Globe contributor Chris Westdal, a lifelong member of the foreign service, takes the usual flag-waving approach in appealing for a rebuild of 24 Sussex, suggesting that national pride is at stake. “Is there any other state on earth that has or would let the residence of its leader fall to vermin?” he asks, apparently unaware of the catastrophic rodent problems at the eternally miserable 10 Downing St., or of the countries that don’t provide an official residence for their head of government at all. (There aren’t too many of these, since the distinction between “government” and “state” is less pertinent to republics, but they do include two important peers of Canada, Ireland and Switzerland.)