Fire at Grenfell Tower in London

"The Heygate estate in Southwark: ‘nearly 1,200 social homes bulldozed, just 82 replacements built’. Photograph: London SE1 Community Website"

David Lammy is the MP for all of Haringey, right?

think catherine west (hornsey and wood green) may be MP for some of it

Yes, when I lived there Lynne Featherstone was the local MP and that was Hornsey & Wood Green.

Speaking at the 5th June Bruce Grove Residents Network meeting David Lammy responded to a question about gentrification by saying that he doesn't see evidence of it in Tottenham and admitted that he would happily 'take a bit of it' for the constituency. It was important the area got 'a bit of the cake' of economic growth in order to bring jobs, money and opportunities for people. Adding that regeneration must mean jobs locally.

yeah Lammy, turfing people out of their homes creates loads of new "opportunities" for people, like let's go live in housing association dump 80 miles away from my family ...yay!

Yes that is in fact exactly what he said.

Well of course he didn't say that, they never do say that. Instead they use the usual doublespeak when referring to gentrification schemes. Not that it makes any difference to those who are uprooted and fucked off for these oh so affordable housing schemes.

It's the difference between gentrification meaning a few restaurants and coffee shops popping up and gentrification as deliberate mass displacement.

yeah but as soon as you start saying petite gentrification - not so bad, it feels like the Blairite style legitimising of something that is like a disease.

mind you, when I say the language of gentrification is often cloaked in doublespeak. "Decanting" is a commonly used term on London regen schemes, which is quite blatantly ruthless.

you really need to let the class war breathe i find

Well maybe you'd have a similar pov if you lived in social housing for 90% of tr life. And .. class war! really?

it was a decanter joke

i got it

it was bad but i got it

Oh I'm very sorry TH. Totally took it as jibe

I just open opened a nice Malbec earlier as well.

the sophistication of my jokes can be deceptive on the palate. you think they're bad, but actually the hedz know what's up

'Decanting' has been in the social housing lexicon for 20 years (that I know of).

sorry for the humour bypass again. I'm having a shit day. The missus came back from a PIP appeal earlier, where she has been turned down and is in absolute pieces. I'm angry and agitated, and started drinking too early - bad combination of events.

Yes since at least 91 when I started. Xp re decanting

I wonder what the backhand deal will be on the profits the developer makes on their 50%

Sorry to hear that calzino. Shit news.

jesus that sucks calz

aw fuck calzino - so sorry

Sorry to hear that, man.

as this thread shows - things can always be much much worse. To win one of these tribunals you have to prove that the (non-medically trained) ATOS person didn't assess you correctly on the day - regardless of if you are currently very ill and struggling to stand up. You'd think that would be a piece of piss, but apparently it isn't for many people with degenerative conditions.

That's rough, Calzino, sorry.

Yes since at least 91 when I started. Xp re decanting

Before that, when my granny's house was getting done up, she was 'decanted' for a few months - that was the 80s, possibly the 70s.

(xp) I know someone who is stuck in this shitty process too, calz, it's fucking disgraceful.

Tell your friend to get a decent advocate if they can, the one my partner got was ineffective, rude and totally callous. When you have just gone through a very dehumanising process and they coldly say: "you've lost, your taxi will be here in 5 minutes, so set off now" it isn't good.

Sorry for bringing this to this thread, it is quite trivial in comparison to 100's burning to death in their homes needlessly.

Sorry to hear Calzino. We should really gulag these Tories.

Compilation of stories of the night here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/grenfell_voices was pretty hard to read

just finished reading it from top to bottom, am badly shaken. as a piece of publishing, that was extremely well done, though.

Devastating.

Great piece

Great disturbing and upsetting piece of writing. I'm glad I read it.

Dawn Foster continuing to quote from council meetings and residents thoughts (mostly anger at the authority of course) on Twitter for hours at a time.

https://architectsforsocialhousing.wordpress.com/2017/07/21/the-truth-about-grenfell-tower-a-report-by-architects-for-social-housing/

V big post-Grenfell news – residents of 242 flats in 4 blocks in SE London to be moved out after survey found buildings hugely unsafe

— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) August 10, 2017

Again, they need to be re-housed in the exact same areas. Labour need to be on it.

Just watched Steve Richards of the Guardian, on BBC's Dateline programme, comparing Trump's response to the hurricanes to May's response to Grenfell Tower, only to be interrupted by the BBC presenter who felt the need to explain to viewers and fellow guests what Grenfell Tower was. Forgotten already down at the BBC obviously.

Dateline is shown on their BBC world news channel, so maybe they gave an explanation for people outside the UK?

That is a possibility.

Saved by an air pocket - this is the story of the only people to escape the top floor of Grenfell Tower. pic.twitter.com/Wx90prH4B4

— Channel 4 News (@Channel4News) September 13, 2017

I have been noticing a lot of hate-speak and general apologist obfuscation becoming more more prevalent recently. Well tbf Nick Robinson was doing it on the BBC, literally while the corpses were still burning in Grenfell. And that prick on the start of this thread that was stating (in a bullshit authoritative manner) that sprinklers wouldn't have made a difference, offering this highly intelligent analysis, roughly 10 hours into the disaster. Yet now there is talk that all high rise social housing urgently need sprinkler systems installing, and only 2% actually have them. Well, why waste the money on these things if they don't make any difference? Everyone knows water has absolutely no discernible effect on fire of course.

This was pretty well done:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-sh/Grenfell_21st_floor

Also want to note this development: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/sep/19/grenfell-tower-inquiry-may-consider-individual-manslaughter-charges

Met police commander Stuart Cundy said he had met survivors and relatives of the dead on Monday night and told them he believed the final death toll might be slightly lower than the 80 people previously posited.

He said 60 people had been formally identified and CCTV showed 240 people had left the tower between midnight and 8am on the night of the fire. He added that cases of fraud coming to light, including people reported missing turning out to be fictitious, could be one factor leading to the final death toll being slightly lower.

Nevertheless, he said, there could still be people with no social or family connection outside the tower, and not on any official lists, who could still be within the high-rise. He declined to say by how many the death count could fall.

I always thought the numbers would be much higher, if anything. Considering the size of the building and the early a.m. time of the fire. And talk that significant numbers of the residents might not have been officially living there. I'm not saying it is wrong - because I'm not privy to any facts here - but my gut feeling is that it is more lying Met police bollocks, and they do have a long history of lying.

Grenfell Tower victim ordered to pay £100 compensation to dep leader of Kensington & Chelsea council after threatening him at 100-day vigil

— Tristan Kirk (@kirkkorner) October 6, 2017

The defendant in question, who lost a close relative in the fire, will be paying the compensation at £5 a week from his benefits

— Tristan Kirk (@kirkkorner) October 6, 2017

whut