If Terry Philpot wasn’t asking a rhetorical question regarding why neighbours did not notice the absence of a child for two years or at least have some idea of the drunken squalor and chaos in which Amanda Hutton and her children lived (“Falling through the net”, 12 October), then I know the answer to both questions. It is because neighbours are minding their own business, keeping to their private space and allowing others their independence, which is the highest ideal in a culture where selfishness has been raised to the status of a virtue in the name of ­independence.  I minister at care homes and I can testify that the Hutton tragedy is a tip of the iceberg when it comes to the price that must ultimately be paid for this ideal of ­independence. The isola