." Julie was five years in care before she was released.
David, also taken into care in Rochdale said: "But I could never, never forgive the social workers for this, I don't think any of us could." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/real_story/4602302.stm
These were quotes from a BBC film about the case, which featured social workers' filmed interviews, which were more than harrowing, as children as young as six were interrogated by people who harrassed and bullied them, telling them that they would never get away unless they said that their parents had abused them.
In South Ronaldsay, May recalled the interview techniques:
"Eventually you would break down, after an hour or so of saying: 'no, this never happened. I don't remember it. I don't even know what you are talking about'. "I can't imagine how I got out of the room if I didn't say 'yes', but I don't remember saying 'yes' to anything."
The social worker Janet Chisholm told the BBC that she thought that the children's denials were evidence that there was abuse, and that, despite the fact that the children had since come of age, and were pursuing actions against the social services for false imprisonment, she still believed that she was right, and they were in denial.
That year, Beatrix Campbell, the partner of Judith Dawson, one of the senior social workers responsible for mass detentions in Nottingham, wrote in Marxism Today that people who 'respect children's accounts of 'satanic' or ritualised abuse aren't taken seriously'. The evidence is of course that it was the social workers who refused to listen to the children's denials, being themselves in the grip of a powerful idee fixe that the family was 'toxic', fathers were abusers, mothers accomplices, and only they, the professionals were to be trusted.
Nobody is saying that abuse never happens in families. But the problem was that these social service professionals got it into their heads that abuse was characteristic of the family - a view that Leninspart echoes. Instead of looking for exceptions, they decided that abuse, or a 'continuum of violence' was the rule. But what is the rule is that the overwhelming majority of parents, without any expectation of financial or any other reward, selflessly dedicate themselves to the care of their children.