‘Tower tragedy highlights our leaders’ inadequacy

“Strictly Come Dancing helped a lot because, up until that point, you get used to seeing horrible pictures of yourself in the paper portraying you as grotesque or aggressive. It helped me to stop feeling that everyone thought I was a nightmare pushy mother” THE terrible tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire has highlighted serious misgivings about how the lives of ordinary people are governed.

Claims, counter claims, accusations, blame and mistrust have come to the fore. Inevitably and predictably the tiresome, oft repeated “we will learn lessons from this” comes from politicians attempting to placate the public.

Not surprisingly the political tribes spring into action with photo opportunities to prove they care.

It is a well-worn path. Apparent is that those who govern our lives have over many years actually failed to serve the best interests of those who place them in positions of responsibility and trust.

A catalogue of repeated failures at national and local government levels is significant.

This time around, referendums, elections, international conflict, austerity and debt have combined, creating a toxic blend of uncertainty.

Perhaps not surprisingly, in the Grenfell case, some responses have been quicker than normal with a consequence that rapidly processed inspections have highlighted problems far beyond the tragic incident in Kensington.

The likelihood of a national malaise of administrative inadequacy and worse looks distinctly possible, although maybe this shouldn’t really be a surprise.

Consider Kirklees regarding planning decisions, specifically valid objections to questionable developments being ignored by an unholy alliance of planners, councillors and developers.

Despite serious concerns and evidence of problems, reckless development has continued regardless of consequences.

Lindley is a prime example of dubious council administration where development “hard sell” notably ignored traffic problems, failing local services and environmental pollution.

Blatant disregard of worsening air quality and this, according to Kirklees’ own evidence, is a decades old scandal. Officers and councillors repeatedly chose to procrastinate and carry