Vox Political was wrong: Britain didn’t need an ignorant toff’s comment to rise against the Tories over #GrenfellTower

Last Updated: June 16, 2017By

Perhaps it was the claim that the refurb work on Grenfell Tower, for which £10 million was set aside, only cost £8.6 million – including a saving of just £5,000 from using flammable cladding instead of the flame-resistant type. Honestly, with £1.4 million going spare, why was that decision made and who was responsible?

Perhaps it was something else.

Maybe it was this act of contempt:

Maybe it was the claim that the news media have been ordered to lie about the Grenfell Tower death toll:

We’ll find out about this one sooner or later because:

Perhaps it was the unlikelihood that this would happen:

Perhaps this was the final insult:

Actually, the article is worth quoting because – after everything that has happened in the last week, you may not believe exactly how arrogant and insulting the letters (there were two) really are [boldings mine]:

The letters didn’t offer sympathy or support. They both offered a warning. About anti-social behaviour. In particular, breaking rules about playing ball games on the local green and issues about dogs.

The letter about ball games was directed to all residents, it did not discriminate between those who had witnessed terror on their doorstep, or those who had lost loved ones in the fire.

It reprimanded their children, including those still wide-eyed from a tragedy which nobody – especially the young – should ever have witnessed.

I have never seen anger like it. The people around Grenfell Tower already feel ignored and abandoned. Now, they feel insulted.

All This Writer knows is that seats of local and national government, along with the BBC (for toeing the Tory line?) have been besieged by angry members of the public today.

Needless to say, the facts have been misreported by the BBC:

https://twitter.com/ToryFibs/status/875804322654822401

This is what I’ve been seeing online – and it started quietly:

Then, this:

https://twitter.com/i/moments/875742579949699072

https://twitter.com/joshdcaplan/status/875739561288224769

Theresa May – perhaps shamed (again) by the fact that Jeremy Corbyn (and now the Queen) had visited the Grenfell Tower and met residents, while she had hidden away from them – turned up there again today, only to be besieged in St Clements Church by a crowd shouting – well, listen for yourself:

https://twitter.com/AbdiwaliUK/status/875769230796484608

Here’s how our ‘leader’ dealt with it – she literally ran away:

We have a prime minister who is afraid to face the citizens of her own country. She is a national – if not international – humiliation.

The anger spread:

Inevitably, protesters even reached Downing Street itself:

https://twitter.com/UKMoments/status/875774740153094144

And, of course, they protested outside the BBC:

Protesters there held a one-minute silence for the dead.

Probably worst of all for Theresa May, people started talking – and the things they were saying made sense:

https://twitter.com/Corbynator2/status/875783435847118848

Meanwhile, back at Grenfell Tower (WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE):

Here’s David Vujanic:

https://twitter.com/ReclaimTheNews/status/875806337346789376

Many of his points are worth stressing, but this is very important: There was no violence. All protests were peaceful. The people involved wanted answers and they wanted action. However:

https://twitter.com/liamyoung/status/875785171731087361

This is why they were calling the mainstream media liars. Fortunately we now have the social media – of which This Site is proud to be a member.

The other point to be made about rioting is that riots are short, violent explosions – and expressions – of public frustration that end.

Public frustration about the ignorance, arrogance and above all privilege that led to the Grenfell Tower fire will not end, any time soon.

Already more demonstrations are being planned, in towns and cities across the United Kingdom:

Some have criticised organisers for holding such events outside London, but they either miss the point or are trying to divert attention away from it.

This isn’t just about an act of gross negligence that has killed residents of a single tower block in London.

It is about the threat we all face from a government of cost-cutting profiteers who have no interest in, or compassion for, anybody apart from themselves.

People have had enough. They want change. And now they are taking to the streets to demand it.

Postscript: Perhaps an ignorant Tory toff did say something stupid to kick this off after all:

He’s wrong, by the way. The political accusations were first made by members of the public whose affiliations were not known.

I think This Site was the first to go into the politics of the disaster, in an article published at 10.51am on Wednesday – and my Labour membership is currently suspended.

Anyway, a fellow Twitter user had an excellent response:

And let’s all bear this in mind:

https://twitter.com/TheMendozaWoman/status/875745670875033600

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9 Comments

  1. Fibro confused June 16, 2017 at 10:56 pm - Reply

    People before money, lives are not to be dismissed for the sake of profit, it’s cruel inhumane, it’s murder it started in earnest in 2010. Money the route of all evil! All we can do is keep this story front & center and keep fighting like we have for the disabled. There is a better way!!!

  2. marcusdemowbray June 17, 2017 at 6:54 am - Reply

    Tory Bean Counters saved themselves £5,000 on cladding. Re-housing bill £5,000,000. Enquiry Bill £ ? Legal bill £ ? Compensation bill £ ?

