Just a couple of weeks ago, Grenfell Tower, a London block of flats, went up in flames and at least 79 people were killed. This was because the local council renovated it last year and chose cheap, shoddy cladding that was so flammable it’s been made illegal to construct with it in the United States. Our government chose it because it’s £2 cheaper than the safer one. So, residents of the tower warned the government that their home was an extreme fire risk, and the government ignored them and now those people don’t have a home anymore.
Residents want a hand in May’s public inquiry
In the days since the Grenfell Tower fire, Prime Minister Theresa May has, rightly, promised a full public inquiry into the incident to get to bottom of who is responsible for it. But, naturally, the residents don’t want to just get screwed over again, so they’ve asked her if they can have a hand in the investigation. They want to choose the presiding judge and negotiate the terms and scope of the investigation as they want to “leave no stone unturned.”
Now, housing campaigner Pilgrim Tucker does acknowledge that this kind of interference in an investigation by survivors of an event is “unprecedented,” but she also added that the Grenfell Tower fire is “an unprecedented situation.” The residents want the investigation to be “effective” and “go ahead with a chair that they can trust and have faith in,” after being ignored and screwed and left homeless.
