The date for the forcing of boys back into nappies was set to coincide with the last day of term – which was also the last day of school as they'd known it for boys.

Questions were asked about how it was proposed to enforce the rules requiring boys under the age of ten to wear nappies, but of course Ms. Simmons had a plan for that.

Before she’d announced to new law she’d had people, women and bright young female university undergraduates, working on linking government and commercial databases. She then knew from birth registrations, child benefit payments and, most cleverly, children’s clothing purchases, not only which families had boys under the age of ten, but also how old they were, and what size clothes they wore.

It was therefore relatively simple to issue each affected family with two packs of disposable nappies and two pairs of plastic panties in the correct size for their son(s).

An email was sent to mothers requiring them to confirm that the information was correct, and then, a couple of weeks before the implementation date, a pack was sent to each family. The effect was not only to demonstrate to mothers that the government knew all about their situation, but also to prepare the sons for their return to nappies. In many cases the packs were put into the boys’ bedrooms, serving as an unwanted reminder of the fate that was about to befall them.

When the fateful day arrived there were many households riven by tears and tantrums. Boys who had got used to wearing panties to school were distraught at the thought of having to wear a nappy. Many mothers, exasperated by their sons’ tantrums, resorted to the age-old remedy of over-the knee-spankings, and quite a few boys ended up that day going to school that day not only with a nappy on, but with a very sore bottom too.

Normally the last day of term was a day of celebration for all pupils. This time, however, it was only the girls celebrating. As was traditional, pupils were allowed to wear ‘mufty’ – so many of the girls were wearing jeans or shorts. The boys, however, with their nappies on, found that their jeans didn’t fit over them, and so had to go to school with their nappies and baby panties on under a skirt or dress, with the result that it was easy for the girls to see their babyish attire.

Some mothers even sent their sons to school in just a nappy, baby panties and a onesie, with their bulky bottom on display to everyone.

With it being the last day that boys were to go to school, and the knowledge that boys would be wearing nappies, most schools had locked the boys’ toilets, forcing the boys to use their nappies when they needed to go. By the end of the day, most boys had had to at least wet their nappies. When the girls realised this it only added to the carnival atmosphere among the girls, and the humiliation among the boys.

But this was only the start of their torment. Once the SiSSy colleges were up and running, young boys were seen in public wearing bulky nappies and plastic baby panties, usually in the company of their SiSSY maids.

It had all the hallmarks of the Victorian age.