Grenfell and apartheid
The shocking and long waited conclusions of the Grenfell enquiry reminds me of the time I did a report for a programme called The World Tonight on BBC Radio 4.
It was based on the interesting fact that the poorest and richest parts of the UK are only separated by a few stops on the Central line. Kensington and Chelsea being one of the richest parts.
So to illustrate the story I visited a wealthy building development in Kensington, the facade of some block was being preserved but behind that dozens of luxury apartments were being built, all costing millions.
Where, I asked, do the poor life? Oh, said the developer as part of the deal we have to build social housing for the council, but not here. They are built on the other side of the motorway, the rich don’t want to live near poor people.
I was shocked then, as it was so blatant and I remembered it.
This was not just callous and immoral cleansing of the poor and ethnic minorities, it was gerrymandering and social apartheid. The Tory council put the poor, the needy, and the disabled out of sight and now we know they were out of mind too.
There is plenty of blame to go round, the building industry has shown itself to be utterly corrupt, and a perfect example of what happens when you trust companies to regulate themselves.
But if the Tory council had cared that wouldn’t have mattered so much. The money would have been found to repair the building properly, the fire doors would have worked, the inspectors would have stopped the cladding being used, the architect would have had the necessary experience.
But they didn’t because no one cared enough.
Just like they didn’t care about the years of Tory “deregulation”, cutting “red tape”, pandering to the wealthy, demonising the poor, privatising regulators, getting “off the back of business” and trusting your spiv mates to “do the right thing”.
Not caring means apartheid, social and wealth apartheid and apartheid kills.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media