If a culture, en masse, has lost the will or ability for individuals to offer help to children in a crisis, then there is no hope for them. If that's what egalitarian bureaucracy does, then maybe they should pitch it out of the window, buy themselves a nice dictator and get lessons in being a human being.

In Devon, I reckon they could have stopped a passer-by in the street and got more help. Which may have been the problem: I would guess that local kids would have put up more fuss at all stages of the process: the Devon girls, I would guess, politely went along with everything they were asked to do.