I’m taking inspiration from an ancient Athenian

How sorry I felt for the poor man who died this week stuck up a 290ft chimney in Carlisle despite desperate attempts — helicopter; cherry-picker — by the emergency services to rescue him. We’re so used to the idea that no matter how precarious or remote our plight — be it stranded kids deep inside a flooded cave in Thailand or tourists who’ve had their feet bitten off while snorkelling in Australia’s Whitsundays — those amazing emergency services will get us to safety in the end. It comes as quite a shock to be reminded that survival isn’t always inevitable.

But is this a sign, I wonder, that we’ve all become a bit too pampered and complacent for our own good? One of the reasons, I’m sure, for the existence of Generation Snowflake is all those pathetically indulgent parents — myself included, I’m afraid — who would happily drop everything at a moment’s notice to try to sort out their darling ones’ minor emotional crises.