I thought I was fired up and distressed about the fate of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. But I have just read a piece of invective (The final toll | Brice Stratford | The Critic Magazine) which makes everything I have written pale by comparison. The odd thing is that everyone understands the symbolic significance of the Bell Foundry as a monument not just of London history, but more global, the place where the Liberty Bell was cast. But no-one seems willing or able to save it, least of all Historic England, whose job it is. Or the National Trust, whose job it could have been. Or the Heritage Lottery Fund which could have intervened. Or the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government. Or the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Now Robert Jenrick has pledged on twitter to sort it out – at the very least , to find out what went wrong. The most obvious thing that went wrong was that his junior minister signed a document in Jenrick’s name on Thursday giving the destruction of the Bell Foundry planning permission.

Brice Stratford is a theatre director. I am not sure if it is tragedy or farce.