If you think you know why the fire happened, why aren't you calling for the cancellation of the public inquiry? After all, it's just a waste of money now.
Journalists don't know why the fire started, how it spread so quickly, whether the wrong type of cladding was used, whether it breached fire regulations, whether the fire regulations were adequate, whether different cladding might have prevented any fatalities, why sprinklers weren't fitted, whether sprinklers might have stopped the fire, whether it could have been stopped if it weren't for cuts in the fire services or whether the instruction for tenants to stay in their flats rather than crowd the staircase led to unnecessary deaths. Journalists don't know any of these things (and neither do the rest of us). They should wait for the public enquiry to report rather than pretending that they've already worked the answers out. The Times journalist who described the heads of various sprinkler trade bodies as "experts" (instead of "salesmen") deserves particular contempt.
I would be willing to bet quite a large sum that the panels fitted conformed to building regulations.
As for Mrs May, she is no doubt not at her best in situations which require her to interact with other carbon-based bipeds, but the response to her failure to visit the survivors straight away is hysterical. These people have lost their homes, their possessions and in many cases friends and family. I very much doubt whether any of them is saying, "What really pisses me off is that the Prime Minister didn't come and see me". Tellingly, it is other people who have been complaining.
You can learn a good deal about the leader of the Labour party and his acolytes from this catastrophe. Mr Corbyn was very quick to lay the blame on "austerity", even as public spending continues to rise. I guess we shouldn't be surprised by this sort of opportunism, but when a block of council flats, whose cheap rents are subsidised by others, has just had nearly £10 million spent on a face-lift, "austerity" is not the word which immediately springs to mind.
As for the Labour call for the displaced to be housed in the vacant properties of RBK&C's millionaires, this is populism writ large. Don't like the fact that other people have got a lot of money? Fine. Let's just confiscate their assets. Never mind that, in time, the rich will sue for damages and your gesture politics will end up costing the state and the council far, far more than, for example, bed and breakfast accommodation. We hate the rich, so let's do something than hurts them.
Messrs Corbyn, McDonnell, Abbott, Lavery and Milne are dangerous people, for whom the rule of law means little. If you think this is hyperbole, McDonnell has called for a "million strong march" to drive the Tories from office.
It's must be so tempting, when you feel the wind of public opinion in your sails, to disregard an election result and the rule of law. Like Donald Trump, Mr Corbyn tells his supporters what they want to hear. You only have to substitute "the rich" for "the Mexicans" to see the similarities.
Lastly, a word about the "poor". Let's be realistic about the residents of the Grenfell Tower. In some respects they had uniquely privileged position. They had a council tenancy at a low rent in a tower block in one of the richest cities in the world where jobs are widely available. Having lived nearby for many years at the end of the twentieth century, I can testify that Notting Hill and its environs are a great place to live.
Ask any of the residents a month ago if they'd prefer to swap their flat for a bedsit in the private rented sector at the same price. You would have had no takers. Compared to the overwhelming majority of people at the bottom end of the socio economic scale in London they were well off.*
This doesn't mean that their deaths don't matter, or aren't a tragedy, or that those at fault do not deserve to be punished. It does mean however that once again the Left and the unthinking press have a very sketchy relationship with the truth, particularly when distorting it can tug heart-strings and stir self-righteous anger.
*A couple of days after the fire I heard one of the residents interviewed on PM. He complained that the £5,000 bank transfer provided to residents by the Government was not enough. "It's a joke", he said. "My bed and my TV cost more than that".
PS As the days have rolled by, it has emerged that some dozens of tower blocks have been fitted with the same non-fire retardant cladding. Many of them in Labour controlled areas. Many during the Blair governments. These revelations make a mockery of Corbyn's attempts to blame Grenfell on "Tory austerity".
*A couple of days after the fire I heard one of the residents interviewed on PM. He complained that the £5,000 bank transfer provided to residents by the Government was not enough. "It's a joke", he said. "My bed and my TV cost more than that".
PS As the days have rolled by, it has emerged that some dozens of tower blocks have been fitted with the same non-fire retardant cladding. Many of them in Labour controlled areas. Many during the Blair governments. These revelations make a mockery of Corbyn's attempts to blame Grenfell on "Tory austerity".
