Hundreds feared dead in London tower block fire
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A plane didn't smash into Grenfell Tower.
PLATELL'S PEOPLE: The politics of hatred will never win justice for Grenfell
By Amanda Platell for The Daily Mail
22 July 2017
No one, apart from the survivors, will ever truly be able to comprehend the horror and heartbreak the Grenfell residents endured on the night their tower block was engulfed in flames.
It was a tragedy of unbearable proportions. For those who escaped the inferno, there is unimaginable pain, loss, grief and anger.
Their emotions boiled over this week at a meeting of the residents with Kensington and Chelsea Council, where the newly elected council leader Elizabeth Campbell was abused as she tried to apologise on the local authority’s behalf.
No one will ever truly be able to comprehend the horror and heartbreak the Grenfell residents endured on the night their tower block was engulfed in flames, killing at least 80 people
It was a tragedy of unbearable proportions. For those who escaped the inferno, there is unimaginable pain, loss, grief and anger
‘No ifs, no buts, no excuses,’ she said. ‘I am deeply sorry we did not do more to help you when you needed it most.’
She couldn’t have been more reasonable or compassionate, but her words could hardly be heard above the shouts accusing the council of being ‘murderers’.
Mahad Egal, a father of two who escaped from the fourth floor, said: ‘You have murdered us.’ Another survivor, Sajad Jamalvatan, 22, said: ‘You killed us. You helped the fire.’
Yes, their fury is understandable. But I fear there is a real danger that, in their distress, survivors could, by making such accusations, lose public sympathy.
But while the behaviour of the residents may be forgivable, that of some politicians is not. Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s grotesque claim at Glastonbury that Grenfell’s victims had been ‘murdered by political decisions’ was simply beyond the pale.
Newly elected Kensington and Chelsea Council leader Elizabeth Campbell was abused as she tried to apologise on the local authority’s behalf
Members of the Kensington and Chelsea Council held minute's silence during the meeting
Murder is killing with intent and, whatever the failings of the council, the building trade and central government, it is utterly wrong to say the victims were deliberately killed.
And it’s not just politicians. The whole of the coverage on the BBC and Channel 4 news has been irresponsibly based on the assumption that council cuts and Tory austerity helped cause the fire.
Yet the disaster could have happened at any number of tower blocks in Labour areas with the same inflammable cladding as Grenfell or which were refurbished years ago under a Labour government. There has been appalling incompetence. But the truth now is that everyone — the council, the Government, local volunteers — is trying to do their best in the face of such a tragic event.
Hundreds of demonstrators gather outside Kensington & Chelsea Town Hall ahead of the council meeting
People in the public gallery during the council meeting at Kensington Town Hall on Wednesday
A public inquiry headed by a judge of integrity has been established and could lead to manslaughter charges. The Government is trying to rehouse families and has made at least 169 offers of temporary accommodation, though only 32 have been accepted so far.
It’s five agonising weeks since the disaster, and emotions are still raw. Yet those who cry ‘murder’ and ‘racism’ besmirch the reputation of the judge and take up the rhetoric of the Corbynista hate-mobs are not helping the survivors of Grenfell.
Huge public sympathy is with them. How terrible it would be to squander that goodwill by adopting the politics of hatred and opportunism.
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'VILE ACT': London police arrest 6 men in Grenfell Tower effigy video
Associated Press
Published:
November 6, 2018
Updated:
November 6, 2018 2:47 PM EST
In this grab taken from video, made available on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, people place a model of Grenfell Towers onto a bonfire, in London. UGC via AP
London police said Tuesday that they have arrested six men over a video that showed a cardboard model of Grenfell Tower being burned on a bonfire — an act condemned by bereaved families and survivors of the apartment-block blaze that killed 72 people.
The Metropolitan Police force said five men turned themselves in at a police station late Monday and were arrested on suspicion of a public order offence after allegedly creating a copy of the fire-ravaged west London public housing tower. A sixth man handed himself in to police on Tuesday.
