Should there be a Grenfell Tower inquiry?

THE Prime Minister has moved quickly to announce a public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire, but this will undermine the police effort. The police and Crown Prosecution Service should have announced an investigation of possible corporate manslaughter to be tried before a jury, not to be superseded by a handpicked government intervention. Public inquiries are little more than governmentcontrolled investigations under the impression of a fair and open process. Those put in charge are from the Establishment to ensure other Establishment figures are kept clear from prosecution. What chance can there be of a truly open investigation? Most of these inquiries end up with no one being held responsible, yet departments close and there are early retirements with generous pay-offs. The conclusion is always ‘lessons must be learned’ or ‘steps must be taken’, but it’s a whitewash.

G. WATKINS, Chipping Norton, Oxon. SPECULATION about the inquiry’s findings would be dangerous. So it was disturbing that London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the tragedy was ‘because of the consequences of mistakes and neglect from politicians, from the council and from the Government’.

NEIL PERRINS, Sutton Coldfield, W. Midlands.

MY DAUGHTER asked me to sign an online petition to have an inquest, because public inquiries do not always publicise all their findings. However, a coroner’s inquest can verify the facts, but not lay the blame. In contrast, a judge-led inquiry, with witnesses called to testify under oath, can lay blame. ROBERT McKENZIE, Gosport, Hants.