    Bean Counter mentality never works long-term.

  3. NMac June 17, 2017 at 8:42 am - Reply

    As I scanned the newspaper shelves this morning I noticed the despicable Daily Telegraph (aka Torygraph) has labelled the survivors as being taken over by “extremists”. So Tories look upon anyone who quite rightly wants to hold to account an incompetent government for criminal negligence as an extremist. This appalling tragedy must be the final nail in the Tory coffin – so sad that it has taken the unnecessary deaths of so many innocent men women and children to bring it about.

    • Florence June 18, 2017 at 3:48 pm - Reply

      In May’s manifesto she said “she” was going to take over the internet to censor it to make sure that the people of the UK would be “protected” from the “extremists”. Now you know. We’re the extremists for wanting a Labour government, for the many, not the few. She will try to silence us all. We are to be called dangerous extremists for calling for a change in govt and for the those who have caused the conflagration that consumed the Grenfell residents to be held to account. Prison. Starting with Cameron and his Eton bullingdon fanboy government and their assault on regulations, and for making killing the poor business as usual.

  4. Barry Davies June 17, 2017 at 9:31 am - Reply

    Can’t help but think these marches are more rent a mob than the actual people involved in the fire whose main motivation should be getting somewhere to live rather than spend the time marching around. Demanding answers before anyone has had a chance to investigate, it did take 2 days to put the fire out and they have to ensure the building is safe for investigators to enter, is ridiculous. Let the Fire Brigade and Police do their job, that is why the coroner opened and adjourned the court investigation.

    • Mike Sivier June 17, 2017 at 10:20 am - Reply

      Your opinion is up to you but mine is that the people marching were Grenfell residents, along with people who have been helping out, and other people who are genuinely concerned – not a “rent a mob”, which implies that they are people who come out just to cause problems.
      Answers about the cause of the fire may take time but answers about the materials used on the building that made it so easy to spread can come NOW.
      Who made the relevant decisions? Who is responsible?
      How much did it cost? Where is the rest of the money that was put aside for improvement work?
      These questions can be answered now. Those who were responsible for creating the conditions in which this disaster happened can be brought forward now.
      Where are they?

      • Dez June 17, 2017 at 1:00 pm - Reply

        The last thing needed for a fast track resolution and remediation of a potential threat is another Hillsborough type cover up where the Government drive the agenda ….again. We have had now several deaths from high rise fire incidents the Governments have had their chance to deal with the issue but not found it convenient to their builders and conservative friends to actually not get around to implementing or enforcing anything…..such was their total disinterest in the findings from the other fatal enquiries. Since your site closely followed several Coroners findings about benefit deaths (prefer killings) only a few Coroners still seem to have a balanced view anymore in our supposed justice systems. If this incident had happened before the election i beleive JC would have romped home over May and her cabals crocodile tear response to this slaughter.

    • Fibro confused June 17, 2017 at 11:15 am - Reply

      I’m going to ignore the MSM’s ‘rent a mob’ and ask you to watch the video’s not from the MSM but from the little known and bystanders videoing residents interviews in general. Sit back and think your part of the Grenfell residents group who have been campaigning complaining for quite a few years about the fire hazards, lack of fire doors alarms etc. who have received letters from the council lawyers to remove things from the blogs to stop ‘hounding’ council staff. You listened to your brother/mother…relative on the phone from the building asking you who is coming to get them, they can hardly breathe from the smoke then the silence & you watch the flames shoot out from your flat with your family/friends inside.

      Now ask yourself are you happy for due process to take it’s course like it did with another tower block fire 4 years ago that no one has seen the report and no actions have been taken no lessons learned. Your homeless or you know friends who are now homeless. Your friends, relatives are dead. As Mike has answered above there are answers that can be made available right now, these are people who are rightfully angry in despair frightened. If I could physically march with them I would, I’m sick of the profit before people mentality that caused this nightmare.

  5. Brian June 18, 2017 at 2:26 pm - Reply

    Grenfell is not an isolated case. To my knowledge, landlords in the social sector (aka Local Authority – Arms length) are more concerned with issuing propagandist platitudes than accepting dialogue from residents or their representatives. Tenant Organisations have been treated with disdain and contempt by LA’s that see them as a sufferance that hinders their ‘real’ function, tackling ASB etal. They are also seriously incompetently led by overpaid executives employing inadequately trained operatives.

    I have experience where It took 8 years and numerous complaints to have a keyed fire escape changed to allow exit; by Housing Ass employees that could not understand why! I have experienced being told to ‘wedge open’ fire doors to stop them banging closed and disturbing other residents, with the threat of eviction (Tenancy Agreement) action, if slamming continues. (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE!)

    It is no wonder people in social housing are treated as second class citizens with the pervasive, obstructive, dismissive, egocentric attitude’s of those that run them.

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