The men, who range in age from 19 to 55, were being held in custody Tuesday but had not been charged.
Survivors of the blaze expressed disgust at the video, which showed a large flammable model marked “Grenfell Tower,” complete with paper figures at the windows, being set on fire.
Khadijah Mamudu, whose mother and younger brother escaped the June 14, 2017, firestorm, called the burning of the model a “vile act.”
Prime Minister Theresa May called the video “utterly unacceptable,” and judge Martin Moore-Bick, who is leading an inquiry into the blaze, said it was “shocking and distressing to all those involved.”
Although it was not clear when the video was taken, it emerged on social media at a time of year when Britons celebrate Guy Fawkes Day. Many across the country light fireworks and bonfires to mark Fawkes’s failure to blow up Parliament in 1605.
http://torontosun.com/news/world/vile-act-london-police-arrest-5-men-in-grenfell-tower-effigy-video
Associated Press
Published:
November 6, 2018
Updated:
November 6, 2018 2:47 PM EST
In this grab taken from video, made available on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, people place a model of Grenfell Towers onto a bonfire, in London. UGC via AP
London police said Tuesday that they have arrested six men over a video that showed a cardboard model of Grenfell Tower being burned on a bonfire — an act condemned by bereaved families and survivors of the apartment-block blaze that killed 72 people.
The Metropolitan Police force said five men turned themselves in at a police station late Monday and were arrested on suspicion of a public order offence after allegedly creating a copy of the fire-ravaged west London public housing tower. A sixth man handed himself in to police on Tuesday.
The men, who range in age from 19 to 55, were being held in custody Tuesday but had not been charged.
Survivors of the blaze expressed disgust at the video, which showed a large flammable model marked “Grenfell Tower,” complete with paper figures at the windows, being set on fire.
Khadijah Mamudu, whose mother and younger brother escaped the June 14, 2017, firestorm, called the burning of the model a “vile act.”
Prime Minister Theresa May called the video “utterly unacceptable,” and judge Martin Moore-Bick, who is leading an inquiry into the blaze, said it was “shocking and distressing to all those involved.”
Although it was not clear when the video was taken, it emerged on social media at a time of year when Britons celebrate Guy Fawkes Day. Many across the country light fireworks and bonfires to mark Fawkes’s failure to blow up Parliament in 1605.
Anybody get any updates on who was to blame or was it just a string of unlucky events?? Cosmetic or making the tenets more comfortable?
If the company that makes the product is looking to unload some 'old stock' the Indians in out north could use a trainload of the stuff.
If the company that makes the product is looking to unload some 'old stock' the Indians in out north could use a trainload of the stuff.
'VILE ACT': London police arrest 6 men in Grenfell Tower effigy video
Associated Press
Published:
November 6, 2018
Updated:
November 6, 2018 2:47 PM EST
In this grab taken from video, made available on Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, people place a model of Grenfell Towers onto a bonfire, in London. UGC via AP
London police said Tuesday that they have arrested six men over a video that showed a cardboard model of Grenfell Tower being burned on a bonfire — an act condemned by bereaved families and survivors of the apartment-block blaze that killed 72 people.
The Metropolitan Police force said five men turned themselves in at a police station late Monday and were arrested on suspicion of a public order offence after allegedly creating a copy of the fire-ravaged west London public housing tower. A sixth man handed himself in to police on Tuesday.
The men, who range in age from 19 to 55, were being held in custody Tuesday but had not been charged.
Survivors of the blaze expressed disgust at the video, which showed a large flammable model marked “Grenfell Tower,” complete with paper figures at the windows, being set on fire.
Khadijah Mamudu, whose mother and younger brother escaped the June 14, 2017, firestorm, called the burning of the model a “vile act.”
Prime Minister Theresa May called the video “utterly unacceptable,” and judge Martin Moore-Bick, who is leading an inquiry into the blaze, said it was “shocking and distressing to all those involved.”
