cross my palm with silver

I heard an interesting angle on the new every child matters/monitoring of HE today. It was Roger, (who I had asked to countersign out passport forms). It had been pointed out that this data sharing had been in place in Germany for years. His take on it was there would be a knock on the door, "cross my palm with silver and we will inspect you for home educating you children". In other words, they may decide to charge us for the privilege of monitoring HE, as they do for schools. It will cost 50 pounds for each child at the Montessori school to be inspected by OFSTED next year, which will have to be stumped up by the parents.
Now they wouldn't really do that, would they?
When I said I had already been inspected for one child so they probably wouldn't bother me again, even if they found out about the others, he just laughed and said, haven't you heard of Cinderella? But that isn't the same for schools, is it? They don't have to be inspected every time a child starts do they?

He also told me about his experience with trying to get planning permission for one of those windmills they are selling in B&Q. When he asked if he needed planning permission, the answer was, in his words, cross my palm with silver and we will tell you whether or not you will need to apply for planning permission. It turns out Calderdale do not give planning permission for these windmills as yet, so I don't think the Halifax B&Q will be selling many of those, unless they do something about it.