The dreadful fire at Grenfell Tower, an event which becomes more shocking with each new day, is the final act in a process which began in innocence, but has ended with a terrible truth told in the deaths of innocent men, women and children, burned alive in their homes in the middle of a summer night. That truth is that the shrinking of the State, which in the 1970s had become overbearing and inflexible in the eyes of so many, was at first a benefit which liberated, empowered and enriched. But like so much in life, too much of a good thing is worse than a little of a bad thing.
In the beginning was the notion that there were limits to what the State could do well and as time went on, the bar for those limits was set lower and lower. Privatization, outsourcing, agencies and quangos took over responsibility from government. The State became an enemy and a drain. Finally came the bonfire of regulations begun in 2010. It is there that the seat of the Grenfell Tower tragedy lurks, for it is a fact beyond denial that a fire-safe block was turned into a death trap during refurbishment, allegedly in compliance with the regulations then in force. The police will discover if those regulations were breached and the public inquiry will reveal whether they were adequate. None of that will bring the dead back to life, nor restore to normality lives scarred forever by loss.
But it may, indeed it should, teach us all a lesson. The State is a friend, not an enemy, which it is why we have one and some things it does much better than the private sector. It is a guarantor and an enabler, a guardian and a helpmate. It belongs to all of us and we are part of it. Because of it we are free. Let us resolve to treat it with better respect in future. And once again empower it to work for the public good. Of everyone.