May is further diminished in aftermath of tower tragedy
The seething anger over the avoidable Grenfell Tower tragedy is likely to cause more damage to Theresa May than Brexit or anything else, argues chief reporter Martin Shipton
AFTER the emotionally raw human response to the loss of life in a West London tower block, the political implications of what happened are coming to the fore.
The fire took hold in a way that should not have been possible in a country that likes to see itself as a leading exponent of health and safety.
Certainly the scenes we saw on Wednesday night and Thursday morning are more associated with lesser developed countries where life is cheap and safety is not even a consideration, let alone a priority.
The location of the tragedy could not be more symbolic of the divisions in our society. Grenfell Tower is in the constituency of Kensington, which was the last to declare its result in the General Election.
Labour won for the first time ever with a majority of just 20 votes. It’s probably the most polarised seat in Britain, where billionaires live in supreme luxury and the poor in dangerous tower blocks.
In the past the poor put up with their lot, but the multiple deaths have changed that. The cause is much bigger than a wage increase for the low paid, much as that would be welcomed and deserved.
Quite understandably it’s led to rage against the politicians at local level who have ignored their concerns, and against Theresa May herself, who presides over a system that hasn’t just let people down, but allowed so many of them to die needlessly.
The Prime Minister proved in the election campaign that she wasn’t good at empathising with ordinary people. Her robotic repetition of trite phrases, her sheer awkwardness, and her failure to engage with communities in any meaningful sense were among the reasons that led her to squander her party’s majority.
But all that is insignificant in comparison with the tragedy of Grenfell Tower.
It emerged very quickly that local residents had repeatedly expressed concern and indeed alarm at the prospect of a fire in the block. It wasn’t merely verbal, with people complaining among themselves but taking no action. There had been repeated warnings about what was likely to happen from articulate residents who had called out those responsible for managing the accommodation in the most graphic way.
Accused of ignoring the safety of those living in Grenfell Tower, and of turning it into a death trap, the blog postings which contained the allegations of neglect read, on the morning of the tragedy, like a prophesy from ancient Greek tragedy that the fates had made inevitable.
From Mrs May’s point of view, things could hardly be worse.
The block is owned by a Conservative council that quite clearly is much more concerned about the welfare of its wealthy residents than its poor ones.
The public statements made by the Tory councillors who run the local authority have come across as uncaring. One even asserted that there had been no “collective view” expressed by tenants in favour of having fire sprinklers. Such lack of a collective view was being trotted out as a reason for not bothering to install a device that could potentially have saved lives.
There is also the grotesque fact that more attention was devoted to improving the outward-facing aesthetics of the tower block than ensuring that those who lived in it would not lose their lives.
The appalling stories about families and individuals trapped inside their burning flats as they had final phone conversations with their relatives is inevitably leading to a increase in anger.
Mrs May failed the residents when she couldn’t even be bothered to speak to them. Her advisers probably calculated that taking criticism on that score was preferable to her being shouted at by the grieving relatives, friends and neighbours of those who died.
Jeremy Corbyn, by contrast, was sensitive and respectful when he visited the devastated site.
The cause of the tragedy will be blamed on the Conservatives and their policies that lead to immoral levels of inequality in places like Kensington.
But they will also be blamed for the ineptitude in rehousing the survivors. Frustration led to people storming the town hall to demand help urgently.
The BBC journalist Nick Robinson has compared Grenfell Tower with the situation in New Orleans at the time of Hurricane Katrina. The lack of preparedness, and then the failure to look after survivors, did much to damage the popularity of President George W Bush.
The same fallout is already happening for Theresa May, but the causes are actually worse.
Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster – one that should have been predicted, for sure, but as a phenomenon unavoidable.
At Grenfell Tower, the cause was gross human negligence. Fire is not supposed to sweep through residential tower blocks like that, and something went badly wrong. Ultimately the impoverished who lived in the block weren’t considered important enough to protect. In that sense, the comparison with New Orleans in 2005 is accurate.
Brexit talks are due to start on Monday. The UK is split down the middle, and it’s likely any anger will come slowly. Grenfell Tower, though, is much more potent as a focus for social anger. Some of the poorest people have been robbed of their lives, I think, by the apparent negligence and greed of their “betters”.
Having witnessed such an appalling spectacle, many will translate their anger into activism locally.
On a national scale, too, the moment of truth will arrive. Instead of putting up with their lot, as they may have done in the past, they will want change. Theresa May has been diminished further.