We don’t even know how many souls perished in the Grenfell Tower inferno, and yet already they are being marshalled to party-political ends. Already Labour-leaning commentators and campaigners are using them, using the freshly dead and the unspeakable horrors they experienced, to make mileage for their party, to brand the Tories evil and Jeremy Corbyn saintly. In the 20 years I’ve been writing about politics, I can’t remember a national tragedy being exploited for party-political gain so quickly. The time between a calamity occurring and the use of it to harm one’s political enemies and fortify one’s political allies is shrinking all the time. It’s now mere hours, minutes even, courtesy of social media
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Samizdata quote of the dayJune 16th, 2017 |
 20 comments to Samizdata quote of the day |
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Some of the leftist response to this seems to be: “The government housing program we support failed catastrophically, therefore, capitalism is to blame!”
This probably was a failure of government, but only in the building codes.
Composite panels such as the ones used on the Grenfell Tower are very common. You’ll find them on tens of thousands of buildings all over the world. Reynobond, the stuff that (I think) was used here, is a very common method of aesthetic/insulating covering that can be placed over the structure of buildings. It hides old discolored concrete and brick, and it adds to the insulation.
But it comes in two forms. One is fire-retardant – it consists of two thin sheets of aluminum fused to a center of compressed non-flammable fibers. The other form – the cheaper one – has the two sheets of aluminum fused to a thermoplastic core.
Normally, both are relatively fireproof. In the cheaper form, while the middle layer can burn, it is completely enclosed with aluminum, and so it won’t normally start unless it has been installed incorrectly. Cutting it, drilling holes in it – you have to reseal those cut areas to seal the thermoplastic off from flame. My guess is that this resealing wasn’t done correctly.
But, more importantly, in most countries (with modern building codes), you cannot install the cheaper version above the reach of your local fire department’s ladder systems, so that firefighters can reach areas that are burning and extinguish them. Anything over that height requires the fire-retardant form.
In London, apparently, the building code allows for this material high up, past the reach of firefighting techniques. I’m guessing this will change.
Perhaps, but not necessarily. It wouldn’t be the first time a council gave itself or its cronies a bye on the same codes that it zealously enforces on everybody else.
Why, what an awful, cynical thing to say! It’s almost as if you’ve dealt with local officials yourself! 😆
I know who insures many of London’s public multi-family housing facilities, and you can bet that they’re over there right now, conducting a survey of how many of those buildings have the same product installed. Their policy exposure is capped, but they’re going to take a huge hit, and so London’s future insurability is going to be subject to a hugely expensive rehab of all of those similarly-clad properties.
I feel that it is a death of Diana moment. No facts or figures will do, explain or mollify, just pure blind emotion on the part of of the Left and the useful idiots of the Press and public.
Wailing and blame slinging for the left, while sheer capitalist greed gets quietly on with actually resolving the issue.
The “usual suspects” (the BBC and so on) are busy stirring up hatred – for example last night’s television news was a tissue of lies, blaming the deaths on “poverty”, “inequality” and not enough government spending. Even though nine million Pounds was just spent on this block – and the government spending made it WORSE (the green theory cladding and the “communal heating system”)
But Mrs May has done nothing to get rid of the BBC tax (the “license fee”) or to allow conservative television stations to counter the drumbeat of endless agitprop – and there are a sources of it that are vastly worse than the BBC.
The hatred shown for Mrs May by the “local community” does not come from nowhere – these people are carefully educated to hate people like Mrs May, even though Mrs May called the Conservatives the “nasty party” and supports “social justice” and ever more government spending (freedom? boo! hiss! freedom is reactionary – was basically what Mrs May’s manifesto said). Bending over backwards to make friends with people will not work if they have brainwashed to hate you and to blame you for things you had NOTHING to do with (such as a fire in a tower block).
They “hate” Mr May and “Brexit” (supposedly “Brexit” is the word the left use for British independence – but actually “Brexit” is a word the left mean to mean “reactionaries” in general, i.e. for the concepts and people they wish to exterminate).
