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Jeremy Corbyn: State should seize ‘luxury’ properties to help those left homeless by Grenfell blaze
The Labour leader said ministers must “requisition” the houses to make sure those affected by the tragedy can still live locally.
He spoke out as MPs met for the first time to debate the aftermath of the inferno, which has so far left 17 people dead with the number of fatalities expected to rise considerably.
[…]
“The ward where this fire took place is, I think, the poorest ward in the whole country and properties must be found – requisitioned if necessary – to make sure those residents do get re-housed locally.
“It can’t be acceptable that in London we have luxury buildings and luxury flats left empty as land banking for the future while the homeless and the poor look for somewhere to live. We have to address these issues.”
In case you were wondering, the people made homeless by the Grenfell Tower fire are not going to be turfed out on the street. They will be rehoused by Kensington & Chelsea Council, in accordance with its statutory obligations. Mr Corbyn knows this perfectly well. The point of his remark was not to help these people but to use them as disposable weapons in his quest to breach the principle of secure property rights under law.
Socialists always start by seizing the property of the rich to give to the poor, because that’s where the votes are. They always end by seizing the property of the poor to give to the rich, because that’s where the money is.
Consider the People’s Republic of China:
From 2006:The big steal
In this and countless other cases, the spark for the conflict was the same: land seizures that made local officials rich and left dispossessed peasants fuming about injustice. This is the dark side of China’s spectacular economic development. In a shocking admission earlier this year, the director of law enforcement in the Land Ministry, Zhang Xinbao, said there have been more than a million cases of illegal land use in the past six years. Sometimes it is little more than armed robbery as police and gangsters use force to drive people off their property. More often, it is fraud, when local officials – bribed by developers – cheat the farmers of fair compensation.
From 2010: China violence over property seizures
Vehicles burn after hundreds of Chinese villagers battled with local police over a land seizure in Zhaotong, in southwest China’s Yunan province on November 2, 2010. Land seizures are frequently reported in China as officials and businesses seek to cash in on a property boom and forcibly remove residents to make way for new buildings or infrastructure projects.
Once the rule of law is breached, it is hard to fix again. Property rights are needed more by the poor than the rich. The rich have other resources.
This announcement might cost Labour, oh, 10,000 votes?
I don’t know where he lives, but can he possibly lead by example?
This is the tower block overlooking Kensington Palace in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea?
What about all of the ACTUAL locals who were turfed out rather than the imported economic migrants who have been brought in just to “Rub the rights noses in diversity”?
But I forgot, you don’t like the original locals because they were too white, too male and too bolshy. Which is why you refused to rebuild the homes they were bombed out of during WW2 and shipped them off to the wilds of Epping Forest and other places.
The government either secures individual rights, or it doesn’t. There is no middle ground. There is no compromise. There is no excuse.
People are beginning to ask questions why a tower block in Kensington in which flats rent for £1625 per month is occupied almost exclusively by immigrants from the poorest parts of the world.
This is slightly off topic, but I saw some comment in one of the links about people being offended, and I wondered whether any of the UK commenters on this site worry that they might be investigated for offensive statements? I am in the US, and no one can go after me for what I say (yet), but you guys have Antisocial Behavior regulations, I recall. Any anxiety over there?
This is consistent with Mr Corbyn’s socialist beliefs – and the public are educated to regard such “Social Justice” beliefs as noble. Sadly many Conservatives regard them as noble as well – or half do, and have no idea how to argue against them.
As for the tower block – eight million Pounds was just spent on it (making it worse), but the cry (fanned by the BBC and so on) is that “more resources” should have been devoted to it.
As for the People’s Republic of China – they do not make a fetish of “the poor” as they know that leads to tens of millions of people starving to death (so much for government “compassion” and “Social Justice” – it leads to piles of human skulls), but Natalie is correct – they care only for Jeremy Bentham style economic success, they reject the basic concept of the Rule of Law that their are rights AGAINST the state.
Of course that was also true of Imperial China – and was the key difference with Japan, where at least Samurai had rights – thanks to a successful revolt to reject some aspects of Chinese political philosophy. A revolt many centuries ago.
Sadly Britain does not have Samurai.
It was a fire that appears to have been started accidentally or at worst by negligence during the middle of the night and lots of people were caught out by bad advice about remaining indoors and died.
These are pretty much the established events. I wouldn’t go so far as to say “Facts”, but pretty much well observed and recorded.
Who would get offended and what would they genuinely have to be offended about?
So, being an archetypal “Council Flat”, are there any details of:
Comprehensive, FIRE RESISTANT, cascading Alarm,/Alert / Evacuation audio system? I spent quite a few years installing and commissioning such things. Handy to have when you have a fire in your large building. More-so if you hate going to multiple funerals.
Automatic sprinkler systems?
Air pressurization control system to keep escape routes clear? For this, of course, you need a proper air-conditioning system. linked to the evacuation control system.
