Some historical events are so seismic that people remember exactly where they were when they heard of them. The assassination of JFK; the death of Diana; and the election of Emma Dent Coad as an MP last June. According to the lady herself in a recent article, “when I won Kensington for Labour, the world shifted a little”. In another piece she suggests that “everyone remembers those 20 votes” that got her over the line. A bit of self-regard from an MP is forgivable; less so are her claims that the reasons for this Labour victory became clear days later, on the night Grenfell Tower burnt.

According to Dent Coad, the “towering tombstone . . . captures all that has gone wrong with politics over