Notre Dame will rise from the ashes but the destructive inferno in Paris is a warning not to take our own national treasures for granted.
The Houses of Parliament going up in flames would be as big a blow here as the damage to the ancient cathedral is to the French.
There are many magnificent architectural gems we would weep over if they were lost.
York Minster, partly gutted by a lightning strike in 1984, has been restored to its former glory, as has Windsor Castle, but next time a blaze might wreak greater havoc.
Hospitals must be fireproofed, and schools too, after this week’s revelations that five in six new schools were constructed without sprinklers under the penny-pinching Tories.
And if all new homes in Wales must be built with sprinklers, why not in England and Scotland?
Grenfell Tower’s human toll was a warning reinforced by Notre Dame.
Corbyn correct on SATs
We all want our children to learn but transforming schools into exam factories and turning teachers into assembly line assessors was a big mistake.
So Jeremy Corbyn pledging a future Labour government would scrap national SAT tests in primary schools is a welcome recognition the balance is wrong.
Teachers and parents need to know how well children are doing, but the tyranny of the current bureaucratic system is failing our kids.
Imposing high stress, pressurised exams on the youngest pupils is stifling creativity and narrowing education.
Every child matters and we want them to be encouraged, not crushed, at an early age.
Talking sense
Britain talking is far better than shouting, screaming, swearing, frothing, yelling or, worst of all, fighting.
As Labour MP Jo Cox said before she was assassinated by a hate-filled far right terrorist: We are far more united and have far more in common than that which divides us.