Proper, RATED construction materials, inside and out?
The coronial inquest, IF it occurs, will require EXTREME scrutiny.
One place to start is this:
Since the banning of the use of Freon as a refrigerant gas, the use of FLAMMABLE gases in domestic refrigerators has become the norm. Discussion suggestion: What are the potential “downsides” to the substitution of a dense, non-flammable substance by much more volatile and flammable, (think; Fuel/Air Explosive), substances?
As for covering the outside of the structure with PVC / polyurethane foam? “cladding”; WHAT, if anything, WERE THEY THINKING?
The answer is in two parts, JG.
The first part is: Any leftist / statist / useful idiot / the list goes on, looking for an axe to grind.
The second is: What does “genuinely” have to do with anything today? It’s enough for them to pretend outrage at some imagined (by which I mean fabricated) transgression and the establishment, mainstream media and all the fellow travelers will fall into lockstep. It’s like the band Saxon said, when titling an album many years ago: “Innocence is no excuse”.
In the OP, Natalie wrote “Once the rule of law is breached, it is hard to fix again.” I fear that we may be close to, if not past that point. In the UK, we have Rotheram, people being locked up for speaking freely, etc. In the US we have Clinton skating on all kinds of malfeasance, Joe Biden’s kid getting off with a slap on the wrist for a $100,000 credit card fraud, the works.
I think most people already know, on some level, that laws no longer apply to the people who make them. They don’t like it, but they keep their heads down and muddle along, hoping for a quiet life. But at some point, a critical mass of hitherto law abiding people will lose confidence in the law itself and spit on their hands, a la Mencken.
I don’t know what happens then.
There has been a Corbyn media feeding frenzy over this fire in which the BBC and most other MSM are trying to deify Grandpa Death.
The Tories are of course not fighting back in any meaningful sense.
On a day when Corbyns bum chum Maduro is having demonstrators against the socialist paradise Corbo admires shot down in the street.
He must not be allowed into No 10. He would not be voted out again. US leftist scum are already doing the groundwork with their talk of Russian Hacking,
When after 5 years of Corbyn disaster and even with 3 million more imported beard boys he is voted out massively he’ll just say the election was hacked by the CIA or some such cockrot.
Relevant.
The entitlement there is beyond belief Ted.
“It’s infuriating that if you are rich enough you can hold the City of Dallas hostage for years against an eminent domain case, whereas ordinary people couldn’t afford to do that”.
Wut!?
As usual for redistributionist socialist parasites, Corbyn is a member of the wealthy elite.
I wonder if he will demonstrate some moral leadership by divesting himself of all that “unfair” wealth he has appropriated? I am willing to wager a £10 note that he will not.
Bruce,
Under normal circumstances a block of flats is a honeycomb of concrete boxes and burns about as well as a bucket of sand. The lack of fire alarms, sprinklers, etc. is not unreasonable.
But I agree. The scenario where someone is defrosing a fridge, gets impatient, pokes the ice with a knife, lpg escapes, is ignited by the gas cooker, blows out the window and ingnites the cladding seems to be the most plausible at the moment.
Yes, I suspect that I agree with you Rob. It comes back to the old aphorism about The Four Boxes of Liberty.
I think the movement from one box to the next accelerates as time goes by. The soapbox is outlawed, the ballot box is broken and empty and the jury box is weakened with every idiotic precedent.
Time to start thinking about where that last box is going to come from.
1) The poor would indeed benefit from secure property rights at least as much as anyone else, including “the rich”.
2) There is no way that ward is the poorest in the country. That is rampant bullshit, as anyone familiar with Cornwall, the north of England and certain parts of Wales and Northern Ireland will know.
Bruce you’re a trouble maker introducing facts.
There’re a lot of Frogs living in that ward employed in the ‘city’, no wonder it voted against Brexit.
Red Jerry, there’s free cheese in our mouse traps.
This is just grandstanding from a man who currently feels like a dog with two cocks due him not losing an election as badly as expected by many.
This utterly disgraceful political opportunism shows Corbyn is not just a parrot-faced wazzock but truly also an itinerant gong-farmer of the first water.
Typical lefty scum really. Leaping onto tragedy to make some political point is so common it doesn’t even generate outrage.
Nothing pleasant or pretty, that’s for sure.
The interesting thing is that at the moment, Jeremy Corbyn can get away with anything. He is making hateful, class war style political capital out of a tragedy, and the MSM is lapping it up.
As Paul says, far from neglecting this block, the local council has just spent millions in updating it. Sadly, that included using a cladding system which negated the fire resistance which the architect had designed into the building. Hutber’s Law is proved right once again: improvement means deterioration.
I cannot help but wonder if there will be another consequence of this tragedy. No-one watching the news can fail to have seen that no white British people seem to have been involved at all. The entire population of this block seem to have been Third World immigrants. The effects of demographic change on the capital were starkly revealed. Unlike Comrade Corbyn, no-one is making any political points about that yet, but I wonder if the time will come?
