The end of May

Okay, what do YOU think? Who is responsible for the catastrophe that is Grenfell Tower? Just state your opinion. No evidence needed, folks. Was it the cladding? The council or the builders cutting corners? The Tory government doing away with so-called 'red tape'? Theresa May? Is it the fault of the last mayor of London? The current mayor of London? The only people who have escaped blame so far have been Jeremy Corbyn and the Queen.

Someone is going to have to carry the can for this appalling event and even before an investigation has started - before, in fact, the poor sods who have lost their homes, possessions and sometimes their families and friends in the fire are given time to grieve - the media have started doing that substitute for justice: pointing fingers, raising issues, calling people to account. And not always justly.

There are a few things everybody needs to do: first of all, make decent living arrangements for the people evacuated from the tower, so that they know where they will be in a week from now. And their families and friends will know where to find them. The council needs to do that. It will cost a lot of money but all councils have contingency funds to pay for incidents like this - and they should all have emergency planning in place to deal with it too.

We need to send in as many people as it takes to find the bodies of the dead. I don't want to hear how many firefighters have been made redundant. I just want people in place along with pathologists and any other staff that are needed to find, retrieve and identify the dead. Families are waiting, in agony for just this news.

I want the media to back off. I can't accuse TV or radio or newspaper reporters of stirring up people who have lost so much, but I knew by 9am this morning that there was going to be trouble in that area of London today. And sure enough, there it was, kicking off on our TV screens this afternoon. We need people involved in the tragedy to know the rest of us care and want to help them.

Then we can have the funerals of the dead - and these will have to be paid for from the public purse too.

After that, we can question how this disaster happened in London in the 21st century in the richest council area in the UK, if not in the world.

That will no doubt lead us to wider discussions about equality and fairness. But we need to take it one step at a time. And we need to look after each other. That care, I'm afraid, has been missing from the borough of Kensington and Chelsea for the last few days.