Fire at Grenfell Tower in London

Given this is effectively a large-scale corporate manslaughter charge I don't think deflecting the blame is really going to work.

The official death toll has now risen to 12.

(xp) I wish I shared your confidence.

twitter account of the editor of "inside housing"

This is what a report into cladding used in a nearby tower which caught fire in August said. Report was kept secret. https://t.co/z0GOVjkNjB pic.twitter.com/RPJTTLj3Y7

— Peter Apps (@PeteApps) June 14, 2017

polystyrene ffs

Sorry I'm not good at links on zing

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/14/disaster-waiting-to-happen-fire-expert-slams-uk-tower-blocks?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

That's proper cowboy spec in that tweet.

Jeremy Corbyn has suggested spending cuts could have contributed to the deadly fire at Grenfell Tower. The Labour leader said “searching questions” need to be asked about what happened at the west London tower block, adding: “If you deny local authorities the funding they need, then there is a price that’s paid.”

very sad and enraging situation.

Tensions erupted in clashes with the police outside the Rugby Portobello trust, which is acting as a centre for dispossessed people.

The road outside the club was packed with people, some in tears and some wailing. A fracas broke out, apparently over a journalist trying to film a distraught woman. Some men moved to protect the woman and, within seconds, a large contingent of police officers were jostling with the crowd amid shouting and screaming.

Watching the news right now and the tower appears to be leaning quite alarmingly. Dunno if it's camera angle or what.

I'm almost certain that's the camera angle...

Def camera angle; was just past and it's straight. Fires still burning though

The intrusive questioning and filming of people in the severest state of shock and grief (looking for missing family, kids etc) by the BBC today is fucking repulsive. A new low even by their own appalling lack of standards :(

how many people lived in the tower? david lammy says he expects "hundreds" of ppl to have died

david lammy otm

This is the richest borough in our country treating its citizens in this way and we should call it what it is. It is corporate manslaughter. That’s what it is. And there should be arrests made, frankly. It is an outrage.

Many of use across the country have been caught up in an election knocking on housing estate doors, travelling up to the top floors of tower blocks, and we know as politicians that the conditions in this country are unacceptable.

We build buildings in the 70s. Those 70s buildings, many of them should be demolished. They have not got easy fire escapes. They have got no sprinklers. It is totally, totally unacceptable in Britain that this is allowed to happen and that people lose their lives in this way. People should be held to account.

simultaneous lammyposting there

Just listened to that on youtube, Lammy totally otm and Nick Robinson a total arsehole who was trying to deny there is any class inequality dimension to this preventable tragedy.

There could have been 400+ people in the tower and the numbers confirmed dead and confirmed safe/in hospital are nowhere near that.

The scale of this is horrific, I read somewhere that there could have been anything between 400-600 people in the flats when the fire started.

average house price in kensington and chelsea is £1,989,412

george osbourne could see the fire from his street

grenfell tower was recently remodelled to cram more residents inside, fire alarms were not properly fitted, cladding was flammable

just free associating here, no class inequality implied, of course

fuck nick robinson now and forever btw

There could have been 400+ people in the tower and the numbers confirmed dead and confirmed safe/in hospital are nowhere near that.

I've been thinking about that too, the fire started on the fourth floor and there were, what, 24 floors? It's chilling and horrific. Theresa May is visiting the site today, I really really really hope people tell her to fuck right off, but I'm sure there isn't the will or spirit to do that right now, but soon I hope there will be.

(xp) Fuck the BBC now and forever.

Meanwhile Theresa May visited the site and managed to avoid meeting any of those affected or volunteers helping. She really is a pathetic human being.

i've been wondering how heavily stage-managed may's visit will be - she'll be terrified, and rightly so, of getting shellacked by the public but the optics of her running it like her election rallies of four punters in a warehouse would be at least as bad

wait, she's already been? ffs

It's like she hates people or something.

better not to have gone at all and made some vague statement about letting the authorities do their focusing on the issues or something

showing up in groucho glasses, having a quick shufti and fucking off again is absolutely the worst thing she could have done

i mean i guess that's become her personal brand now but even still, holy shit

this is a straight-up dereliction of duty by a prime minister who sold herself on being strong and stable

i don't think i was even this furious with david cameron the day after the eu referendum

corbyn set to visit a bit later. as someone in my twitter feed said, the political blame game can't begin a moment too soon.

absolutely

this surely has to be the final nail in theresa may's coffin as pm, and like almost all the other nails, along with the wood and interior lining, she made it for herself

fuck her forevermore, she deserves her epitaph as the worst pm in at least a century

I hope this will lead to massive changes in both policy and attitudes but it's just as likely that safety will be used as an excuse to accelerate estate demolition and gentrification.

"political blame game" sounds horrible in these circumstances but if that if that is what it takes to hasten the process of bringing the guilty parties to account - then fucking bring it on.

it's only horrible if there's not actually clear and simple blame to be laid at the feet of politicians and all signs seem to point to this being an almost inevitable endgame of tory austerity

Osborne was saying they shouldn't abandon austerity yesterday, it is almost like the penny hasn't dropped that this disaster is on him as well.

osborne in 'total cunt' shocker

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DCXHKJLXoAECn-d.jpg:large

May being like

https://i.giphy.com/gngO1gmBhS9na.gif

except she's looking around to ensure that no members of the public have managed to sneak up on her

'tis true.

what i do not get is that as despicable a human being she is, does she not have advisors telling her she *cannot* make a visit and not see anyone personally affected by this tragedy? perhaps i should be glad the advisors prob given up.

she's past the point of no return, really - everything she does is a lose/lose

i can't imagine the public will ever forget that in a time of national tragedy, when financial and material support for the people affected by the fire has been flooding in from all over the country, our prime minister was too frightened to even attempt to appear human

more than that, it's an implicit admission that she knows tory policies, and people she has working directly for her, led to this and she doesn't have any kind of plausible response for people looking for answers

just fucking stand down now and spare us all any more of this, it's embarrassing

Yes, she has just installed two of the people bearing the greatest responsibility in the positions closest to her. I think there were four days between Barwell being appointed Chief Of Staff and headlines about him burying fire safety reports. She'd look ridiculous firing him but how can he stay on?

She's right to be frightened. She'd have received the reception she deserves and knows it. Presumably the thinking is that she can't just not turn up if Corbyn is visiting though.

guys, may would totally have met with the victims, there just wasn't enough time to have them vetted first

honestly i think she'd have been better not turning up - better to let jeremy get sole credit for being caring than to roll up like cruella de ville, quickly fuck off before any peasants touch the hem of your garment, and confirm people's worst suspicions about your lack of human feeling

I think it's safe to say she looks ridiculous enough as it is.

The phrase 'not a people person' barely seems adequate.

'not a person' is getting closer