We died in there because we don’t count...
Fury of the survivors who warned of danger
THE young man, clearly agitated, his eyes red from tears or the acrid smoke, pointed up at the blazing tower above us. “We’re dying in there because we don’t count,” he shouted hoarsely.
On Wednesday morning, low burning anger flickered around the police cordon as people stood staring at what used to be their homes.
By yesterday, among the heartbreaking messages and condolences on the memorial wall was written: “Justice for Grenfell – Jail those Responsible.”
Nearby, someone summed up a growing feeling in a few well-chosen words, saying: “I remember watching the film Titanic and thinking, ‘Wow, I can’t believe that they put poor people at the bottom of the ship without life jackets and lifeboats to save them.’
“This feels like the housing equivalent.”
The royal borough of Kensington and Chelsea has long been a byword for inequality.
The average salary in the area in which Grenfell Tower stands is £123,000, the highest in the UK.
But the median – the midpoint of all salaries – is £32,700 there.
No other local authority in the country has such a large gap between these two figures.
Now, among a multitude of questions, people want to know why rich people’s tower blocks in Kensington have sprinkler systems, yet their flats did not.
They want to know how much the cladding that went up like a box of matches was for insulation purposes, and how much it was to save wealthy residents the unpleasant sight of an ugly building. Now, the people in the multimillion-pound houses cannot avoid the eyesore of a blackened monument to cuts and carelessness. The borough that gave birth to Rachmanism – after Peter Rachman, the slum landlord who became synonymous with exploitation – may now become synonymous with housing its people in a deathtrap. Synonymous with failing to protect the people they were entrusted to care for. With valuing lives too cheaply.
Seventeen people are known to be dead, and entire families are still missing. Scores of people are in hospital. Some of those who escaped with their lives were residents who had warned of dangers multiple times and were ignored.
Why? Because they were poor? Because they didn’t count? Because despite living in one of the most expensive districts on the planet, they didn’t deserve a building that was safe to live in?
What can anyone tell them now? Only that they are “politicising” their own tragedy. In truth, the battle for Grenfell Tower was politicised long before fire began spreading on Wednesday morning.
It was politicised the moment the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation stopped listening to their tenants and ignored eight fire warnings in three years.
It was politicised when the Grenfell Action Group posted on