The tragic story of Riven Vincent, the mother of a severely-disabled child who told the website Mumsnet last week that she could no longer cope, drew attention to at least two fundamental issues other than her own personal circumstances.

The first was that the media onslaught was aimed squarely at the prime minister rather than the mother's local authority, even though, technically, it was the latter's responsibility. Indeed, the media rather buried the local authority angle since it muddied their line that it was David Cameron's fault for promising to protect disability care services – when he met the mother during the election – and then not delivering.