Past time

12 days ago I wrote that enough is enough and that the way the Conservative party treated our emergency services was hypocritical. I was angry then, I don’t think there’s a word to describe how I feel now.

Some people have said that events such as the fire at Grenfell Tower should not be politicised. Bollocks. The prime duty of a government should be to look after its citizens.

This government has failed in its duty of care.

• austerity being the excuse for Boris Johnson to cut fire service provision when he was London Mayor,
• the suppression of a report on tower block fire risks for 4 years by successive Housing Ministers – the last one being  Gavin Barwell now Theresa May’s Chief of Staff,
• voting down an amendment to make private landlords to make their homes “fit for human habitation” – I’m not just pissed off at the selfish bastards who were landlords voting it down, any who voted against that should be ashamed of themselves – especially the king of filibustering Philip Davies.

They should all try living in the conditions they put their constituents through.

Then of course there are all those that say we have too many rules and regulations, that Health and Safety has gone too far.  All those (Gove & Rees-Mogg are two) that look forward to Brexit as an excuse to tear up our current environmental regulations. The laws we have in place have often come about because of tragedy; we don’t make up laws on a whim. These have been fought for because there’s usually someone whining “but what about business costs?”

All this before we get to the “gentrification” going on in the inner cities. The working class reliant on an ever-shrinking amount of social housing as house prices soar. People being forced out from areas their families have lived in for generations as they are squeezed between rocketing rents and benefit caps.

At the same time there is the increased number of empty houses bought for investment. When the Tories talk about halting immigration these are not the people they are talking about. No we can turn away nurses, doctors, people who keep out social care services and our food production running but will keep the tax-avoiding wealthy who contribute nothing.

The community around Grenfell Tower highlighted the risks from 2013 for which they were threatened with legal action by the local council, Kensington and Chelsea – who also have a lot of questions to answer.  Locals are of the opinion that money was spent on making their tower look pretty so as not to ruin the view for their more affluent neighbours.

Their anger must be immense and I believe completely justified. No wonder May avoided the residents during her short visit today. The reason given was safety concerns; that doesn’t surprise me. I don’t think I would hold back either if  I had to face that woman blethering “strong and stable” at me after going through what they have done.

There is no empathy, no compassion, no shared humanity just an overwhelming desire for power. Her actions this last week (can’t believe it’s only been 7 days since the election) has shown how desperate she is to stay Prime Minister.  Anyone who craves power that much should never be allowed anywhere near it.