Indeed, Alisa, which is why JG’s “four boxes” is a conversation that I’d prefer not to have. As, I think, would most people – which is why we got Trump.
Yet, as we see here and especially here, some people seem intent upon forcing the conversation – whether they realise that that’s what they’re doing or not.
One should wonder if the residents were white middle class with mortgages etc., Corbyn would have expressed similar ideas. Or maybe one should not.
Yes, the other rob, I have noticed that, and I too hope they’d be more careful about their wishes. We’ll see, I guess.
English Indices of Deprivation 2015 (pdf)
No mention of Kensington.
According to Guido requisitioning property is a breach of EU human rights. Which probably Corbyn knows, it’s another reason why he’s a Hard Brexiteer.
(Preventing governments requisitioning property is something else which, should we end up with an EU deal, we should put in there.)
AFAIK the Convention on Human Rights derives from the Council of Europe, not the EU, and AFAIK the UK will remain a member of the Council of Europe and a party to the Convention even if we leave the EU.
JohnF,
That is correct, but we could leave the Council of Europe in a day, were the political will there. It isn’t, but it might be one day, under say, a government led by The Rt. Hon. Sir Nigel Farage KG, OM, BEM, MP.
I don’t know what the media classes think they’re playing at. Treating (ugh) a potential PM with kid-gloves like this is quite appalling. What on earth do they think will happen to investment in this country if this stupid prick gets into power? Playing with fire without realising that fire is hot springs to mind.
Theresa May is useless, but this country has gone quite mad in the past few months. God only knows what will become of us at this rate.
As demonstrated by the usual suspects having a chimp out at the local town hall and being bribed with £5 million quid from Theresa May not to do so.
Nice warm weather. Perfect for a good “spontaneous” riot.
@ the other rob June 15, 2017 at 11:44 pm
”But at some point, a critical mass of hitherto law abiding people will lose confidence in the law itself and spit on their hands, a la Mencken.”
The people will still be law abiding: it is government which is the outlaw. Restoring the rule of law is only the lawful option.
DP
@ Bruce June 15, 2017 at 11:12 pm
Certainly not learning from history.
DP
When the law breakers are the law makers and abiding by the law means complicit sanction of treason then it is time to hoist Mencken’s black flag.
“The interesting thing is that at the moment, Jeremy Corbyn can get away with anything. He is making hateful, class war style political capital out of a tragedy, and the MSM is lapping it up.”
You’ve just lost your house, everything you own, possibly a family member, and your biggest worry, apparently, is that the Prime Minister didn’t come to give you a hug.
And now they’re blaming “an ideology of small government”.
What the… ? Small… ? I just checked the public spending figures again. Per-capita, adjusted for inflation, this government has never spent less than any previous one, ever. It’s over £11,000 (in 2005 pounds) for every man, woman, and child in the country. By the same measure, Atlee’s government spent around £2,000. Compared to this lot, he was a bloody anarcho-capitalist.
This is absolute madness. Why is nobody pointing this out? Why is the government itself not saying it? Because it would annoy its supporters who want it to cut spending? When you’ve just scored your highest vote share since 1987 and still can’t get a majority, I don’t think they’re your biggest problem, guys.
What Nick said, though. Corbyn is utterly despicable. I didn’t think he could sink any lower in my estimation, but by God he’s managed it.
I suspect his deputy is capable of sinking even deeper into he gutter.
I recall Mr Corbyn roundly criticising the PM for suggesting they rip up human rights legislation in the “war on terror”.
Who wants to rip up human rights?
Article 17.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/index.html
So,the cheap cladding was put on the building to appease the Saudi land buyers (aka terrorists)?
Being fascinated by both Chinese and Japanese (and Mongol) history, i’d be grateful if Paul Marks would give a pointer (maybe a link to the Source of All Knowledge) to the samurai revolt that he mentioned in his comment.
Here, Snorri.
Thank you Alisa … but i am not sure that is the revolt that Paul had in mind. He wrote:
Also, it is my understanding that the Satsuma revolt was a decisive defeat for the samurai class.
rxc expressed concern that people might be prosecuted for making offensive comments. It’s already happened.
A man has been jailed for three months for posting pictures of the bodies of two of the victims of the fire on social media. What he did was in incredibly poor taste, but I think it’s outrageous that he should be jailed for it. And that he was arrested, charged, tried and jailed in the space of two days smacks more than a little of lynch justice.
http://dailycaller.com/2017/06/15/deadly-london-tower-fire-fueled-by-green-energy-rules/
Excerpt:
Julie, My Inner Pedant makes me say this in reply to your comment:
Aluminum composite cladding materials are safe, efficient, and cost-effective materials that are used extensively in the rehab and construction of structures. We will have cladding forever.
But you shouldn’t make a form of cladding that has a core of what is essentially frozen gasoline, which is what some of the thermoplastics are.