Only last week Perry, a “liberal” in Kensington said he had wished he had voted for the (Marxist) Labour party – in order to defeat the Conservatives, because “we” (he was using the Royal “we”) “hate” “Mrs May” and “hate” “Brexit”.
I replied that fair enough – I hate you to, personally (after all if he “hates” Mrs May his expression of “love” for me is likely to be the “love” a cat has for a bird – as I am vastly more “reactionary” than Mrs May is, not hard as Mrs May is actually a Progressive). And if you “hate” the independence of this country so much you should get out of it.
Remember Perry this was all BEFORE the fire (a week before).
What was the response of the leftist to the ritual exchange of insults between us?
An “official complaint” against me of course – I was informed about recently.
They can “hate” us – but we are not allowed to “hate” them back.
A man who will make an “official complaint” over a ritual exchange of insults (which he started) will also be quite happy to put a bullet in the back of my head.
As long I was tied up at the time of course.
That is the face of what we are dealing with – that is the “liberal”, “local community”.
Make no mistake Perry – the “liberals” (who are not liberal at all) want-us-dead, that is what Mrs May still does not understand.
Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell are not a joke – they are not funny, they (or people like them) are most likely the future of this country (because people like Mrs May believes that brainwashed “communities” can be appeased by throwing more tax money their way – sorry, but that does not work) – and they, or people like them, will act as Marxists have always acted, i.e. they will seek to exterminate those people who disagree with them.
That is when the “official complaints” become bullets in the back of the head.
And no Mrs M, they will not be appeased by “more money for local communities” – they (the activists) will hate you however much tax money you spend.
They “hated” you before the fire – they said so.
Obviously true about the hatred but it also includes hypocracy on a large scale. Days after the Tower Block tragedy, in Batley I think, the murder of Ms Cox was celebrated in huge style as was shown on the BBC just after the piece on the tragedy. The murder was also used in the run-up to the General Election to boost Labour. Sick making all around.
“souls perished”? souls!? Christianity has perished.
RAB, you hit the nail on the head. You too, Paul Marks.
What I want to know is, how was a leftist mob able to storm Kensington & Chelsea town hall? Where were the police? What were they (not) doing? No doubt had the BNP, or the EDL behaved in this way, they’d all have been arrested and hauled off to the police station so quickly their feet would not have touched the ground.
Well, as former Speaker of the US House Tip O’Neil once observed, “politics ain’t beanbag”; expecting disinterested behavior from politicians is a category error.
Er, what the hell are you talking about? 🙄
I think that Paul was addressing you, Perry and relating a conversation that he had with a third party (the “liberal”).
I agree that the sentence construction is such that it could be construed very differently and, indeed, I had to rely upon my knowledge of your politics in order to parse it correctly.
I think the other rob is correct in his parsing of that sentence. Paul M really could use an editor! 😀
Punctuation, punctuation, punctuation, as that man Blair might have said.
That thing went up like a charcoal briquette soaked in lighter fluid. That ought not to happen with a modern building in a First World country. That’s something you expect to see in Bangladesh or South Korea, where the contractor pays off the inspector. Political footballing aside, someone must be held accountable for this horrible tragedy.
When the post-mortems have been completed and the true cost of this tragedy is known, don’t forget the council get-out. “We, the officers of the council, are bound to carry out the elected members’ instructions. We, the elected members, must rely on the advice of the council officers.” The bastards will still make political capital and find scapegoats, though.
Re-posted:
http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/15/deadly-london-tower-fire-fueled-by-green-energy-rules/
Excerpt:
“However, building residents and experts have warned about the fire risks of cladding for years. A blog post by the Grenfell Action Group in November 2016 warned that “only a catastrophic event” would bring attention to the building’s issue.
Government officials cautioned against the risks of cladding since at least 1999, according to The Telegraph.”
Yes “souls” perished bob sykes – one does not have to be religious (or believe that the soul survives the death of the body) to believe in the human person (in human agency – free will). Each person who died was just that – a person , not a flesh robot.
A soul is not free will. They are different things.
One can believe that humans have souls or that humans have free will or that humans have both or that humans have neither.