Did nobody knock on her door?

Welcome to the Middle Ages, write Peter Rhodes.

A woman living near Reading has died in hospital after being bitten by rats in her own home. She was old, disabled, bedridden and living alone.

Councils and government departments have all sorts of policies to deal with the weakest and most vulnerable members of society, such as this lady.

The snag, as you may have noticed, is that while the state has battalions of pen-pushers to draw up policy and write inclusive, multicultural and gender-neutral mission statements as per the European Commission on Human Rights, there is a distinct shortage of people knocking on doors to ask what is going on.

In this case, according to neighbours, a rodent invasion was made worse by fortnightly rubbish collections. Rats were swarming into bedrooms and climbing up through lavatories. This helpless old lady, crippled by a stroke, was repeatedly bitten.

Now that she is dead, the authorities are said to be "investigating her living conditions".

So that's all right, then.