Conspiracy theories about Grenfell are understandable, but unhelpful

Disasters like Grenfell offend our sense of control over the world, and challenge the unconscious faith we have in a 'system' that cares about us

Walk into the street, right now. Keep walking past the first hundred or so properties that you see. Look at them. Count the doors and the windows. Note the number of cars parked on driveways, in garages, or on the road. Look for cracks of light or flickers of movement or wisps of steam from chimneys. Listen for the unmistakeable sounds of habitation; a footstep, a sigh, a voice on a telephone.

Think of the people inside. Think of the owners or the tenants. Think of their friends, families and lovers. Think of the older child who may be home from university, or may have chosen to travel this summer. Think of the sublets; some legal, some less so. Think of the undocumented migrants and refugees who can haunt London estates like administrative ghosts, invisible to and uncounted by the state.