Although it was not clear when the video was taken, it emerged on social media at a time of year when Britons celebrate Guy Fawkes Day. Many across the country light fireworks and bonfires to mark Fawkes’s failure to blow up Parliament in 1605.
http://torontosun.com/news/world/vile-act-london-police-arrest-5-men-in-grenfell-tower-effigy-video
ROD LIDDLE Grenfell effigy joke wasn’t funny — but making it a crime for the thought police sets a dangerous precedent
What happened after the 'joke' sets a dangerous precedent as the coppers got themselves involved and arrested six men — without knowing what crime had been committed, writes Rod Liddle
Comment
By Rod Liddle, Sun Columnist
7th November 2018
The Sun
SO, the six Grenfell Tower skanks have been released from custody by the Metropolitan Police.
These are the South Londoners who thought burning a cardboard effigy of Grenfell Tower in their back garden was a hoot. The tower even had screaming victims drawn in the windows.
Screengrab from a video posted on social media of a model of Grenfell Tower being burned over a fire
Most normal people would think this a foul thing to do and not remotely funny. But what happened next wasn’t funny, either.
The coppers got themselves involved, clearly untaxed by the low level of crime in the city, especially knife crime.
They arrested the six men. And here’s the point — an important point and a rather scary point. They arrested them without knowing what crime had been committed.
In other words, for effectively no reason. They arrested them THEN tried to think what they could charge them with. That is a very dangerous precedent indeed and, to my mind, a perversion of the law.
72 people died in the huge blaze that engulfed Grenfell Tower on June 14 2017
So serious a perversion that I think it demands the resignation of Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police chief. Because clearly the arrests were sanctioned at the highest level and the decision was taken for political reasons.
The Met — and Dick — are never happier than when grandstanding for reasons of political correctness. This time they have taken it way too far.
They didn’t only arrest these horrible blokes (who handed themselves in). They rooted through their dustbins to see if they could find anything incriminating.
With the hope of charging them on some other matter. Maybe putting the wrong things in the recycling bin.
Police rooting through the bins of two of the men behind the Bonfire Night joke - hoping to find something to charge them with, writes Rod LiddleIt’s outrageous behaviour from the police.
People make effigies largely to offend and have a spiteful laugh at people they don’t like.
The police take no notice *whatsoever when Israeli flags are burned in London by leftie demonstrators, or poppies burned by radical Muslims.
They don’t arrest the organisers of the Lewes bonfire night celebrations when they’re burning effigies of Boris Johnson and our Prime Minister, despite the considerable offence this causes those who disagree with their views.
Bobbi Connell, 19, and dad Clifford Smith, 49, handed themselves in after the Grenfell effigy video emerged online 
Paul Bussetti, 46, is one of the men thought to have turned themselves in
Mark Russell, 49, also appeared in the twisted video
Nobody was arrested when an obscene, giant blimp of Donald Trump was set loose in London on the occasion of the President’s visit.
That nasty little prank had the backing of the hopeless Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan. He, of course, was one of the first to denounce the people who pulled the vicious Grenfell prank.
Because vile though it was, it was only a prank. Not a victimless crime, not a crime at all.
Having your sensibilities offended is not a matter for the police, whether you are on the Left or on the Right.
Party host Clifford Smith was described as 'not the sharpest tool in the box' by a neighbour
What the rest of us do is simply despise whoever was responsible and move on with our lives.
And remember that one man’s prank is another man’s outrage.
The police are all too happy, these days, to indulge in this kind of grandstanding.
To come down heavily on verbal or written hate crimes — when the victim, if they are a victim at all, is simply left a bit miffed for a while.
With the Grenfell arrests, though, they have stepped way over the line.
The only crime the six men committed was a thought-crime.
