Hijackers of grief

THERE is something profoundly distasteful about the way Left-wing campaigners, backed by opportunist Labour MPs, have hijacked the grief of Grenfell Tower blaze victims to pursue a political agenda.

In the latest egregious example, selfappointed groups have turned against 70year-old Sir Martin Moore-Bick, the retired judge leading the inquiry into the disaster, claiming survivors want him removed.

Leave aside that most who endured that appalling night are preoccupied with rebuilding their lives and little concerned over who chairs the inquiry. Indeed, those who contacted the Mail said they had no opinion on the matter.

The agitators who claim so unconvincingly to speak for them appear to believe Sir Martin is too white, too male, too old and too much of a ‘technocrat’ to understand council tenants’ plight.

They also say the inquiry’s brief should be extended to cover society’s treatment of migrants and the disadvantaged. Yet if so, wouldn’t it drag on for years?

The pressing concern must surely be to establish as quickly as possible how the fire started and spread – and how building regulations should be changed, clarified and enforced to ensure nothing like this horror can happen again.

With his long experience of investigating disasters on land and at sea, the technocratic Sir Martin seems eminently qualified for the job. We owe it to the victims to allow him to get on with it – and not let cynical politics get in the way. AFTER showing admirable impartiality during the referendum campaign, how quickly the BBC has slipped back into its eurofanatical ways. Yet faced by MPs with a thick dossier of evidence of anti-Brexit bias, the Corporation’s director of news hotly denies any imbalance. The Mail has a suggestion. If James Harding doesn’t trust the MPs’ dossier, why doesn’t he switch on the radio or TV – and hear the constant stream of anti-Brexit scaremongering for himself? IN a contemptuous insult to TV viewers and paying spectators, a string of tennis stars pulled out of Wimbledon matches after playing just long enough to claim £35,000 first-round appearance money. Is there any good reason why they shouldn’t be fined? How about £35,000 each?