Is the Grenfell Tower Fire Linked to Tory Austerity Cuts?

No-one can have watched the terrible events unfolding in the early hours of Wednesday morning without feeling the horror of what those poor innocent families have had to endure. Our hearts go out to them and to the amazing Fire & Rescue and ambulance services for many of whom this has been the worst ever they have had to deal with.

My first impression, at 3am in the morning, was of disbelief at how fast the fire had spread and taken hold. The whole building was alight apart from a small section on one side of the lower floors. How, in this day and age of strict building regulations and health & safety rules could this happen? Where were the sprinklers, fire doors, fire retardant floors and ceilings and alternative emergency exits? Apparently, sprinklers only need to be installed in new buildings and Grenfell Towers was built in the 1970's. Surely, commonsense should have made it obvious that this could potentially have saved lives!

According to tv news reports the building had only recently undergone extensive refurbishment and cladding had been added to the exterior to improve the appearance of the building. The Independent Online reported that this rainscreen cladding may have been partly responsible for the fast spread of the fire, acting as a chimney and conduit enabling the fire to creep up the outside of the building.

A few years ago, when Theresa May's new Chief of Staff, Gavin Barwell, was housing minister, a series of damning reports had been sent to him after a coroner's investigation into the Lakanal House fire in 2009 had revealed that the cladding on the exterior of the building had not had sufficient fireproofing, and he had promised to review part B of the Building Regulations 2010, relating to fire resistance and fire risk assessments. No action was taken. WHY?

According to the website of Rydon, the contractors who installed the cladding as part of an £8.6m upgrade, the improvements were intended to "improve thermal insulation and modernise the exterior of the building". There is no mention of improving fire safety.

Dr Claire M Benson, who is a fire scientist in the Explosion & Fire Research Group at London South Bank University has outlined some areas of the fire safety recommendations included in part B of the Building Regulations 2010 Act. 

• Limiting igniton sources

• Limiting fire spread opportunities - so the fire should not be able to spread through a building quickly. Materials have fire ratings and should be chosen specifically to prevent this. If reports of rapid fire spread in Grenfell are correct many questions will be asked about the materials used, and air flow e.g. were there gaps between floors or in the skin causing a chimney type effect that funnelled the flames upwards?

• Enabling warning to building users as early as possible

• Enabling safe and timely escape

• Allowing emergency service access into to the building to rescue occupiers and fight the fire

In addition to the above, the Grenfell Tower managers had maintained a "stay put" rule in the case of a fire meaning that many residents had stayed in their flats rather than attempting to vacate the building. 

The Grenfell Resident's Asociation had been complaining that safety concerns had been falling on “deaf ears” having stated in 2016 that a serious fire in the tower block with a catastrophic loss of life would be the only was they could bring the management company to justice. They had also complained that the fire alarms were not working properly and that there had been power surges on previous occasions. Why was nothing ever done about this?

It will probably be some time before the authorities can complete their investigation into the cause of the fire and make anyone accountable for it but in the meantime consider the following:

The Tories, many of whom own multiple properties themselves, have consistently voted down tenants’ rights in the last few years, including a bill requiring that landlords make their homes fit for habitation. In 2016, 72 of these Tory MPs voting against the measure were landlords. 

Grenfell is in the borough of Kensington, which recently took the seat off the Tories in favour of Labour. In addition, we now have 7,000 less firefighters than five years ago due to the Tories austerity cuts and as a result fire prevention visits to homes have been reduced by 25%. 

So, if anyone is to blame for this dreadful tragedy, surely the answer is glaringly obvious. Let's lay these innocent victims of austerity to rest in peace first, but then its time to speak out and say "No more! This ends NOW!!

 

WASPIs - Not going away in 2018

When a small contingent of Chorley WASPI supporters met with our local MP in March 2017, whilst fully supportive of our cause, he warned us that nothing would happen to resolve our issues unless there was a General Election and that was, according to Mrs Maybe, not on the cards. A bleak, but not disparaging opinion from the Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons, Lindsay Hoyle MP and I don't think even he could have have imagined just how soon the GE2017 snap election would occur, if at all!

