72 dead and nothing said (we will not forget)

today is the anniversary of the grenfell fire.

next month the inquiry is due to resume - it resumes at the point where everyone involved is revealed as having taken the money and turned a blind eye to the fitting of dangerous cladding to the block - kensington and chelsea, the almo, the architects, the consultants, the contractors. people knew. they just took the money. they didn’t do their jobs. they didn’t give a fuck.

will there be criminal charges? that depends on the police investigation (which it is now said is likely to last until 2022), the CPS, possible political interference. the complications caused by those who gave evidence to the inquiry being granted immunity for the evidence they gave. we deal with the general numbing effect of time. it’s three years since the fire already - how much longer before the inquiry delivers its report? four? five? the charges cannot be laid until the inquiry is over.

beyond that the inquiry has been deliberately framed so that it cannot go wide and ask the broader questions about race, poverty and social housing. (in this is is the prototype for the public inquiry that will come over the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic).

and of course the government has learned to take housing seriously as a result of grenfell. but no - there’s little robert jenrick obliging a tory donor with a planning decision on a development in docklands that saves him 40 million in money that would have gone to improve conditions in tower hamlets. and does he come to parliament to face the music? no he skulks and sends his deputy.

what does grenfell prove? what will the inquiry prove? that black lives don’t matter.

as one of the survivors remarked on the news last night it should have been the george floyd moment for britain (but it wasn’t).