Catastrophes

I don't know whether there is a better way of doing things, or whether there are other countries which have done better, but we do seem to make an awful mess of inquiries into catastrophes. They go on for a very long time, often far too long, and often seem to achieve very little beyond a sort of catharsis by long drawn out ritual. Judicial rituals which seem to be far more costly than the priestly rituals used in other times and other places - and with most of the achievement seeming to be in the trouser pockets of the legions of lawyers involved. And I dare say newspaper people get some of the trouser action too. And politicians get to grind their axes.

This prompted by reports that the police service is pouring resources into consideration of whether the fire service should be prosecuted over its stay put policy for fires in tower blocks.

Maybe if I read reports of this particular inquiry more carefully, I would learn how many decent tower blocks could have been bought or built for what we are spending on investigating one indecent one. A number which might help us all keep a sense of proportion.

PS: something that judicial and priestly rituals share is a fondness for sacrifices, perhaps in the form of goats, as imagined by Holman Hunt. Otherwise something that the Greeks and the Jews have known about for more than two thousand years.