Why a General Election? Because he was of the opinion that for Mrs Mayhem and her cronies, my words, not his, a declaration by them of support for the WASPI ladies could be a potential vote winner and may well be a significant part of the Tory manifesto. To date, so far as I am aware, this has not been the case and we are still being ignored by the majority of Tory MPs.

On the other hand, however, the Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn MP, has publicly stated that, Labour will listen to our voices and make every effort to help us to win back what is rightfully ours - our pensions.

As it happened, Labour did not win the GE2017,  not least because of the deliberate twisting of words by the establishment controlled media, who sought  to sow the seeds of doubt in the minds of those of lesser intelligence with a view to swaying them into tactical voting, or into bringing back the worst Conservative government for generations. This has led to more austerity, more cuts to public services, a death knell for the NHS, the rise of a brutal regime and many, many deaths of innocent people in our country, young and old.

Are we living in a Democracy or a Dictatorship? I, for one, for the first time in my life, voted Labour because I sincerely believed, and still do, that they can redress the balance and bring about a fairer society.

But, the worst case scenario played out and the Tories remained in power.  Where does that  leave the WASPI women in 2018?

Assuming that there is nothing on the table for us and they still won't listen to us, then we will have to see them in Court. Bindmans, our lawyers, are preparing a case against the Department for Work and Pension (DWP) for maladministration over their failure to notify us of changes to our State Pension Age. They have a good case, but will need our help to achieve a satisfactory outcome and the most important elements in any court situation are evidence and money. Without evidence there is no case to defend and without money there can be no trial.

WASPI ladies have been portrayed by certain parts of the media as greedy, money grabbing, banner raising, flag waving old ladies with nothing better to do, but that is far from true. There are 3.8 million of us and some of us have been quietly playing our part and gathering the very important evidence that will help Bindmans fight a successful case.

But....and there is a BUT....I don't believe that ANY government will be in a position to replace our stolen pensions in full and hand it to us on a silver platter! It would cost too much and even we WASPIs are supportive of equalisation with men for our State Pension Age. 

My best guess it that IF any arrangements are agreed in principal then it will not be a "free for all" solution. It could be a case of "first come..first served". There will probably be restrictions and qualifications for everyone and it will be up to us to make individual claims for compensation. We will need to prove that we are deserving of any money we are claiming and that we have taken reasonable steps to highlight our individual circumstances and attempted to seek resolution ourselves, which brings me back to "evidence". We will need to show evidence of individually pro-actively seeking redress.

This is why it is important that ALL women affected by the changes in legislation who wish to be adequately compensated should as of now be writing to the DWP, stating their cases and requesting the same. I really do think that it will be a case of "if you don't ask, you won't receive".

This is why the WASPI movement is so important. The WASPI website at waspi.co.uk has a wealth of information and guidance that is publicly available on how best to approach the DWP with template letters that anyone with access to a computer can do for themselves.

It can be soul-destroying and disheartening to feel that you are trying to take on the world by yourself. This is why joining WASPI and becoming a member of your local group is so important. We are here to help you take on the establishment by giving you guidance and practical assistance in preparing your letters which, after all, could be the key to unlocking your individual pensions, or part of, sooner rather than later.

Also, by signing up as a paid up member of WASPI, even if you do nothing else, your money will help to pay for the Court action.

Please don't wait for other people to do what you know you should do for yourself. Don't sit back and expect positive results without being prepared to take personal action. JOIN US and be part of our campaign. Make new friends and gain the support you need to secure your future. Join us at  http://waspi.co.uk/membership and find your local WASPI Group by searching the Directory which is available at http://waspi.co.uk/local-groups 

   

    

Photo credits: Reportuk.org, Enprotothema.gr, Article.wn.com, BoltonLabourHultonWard.co.uk