Tower block fire - london

[Top_gun]

but the presence of the press if often inflammatory (sorry no other word), they often seem to play both sides off against one another (#1), and if you heard the reports this morning from female
councillors at the meeting who were afraid of a breach of the peace at the meeting, you can see why he stopped the meeting.
(#1 many examples :C4 resident interviews - what do you think about ex judges appointment to head inquisition given tha he was unsympathetic/over-ruled in a previous hearing )

I think:

• Paget-Brown's decision to cancel the meeting was the cause of why the female councillors feared a breach of the peace
• Surely, it's not in the press interest to cause a breach of peace
• Paget-Brown failed to respect the High Court's decision to allow the press to attend

Is Sadiq Khan's not empowered to organise an intermediate leadership ? I read it as he is not taking any responsibility to help the residents either, and just passing the buck,
he does not see any merit in cross-party unity in this situation, just worried about his popularity - he has the opportunity to do something useful ?

Sadiq Khan or the GLA have no statutory duties to intervene in the council's affairs. The GLA and the local authorities in London have a statutory duty to work together. I think this was intentionally done in memory of Red Ken of London County Council. DCLG have the powers to intervene in Local Governments. You may recall the issue of Eric Pickles intervening in Tower Hamlets a few years ago.

 

[kedge]

I hope justice prevails.

 

[wildman]

I hope justice prevails.

not under the current government it won't. This will get sand bagged because a detailed inquiry will damage the Tories too much and they will hide behind the need to remain in charge for the sake of brexit.

 

[Kronos]

Scary thing I heard this morning coming from the Kensington and Chelsea council was that because of the scale of the disaster every and any council would not have performed well.
Yes this was a major incident but surely not on a scale that could not be effectively managed. Do councils not have contingency plans in place to handle major incidents?
According to friends in the area in the initial stages of this tragedy it was spot the people from the council and it was ordinary folks volunteering that were at the forefront at organising relief in the early stages.

 

[Top_gun]

Scary thing I heard this morning coming from the Kensington and Chelsea council was that because of the scale of the disaster every and any council would not have performed well.
Yes this was a major incident but surely not on a scale that could not be effectively managed. Do councils not have contingency plans in place to handle major incidents?
According to friends in the area in the initial stages of this tragedy it was spot the people from the council and it was ordinary folks volunteering that were at the forefront at organising relief in the early stages.

Fully agree, considering there was around 120 households affected by the fire isn't such a large figure.

The council have responsibilities to put in place emergency plans under the Civil Contingencies Act. If the council can't cope with 120 households then it shudders to think how they are able to cope with a wider emergency. The administration in K&C doesn't know how to administrate and they badly let down the victims of the fire even after given financial support from the government.

I hope justice prevails.

Of course everyone wants that but first must come answers. What was disgusting was the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire was barred from the council meeting on fire. Not a good start to heal the division between the council and local people.

 

[Ayahuasca]

Looks like there's another fire going on in bethnall green but fortunately the flats are unoccupied as they were still being built according to early reports.

 

[LeeUK]

Tories doing what Tories do - screwing the poor.

 

[LOAM]

So we have an amnesty on people who were subletting, I imagine the authorities are desperate now to identify people who may have been in there.

 

[Bradmax57]

Tories doing what Tories do - screwing the poor.

And competition does what exactly?

 

[Nitefly]

Drove past this today and it was horrible - really puts the news into perspective

 

[Bradmax57]

Drove past this today and it was horrible - really puts the news into perspective

I can only imagine

 

[Nitefly]

I can only imagine

It's right by Westfield London / coming in via the M40/A40... pretty much right by the A40 you can't miss it :/

 

[Top_gun]

So we have an amnesty on people who were subletting, I imagine the authorities are desperate now to identify people who may have been in there.

I think it's the moral thing to do considering the scale of lives lost. Otherwise, it will send a message that Government doesn't care about the victims.

 

[Dis86]

I think it's the moral thing to do considering the scale of lives lost. Otherwise, it will send a message that Government doesn't care about the victims.

What I don't get is why these people are seemingly more important than any other poor sod who has lost their home or loved ones in a fire.

 

[Top_gun]

What I don't get is why these people are seemingly more important than any other poor sod who has lost their home or loved ones in a fire.

Because they were let down by the authorities and they need to learn the lessons from this disaster to ensure it doesn't happen again. Not to mention the scale of the fire and the fact the story made worldwide headlines. To relegate the Grenfell Tower to the same degree as the poor sod who has lost their home or love ones to a fire probably doesn't appreciate the wider implications. Perhaps it's the same reasoning was used for the Lakanal House fire and hence why no lessons were learnt in the aftermath.

 

[LOAM]

I think it's the moral thing to do considering the scale of lives lost. Otherwise, it will send a message that Government doesn't care about the victims.

Probably, I think subletting in the context of grenfell probably means letting of rooms rather than the entire apartment. It makes you wonder though if they will ever establish the exact number of people living there.

 

[XeNoN89]

So has anyone mentioned the fact that some scummy locals were throwing bricks and bottles at firefighters who were trying to put the fire out and save people? Last I saw it was being completely covered up by the media for some reason...

 

[wildman]

The full death toll will never be made public nor will an estimation. The problem for the council and the Tories is that if they say there are still remains in there that they can't find i.e all the missing people that haven't been rehoused, pronounced dead, or found in a hospital then the entire area effectively becomes a graveyard and cannot be redeveloped into million pound condominiums to be sold to Tory party sponsors. The entire inquiry will be a whitewash. If the government meant business and really wanted to get answers they would have called for a full inquest which allows for the residents themselves to have appointed legal reps and allow them to call their own experts in. This government is clearly running scared of what will be unearthed in a full inquest so they are strong arming the process and the people by calling for this weak inquiry.

And yes there is a massive difference between an inquest and an inquiry. One has legal implications due to jury involvement and the other doesn't.

 

[StriderX]

If that land is turned into anything other than a memorial... It'd be preferable if they just left it as it is, so the idea of conservation of view stops being the defining factor of improvements.

 

[Cern]

So has anyone mentioned the fact that some scummy locals were throwing bricks and bottles at firefighters who were trying to put the fire out and save people? Last I saw it was being completely covered up by the media for some reason...

Your evidence for this?