WHY HAS NO ONE BEEN HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GRENFELL FIRE?

IT SEEMS John Taxpayer is to be thumped yet again, this time to the tune of £ 400million – that’s nearly half a billion. Mrs May announced it herself from the Treasury bench. After the Grenfell Tower disaster there had to be a nationwide examination of 1,250 similar high- rise buildings to see if they had been built in the same disastrous way.

It transpired 158 council- owned tower blocks would have to be completely reclad with fire- retardant materials to replace fire- accelerant materials. Work on 104 has started with the other 54 to follow. What leaves us slack- jawed is this: how on earth could any bureaucrat not certifiably insane actually approve the cladding of a building intended for human habitation with fire- accelerant material in the first place? Did they actually want a multi- casualty firestorm?

The fact there are 158 such buildings proves this was not just one borough, or one city, or one political party in charge. So will the lethal clowns on our payroll who signed off these death traps ever be named or censured or even fired as they should certainly be?

If this homicidal scandal had derived from the private sector, the developer responsible would be prosecuted, the directors in the dock, the company bankrupt from paying restitution. As these were public sector horrors, it looks as if the usual cover- up will prevail. Of the 210 households that needed rehousing after the fire 201 have been resettled. But still no names or faces of those responsible.

Yet if you or I had knocked down a pedestrian by gross negligence, retribution through the courts would have descended like an avenging angel. What was that we used to read about? Equality before the law? It has been a long time.