I didn’t think thought-crimes were on the statute book.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7686779/vile-grenfell-effigy-thought-police-rod-liddle/
'Common sense' could have saved Grenfell victims: U.K. House of Commons leader
Reuters
Published:
November 5, 2019
Updated:
November 5, 2019 3:39 PM EST
In this June 14, 2017, file photo, flames and smoke engulf Grenfell Tower, in north Kensington, West London, England.Toby Melville / REUTERS
LONDON — British government minister Jacob Rees-Mogg apologized on Tuesday after he suggested that victims of the blaze at London’s Grenfell Tower should have used common sense to ignore firefighters’ instructions to stay in the burning building.
An official inquiry into the catastrophic chain of events in June 2017 that turned a kitchen fire into an inferno that killed 71 people last week found that combustible cladding contributed to the tragedy — and also questioned fire brigade advice that residents should stay put.
“If you just ignore what you’re told and leave, you are so much safer,” Rees-Mogg, leader of the U.K. House of Commons, told LBC radio in an interview on Monday.
“And I think if either of us were in a fire, whatever the fire brigade said, we would leave the burning building. It just seems the common sense thing to do.”
Families of the victims and opposition lawmakers criticized Rees-Mogg’s remarks, with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn labelling the comments “crass and insensitive,” and on Tuesday Rees-Mogg said he “profoundly apologized.”
The retired judge leading the inquiry into the blaze said commanders had stuck for too long with the “stay put” strategy, which meant residents calling the emergency services as the tower burned were advised to remain in their apartments and await rescue.
He said there would have been fewer fatalities if an evacuation order had been given an hour or more earlier.
In his apology, Rees-Mogg said he had meant to say he also would have followed the fire brigade’s advice at the time, but with hindsight it was clear the advice went against common sense.
“What’s so sad is that the advice given overrides common sense because everybody would want to leave a burning building,” he said in comments reported by the Evening Standard.
“I would hate to upset the people of Grenfell if I was unclear in my comments. With hindsight and after reading the report no one would follow that advice. That’s the great tragedy.”
‘IMPOSSIBLE SITUATION’
The blaze at Grenfell Tower, a 23-storey social housing block owned by one of London’s richest local authorities, threw up a raft of questions about how the building had been allowed to become a tinderbox.
Asked whether the race and class of the victims had played a role, Rees-Mogg’s said those factors had nothing to do with it.
But critics of Rees-Mogg and his Conservative Party, sometimes known as Tories, said his comments illustrated the divisions in British society were as stark than ever ahead of a national election on Dec. 12.
“Statements like this just go to show how out of touch the Tories are and are a glaring admission of their failure to act in the interest of the Grenfell victims and their families,” Sarah Jones, Labour’s spokeswoman for housing said.
The Fire Brigades Union said the “stay put” policy was designed for circumstances when an evacuation was not safe and had saved countless lives in the past.
“Residents were thrown into a terrifying, impossible situation at Grenfell — for Jacob Rees-Mogg to suggest it would be ‘common sense’ to ignore the advice that they were given was crass and insensitive,” Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said.
http://torontosun.com/news/world/co...-grenfell-victims-u-k-house-of-commons-leader
Reuters
Published:
November 5, 2019
Updated:
November 5, 2019 3:39 PM EST
In this June 14, 2017, file photo, flames and smoke engulf Grenfell Tower, in north Kensington, West London, England.Toby Melville / REUTERS
LONDON — British government minister Jacob Rees-Mogg apologized on Tuesday after he suggested that victims of the blaze at London’s Grenfell Tower should have used common sense to ignore firefighters’ instructions to stay in the burning building.
An official inquiry into the catastrophic chain of events in June 2017 that turned a kitchen fire into an inferno that killed 71 people last week found that combustible cladding contributed to the tragedy — and also questioned fire brigade advice that residents should stay put.
“If you just ignore what you’re told and leave, you are so much safer,” Rees-Mogg, leader of the U.K. House of Commons, told LBC radio in an interview on Monday.
“And I think if either of us were in a fire, whatever the fire brigade said, we would leave the burning building. It just seems the common sense thing to do.”
