A word from the editor: Big name donors to Notre Dame fund are a little "holier than thou".

NO sooner were the last embers being extinguished in the blaze which destroyed so much of Notre Dame than the rich opened their wallets to rebuild her.This beautiful building, treasured throughout the world, was not so loved by church or state that there was money found to prevent its gargoyles from crumbling or its timbers rotting. But what an opportunity the fire presented for the billionaires to show their “charity” in this Holy week - a gift from God a cynic you might say?Whilst the working poor of the gilet jaunes take to the streets the wealthy find they have an excess of cash to give to a building. As I write over £100m has been pledged, much of it from Paris’s fashion and beauty houses. I’m not criticising charitable giving, but I do believe there are people who give willingly to needy causes and those who give for glory - a “cause celebre” if you will.Perhaps the media is to blame in so readily reporting these huge donations. It is the media too who have written and uttered more about the burning of Notre Dame than about the countless cultural gems lost in Iraq and Syria over the past few years, like the destruction of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri in Mosul. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Notre Dame and I’m glad money is being raised to rebuild it. But there is no harm in remembering that many of our famous buildings were put up thanks to the patronage of the rich who wanted to buy their place in history and that little has changed. Leeds has its own examples, check out the story of the Queen Victoria monument in Beckett Park for instance.Notre Dame will rise from the ashes, but the poor will still seek alms on its steps and seek shelter beneath its famous flying buttresses.