Vox Political was wrong: Britain didn’t need an ignorant toff’s comment to rise against the Tories over #GrenfellTower
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?
"Difference between flammable+inflammable panels #GrenfellTower, £5k Or 5 prs of gold leather trousers" @kevinredpath @chunkymark
— jolly_angelina (@jolly_angelina) June 16, 2017
Perhaps it was something else.
PM @theresa_may pledges to rehouse #GrenfellTower fire victims in three weeks https://t.co/049TXr2R2d
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 16, 2017
Three weeks! She's taking the piss now surely? https://t.co/EnPua1l2WT
— Global Collapse HQ (@G_C_HQ) June 16, 2017
Maybe it was this act of contempt:
If u thought The Sun couldn't get any worse:
Sun journalist'impersonated Grenfell Tower victim's friend at hospital' https://t.co/1LAZkSiRMV— Aleesha 🇵🇸 (@a_leesha1) June 16, 2017
London should be the third city to ban The Sun after one of their journalists impersonated a friend of a Grenfell victim at a hospital.
— Aleesha 🇵🇸 (@a_leesha1) June 16, 2017
Maybe it was the claim that the news media have been ordered to lie about the Grenfell Tower death toll:
Tories put ‘D-notice’ gag” on real #GrenfellTower death toll. Via @skwawkbox https://t.co/63cMyRyRxJ pic.twitter.com/HOK0lk6GgQ
— Rachael Swindon (@Rachael_Swindon) June 16, 2017
We’ll find out about this one sooner or later because:
Have contacted Home Office around potential D-notice re #GrenfellTower – imperative that public knows.
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) June 16, 2017
Perhaps it was the unlikelihood that this would happen:
All #Grenfell relatives and survivors must be granted legal aid to allow them to be properly represented at the public inquiry #justice
— Tom London (@TomLondon6) June 16, 2017
Perhaps this was the final insult:
Devastated residents delivered warning letter day after #GrenfellTower fire https://t.co/ctyrorTxBI by @PaulBrandITV pic.twitter.com/zZp151P6SA
— ITV News (@itvnews) June 16, 2017
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:
@BBCNews we've not heard 1 person asking for money. Pls stop saying protestors are demanding it. They're demanding a COORDINATED RESPONSE.
— Kensington Labour. Grenfell forever in our hearts (@KensingtonCLP) June 16, 2017
I see the blowback against the Grenfell protesters has started.
Just shut up, stop polluting the streets & become invisible? Not likely.
— Dolly 💙 ️✌️✊️ (@fauxpaschick) June 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/ToryFibs/status/875804322654822401
This is what I’ve been seeing online – and it started quietly:
Britain is about to undergo its own 1989. A decades old order is about to come apart. Not unlike Thatcher or 1945.
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) June 16, 2017
Then, this:
https://twitter.com/i/moments/875742579949699072
https://twitter.com/joshdcaplan/status/875739561288224769
Dear BBC,
This is not a mob. This is grieving relatives ,friends and neighbours demanding answers to what happened to their loved ones.
Tom https://t.co/3JKRegMcsl— Tom Pride (@ThomasPride) June 16, 2017
People have had enough. They want justice. One is shouting "the media are liars". #GrenfellTower pic.twitter.com/ewS8zs1Dre
— Rachael Swindon (@Rachael_Swindon) June 16, 2017
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
'Justice…Grenfell' pic.twitter.com/qxUJ1o2xYo
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) June 16, 2017
Here’s how our ‘leader’ dealt with it – she literally ran away:
I've never seen anything like this. Theresa May practically running to her car as a crowd shout "coward". This is not leadership. #Grenfell pic.twitter.com/AoOuH1Yvio
— EL4C (@EL4JC) June 16, 2017
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:
Protest outside Home Office.. seems to have increased in number.. #GrenfellTower pic.twitter.com/BZjX4u3Ksa
— MagsNews (@MagsNews) June 16, 2017
'Corporate manslaughter' – never seen anything like this in London. March thru residential area – universal support pic.twitter.com/UA2z6RisRO
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) June 16, 2017
Inevitably, protesters even reached Downing Street itself:
https://twitter.com/UKMoments/status/875774740153094144
#JusticeForGrenfell approaching Downing Street with the chant "May must go." Can you hear it, @Theresa_May? pic.twitter.com/OtnrouaPZM
— Jeremy for PM (@jeremyforlab) June 16, 2017
And, of course, they protested outside the BBC:
Happening now outside @BBCNews HQ in London. #GrenfellTower protest. pic.twitter.com/AFfkPXRX4u
— Declan Harvey (@NewsDeclan) June 16, 2017
Protesters there held a one-minute silence for the dead.
1 minute silence in front of highly policed BBC HQ #justiceforgrenfell pic.twitter.com/uIY4B6ptnR
— Real Media (@RealMediaGB) June 16, 2017
Probably worst of all for Theresa May, people started talking – and the things they were saying made sense:
We could be next. Council Flat residents speaks out about #GrenfellTower #JusticeForGrenfell pic.twitter.com/nONJhbCvhq
— Ceren Sagir (@cerenkardelen) June 16, 2017
https://twitter.com/Corbynator2/status/875783435847118848
"Who's going to help us?" – local resident at the #GrenfellTower fire protest is desperate for answers and aid pic.twitter.com/DOKzStp7sm
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 16, 2017
.@DavidLammy becomes tearful when remembering Khadija Saye, a friend lost in the Grenfell Tower fire. pic.twitter.com/OJdJA5FYSY
— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) June 16, 2017
Meanwhile, back at Grenfell Tower (WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE):
Broken Britain pic.twitter.com/PBAyC3klwv
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) June 16, 2017
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:
#JusticeforGrenfellTower demo in Glasgow tomorrow 2pm Buchanan Street steps https://t.co/tv18LGGJoQ
— Rhea Wolfson (@rheawolfson) June 16, 2017
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:
Boris Johnson accuses Labour of 'outrageous politicking' over the #GrenfellTower fire https://t.co/4vOXpfDyVi
— Guardian politics (@GdnPolitics) June 16, 2017
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:
Rachael of Swindon accuses @BorisJohnson of being the mayor that closed 10 fire stations in London and cut trauma counsellors from 14 to 2. https://t.co/0IPNsnSoHb
— Rachael Swindon (@Rachael_Swindon) June 16, 2017
And let’s all bear this in mind:
https://twitter.com/TheMendozaWoman/status/875745670875033600
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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!!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.