Families of the victims and opposition lawmakers criticized Rees-Mogg’s remarks, with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn labelling the comments “crass and insensitive,” and on Tuesday Rees-Mogg said he “profoundly apologized.”
The retired judge leading the inquiry into the blaze said commanders had stuck for too long with the “stay put” strategy, which meant residents calling the emergency services as the tower burned were advised to remain in their apartments and await rescue.
He said there would have been fewer fatalities if an evacuation order had been given an hour or more earlier.
In his apology, Rees-Mogg said he had meant to say he also would have followed the fire brigade’s advice at the time, but with hindsight it was clear the advice went against common sense.
“What’s so sad is that the advice given overrides common sense because everybody would want to leave a burning building,” he said in comments reported by the Evening Standard.
“I would hate to upset the people of Grenfell if I was unclear in my comments. With hindsight and after reading the report no one would follow that advice. That’s the great tragedy.”
‘IMPOSSIBLE SITUATION’
The blaze at Grenfell Tower, a 23-storey social housing block owned by one of London’s richest local authorities, threw up a raft of questions about how the building had been allowed to become a tinderbox.
Asked whether the race and class of the victims had played a role, Rees-Mogg’s said those factors had nothing to do with it.
But critics of Rees-Mogg and his Conservative Party, sometimes known as Tories, said his comments illustrated the divisions in British society were as stark than ever ahead of a national election on Dec. 12.
“Statements like this just go to show how out of touch the Tories are and are a glaring admission of their failure to act in the interest of the Grenfell victims and their families,” Sarah Jones, Labour’s spokeswoman for housing said.
The Fire Brigades Union said the “stay put” policy was designed for circumstances when an evacuation was not safe and had saved countless lives in the past.
“Residents were thrown into a terrifying, impossible situation at Grenfell — for Jacob Rees-Mogg to suggest it would be ‘common sense’ to ignore the advice that they were given was crass and insensitive,” Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said.
http://torontosun.com/news/world/co...-grenfell-victims-u-k-house-of-commons-leader
No, he didn't.
Strange times we're living in, though, when liberals are angrier at a government minister for saying that residents should have fled a burning building than they are at the fire brigade for telling residents to stay put, even though a report into the disaster concluded that ‘the chances of people surviving’ the fire in Grenfell would have increased if they had ignored the fire service’s advice to ‘stay put’.
Jacob Rees-Mogg is right about Grenfell
It’s the ghoulish, Grenfell-exploiting offence-takers who are behaving immorally.
BRENDAN O'NEILL
EDITOR
5th November 2019
Let me get this right: people are angrier with Jacob Rees-Mogg for saying the Grenfell residents should have fled their burning building than they are with the fire chiefs who told the Grenfell residents not to flee their burning building? I’ve heard it all now. There have been some mad Twitterstorms over the years but this is a new low. This fury with an MP for merely saying what we all know to be true – that it is a ‘tragedy’ more people didn’t ignore the fire service’s advice on that horrific night – is just nuts.
This is the news that JRM, Tory MP and favoured punchbag of the anti-Tory middle classes, has said something about the Grenfell fire of 2017 in which 72 people died. You’d never know it from the media storm, but what he said, on the radio this morning, was eminently sensible. He said he has read the first report of the Grenfell Inquiry, which was published last week, and has concluded that ‘the chances of people surviving’ the fire in Grenfell would have increased if they had ignored the fire service’s advice to ‘stay put’. He says that if he had been in that burning building, he would have left. ‘It just seems the common-sense thing to do. And it is such a tragedy that that didn’t happen’, he said.
That’s it. He was simply echoing the actual contents of the Grenfell report, which starkly says that fire chiefs’ ‘stay put’ policy proved disastrous for the Grenfell residents. The report said the London Fire Brigade’s ‘stay put’ policy prevented some families from escaping. It argues that fewer people would have died if the LFB had changed its strategy and adopted different methods earlier on during the fire. JRM is reiterating these facts. And yet people are angrier with him than they were with the LFB last week when the Grenfell report devastatingly called into question its ‘stay put’ approach to the Grenfell horror.
