Very possibly, but if that is the cause, then the blame for that is more likely to lie at the feet of the KCTMO, Local Authority, Architect, Main Contractor or the Subcontractor.
I feel I have to stick up for @sadoldgit a bit. I think the point he made was impolitic, but thereâs also a huge kernel of truth in it, as well as a large political element to it.
Weâre not talking Tories versus Labour, btw. Weâre talking neoliberalism versus socialism. All adherents of neoliberalism, be it post-Thatcher Conservatives or Tony Blairâs âNew Labourâ, made decisions in favour of lighter touch regulation, to help their pals in the business world that got them there. A bonfire of red tape, they said. Now weâre seeing actual, devastating fires, that red tape doesnât seem so troublesome, does it?
Neoliberals start wars that divert funds from domestic projects and increase the risk level to this country. Thereâs no social project that neoliberals cannot work private funding into. The long term result has been growing inequality, underfunding of public services, huge staff shortages in some rather important sectors.
The Tories do deserve particular ire, though. They began the project, and managed to seep it so deep into the fabric of British society that in 1997, rival politicians didnât see any other way but continuation and emulation. This Conservative government massively reduced access to Legal Aid. If the Grenfell Tower residents had been able to take their case to court, perhaps we wouldnât be having this discussion.
They also sat on concerns, for years, despite there being clear evidence and a previous case of fire safety being an issue in tower blocks. According to the woman on QT last night, they have had one housing minister every year since 2010, so as much as youâd like to put the blame on Gavin Barwell, heâs just the latest in a long line of failures.
There is no political will to help the poor in London, and a fuckload of political will spent effectively turfing them out. That is a 24 storey smouldering mausoleum to Tory indifference to the poor, or public safety in general, standing ashamedly in the richest part of the country.
Theresa May knew who was to blame. Thatâs why she didnât bother speaking to any of the residents.
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Which ties into the neoliberal argument just nicely.
âLetâs outsource our social housing to profit driven enterprisesâ
What can possibly go wrong?
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Just when you think The Sun newspaper has reached the gutter yesterday they finally reached the sewer. Kings College hospital has lodged a complaint over one of their journalists impersonating a relative of one of the victims in order to get an interview with him. The journalist was trying to get an interview with Mario Gomes who bravely raced back into the building to try and find his daughter. This despicable creature made the approach to hospital staff for the interview, which Gomes declined because the reporter claimed to be a relative. Absolute fucking scum.
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Except the KCTMO is owned wholly by and funded primarily by the Local Authority and is a non profit making organisation whose profits go back into maintaining the housing stock it owns. The others would presumably be private companies, but it is a hell of a long time since Local Authorities ran their own labour forces as an alternative to contracting out works.
The âshitragâ, as firefighter Mick so eloquently termed it, has had its âbestâ days behind it.
The scousers stopped buying it after Hillsborough. @unionhotel used to declare that he wouldnât have a copy in his house, although from recent Facebook posts, that policy might have changed 
I reckon he might have voted May.
My own potentially disappointing progenitors aside, the paper has started to acquire nationwide pariah status., mostly on account of the power of alternative media. Quite apt really. When Rupes landed on these shores he aimed to replace the existing voices with his. Weâre now replacing him with ours.
Donât buy The Sun.
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Do you ever get the feeling that the press have slipped back to bad old days of the eighties.
I can remember during the Manchester incident, a chap putting up an appeal on social media trying to locate his brother. He got over 50 journos trying to contact him to get his âstoryâ including one little fucker who turned up on his doorstep and asked him how he was feeling.
I think twatting the press in these situations should be perfectly legal, it might give the little bastards pause for thought before they decide to act.
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Some quotes from an article in The Guardian from a former employee of KCTMO -
âAfter 2010, austerity bit us hard and we felt it in every aspect of the service, as resources were stretched and budgets were squeezed. We worked closely with police and mental health services but as those services started to fall away after 2014 - degraded by the budget strictures of their own - things became more difficult.â
âOur foreboding about calamity loomed large. I used to have nightmares about blocks burning down.â
âAfter years of austerity, system failure and now this unthinkable tragedy, surely things must change?â
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I agree that it has had itâs best days. I hope its demise willbe swift. They still try to give them away in the local newsagent, a big stack of the bloody things on the counter. It always lifts me a little when the people in front of me in the queue decline the offer and i laughed when I once witnesed a fella replying " Wouldnât wipe my arse with it, mate" to the lad behind the counter.
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Again, weâre back at neoliberalism and reduction in public sector headcount. I did not know that KCTMO was not profit making, but pretty much every one of its subcontractors will be.
There was an awful woman on Question Time last night that piped up about the âbottom lineâ in response to Emily Thornberry. She worked in the construction industry, and was complaining about regulations affecting the bottom line.
Like it or not, and I really donât, all those private companies were chasing profits. All would have been tempted to cut corners.
Itâs high time that right wingers acknowledged that there are some things you just can trust to the profit incentive because the market neither promotes responsible behaviour nor is a responsible guardian.
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Their latest finanical statements show a profit and loss account of over ÂŁ2m in the positive.
Would that then not extend into mainstream housebuilding, car manufacture etc all of which are private companies?
I actually agree that certain aspects of life should remain in public hands, but to say that all private companies are in for themselves, cut corner to make an extra ÂŁ and fuck the consequences is just not true.
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Itâs really fucking sad that yet again, a thread about death and destruction is being politicised, and by the usual fucking suspects too.
Seriously, get a fucking grip, and if you want to discuss the political fallout of this why donât you start another thread. Iâm on holiday and trying to find out the latest news on this and I have to read through pages of this shit, which to me seems pretty fucking incensitive.
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Coincidentally this is the amount saved when the Grenfell project was given to Rydon rather than Leadbitter.
You come on here to get the latest news of the fire?
Yes, this and the BBC, because many of the news reports donât contain any in depth details, and there are many people on here that use Twitter extremely well to get information that other news agencyâs donât.
People are fucking angry. This should never have happened. Insensitive? We should never tolerate things like this and would hope would never been sensitised to senseless loss of life. You can read a lots worse elsewhere.
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Of course it should never have happened, but sorry, I donât like faux anger just so that you can bash the current incumbents of number 10. You donât come across as angry, you come across as someone trying to points score with a political agenda.
How about we let the firefighters recover the bodies and do a full investigation before we all jump to conclusions on the cause, and the aggravating factors behind the fire, before we all speculate about it,or if you want to, do it on a separate thread, so I donât have to read your ill-informed, ignorant ramblings.
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Well, i donât know how they secure their funding for capital projects, but it would seem to suggest they at least had the ability to borrow against this to install a sprinkler system in Grenfell in line with fire offcer advice and tenant concerns.
Faux anger? Fucking hell. Who on earth could watch the news reports and not be genuinely angry? As for ill-informed, ignorant ramblings, you have been here as long as I, you know what to expect. I canât believe that anyone would come to an internet football forum for news when there are hundreds of proper news feeds out there. Faux outrage perhaps?
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