People are accusing JRM of saying the Grenfell residents lacked common sense. He doesn’t say that. He is saying that if he had been in the burning building, he would have left. To him that would be the common-sense thing to do. Many people agree. I do. This isn’t to insult the Grenfell residents who trusted the fire service. Nor is it to insult the firefighters who behaved with extraordinary bravery on that awful night. It is simply to question fire chiefs’ attachment to the policy of ‘stay put’, and to lament the catastrophic consequences it seems to have had on that night.
If you are more angry with a politician for saying it is a tragedy that people did not ignore dangerous advice than you are with the people who issued the dangerous advice, then your moral compass is in urgent need of repair. The cynicism of it all is breathtaking. People are purposefully misinterpreting and exploiting JRM’s words to the cynical end of hurting the Tories in the election. ‘Maybe this will cost them some votes!’ is the gross undertone of this confected media storm. Once again the leftish middle classes are exploiting the dead of Grenfell to score political points, and I say that is far more repulsive than what Rees-Mogg said on the radio this morning.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/11/05/jacob-rees-mogg-is-right-about-grenfell/
It’s the ghoulish, Grenfell-exploiting offence-takers who are behaving immorally.
BRENDAN O'NEILL
EDITOR
5th November 2019
Let me get this right: people are angrier with Jacob Rees-Mogg for saying the Grenfell residents should have fled their burning building than they are with the fire chiefs who told the Grenfell residents not to flee their burning building? I’ve heard it all now. There have been some mad Twitterstorms over the years but this is a new low. This fury with an MP for merely saying what we all know to be true – that it is a ‘tragedy’ more people didn’t ignore the fire service’s advice on that horrific night – is just nuts.
This is the news that JRM, Tory MP and favoured punchbag of the anti-Tory middle classes, has said something about the Grenfell fire of 2017 in which 72 people died. You’d never know it from the media storm, but what he said, on the radio this morning, was eminently sensible. He said he has read the first report of the Grenfell Inquiry, which was published last week, and has concluded that ‘the chances of people surviving’ the fire in Grenfell would have increased if they had ignored the fire service’s advice to ‘stay put’. He says that if he had been in that burning building, he would have left. ‘It just seems the common-sense thing to do. And it is such a tragedy that that didn’t happen’, he said.
That’s it. He was simply echoing the actual contents of the Grenfell report, which starkly says that fire chiefs’ ‘stay put’ policy proved disastrous for the Grenfell residents. The report said the London Fire Brigade’s ‘stay put’ policy prevented some families from escaping. It argues that fewer people would have died if the LFB had changed its strategy and adopted different methods earlier on during the fire. JRM is reiterating these facts. And yet people are angrier with him than they were with the LFB last week when the Grenfell report devastatingly called into question its ‘stay put’ approach to the Grenfell horror.
People are accusing JRM of saying the Grenfell residents lacked common sense. He doesn’t say that. He is saying that if he had been in the burning building, he would have left. To him that would be the common-sense thing to do. Many people agree. I do. This isn’t to insult the Grenfell residents who trusted the fire service. Nor is it to insult the firefighters who behaved with extraordinary bravery on that awful night. It is simply to question fire chiefs’ attachment to the policy of ‘stay put’, and to lament the catastrophic consequences it seems to have had on that night.
If you are more angry with a politician for saying it is a tragedy that people did not ignore dangerous advice than you are with the people who issued the dangerous advice, then your moral compass is in urgent need of repair. The cynicism of it all is breathtaking. People are purposefully misinterpreting and exploiting JRM’s words to the cynical end of hurting the Tories in the election. ‘Maybe this will cost them some votes!’ is the gross undertone of this confected media storm. Once again the leftish middle classes are exploiting the dead of Grenfell to score political points, and I say that is far more repulsive than what Rees-Mogg said on the radio this morning.
https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/11/05/jacob-rees-mogg-is-right-about-grenfell/