Grenfell latest: Disgraceful internal comms label Grenfell survivors as ‘hostile’ and ‘painting the situation worse than it is’
Phase 2 of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry is currently underway this week, with witness testimonies to be heard today. The inquiry was created to examine the circumstances leading up to and surrounding the fire at Grenfell Tower on the night of the 14th June 2017.
As expected, information revealed so far during the inquiry has been nothing short of heart-breaking. From the very start, the establishment’s approach towards the inquiry has demonstrated their apathy towards the rapidly festering situation. Their testimonies have been littered with lazy errors and unnecessary petulance.
When giving evidence about his role in cutting ‘red tape’ around cladding requirements, ex-Conservative communities and local government secretary Lord Pickles told the board that he was ‘extremely busy’ and that they should use his time ‘wisely’.
As he ended his evidence session, he made reference to a ‘nameless 96 people who were killed’. 72 people died in the Grenfell fire, and none of them were nameless.
After a short recess, the selfless Lord Pickles cancelled the afternoon plans that he was so eager to attend and explained that he mixed the death toll up with that of the Hillsborough disaster, even though the death toll from that tragedy now stands at 97.
Aside from general carelessness and feelings of entitlement, the hearing has exposed the damning details of what was really happening on the subsequent day of the fire. Survivors recount how they were left without food, money, phones, clothes, or information about relatives who could have been in the fire.
The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) council had no accurate list of the occupants of the tower, and their emergency response relied on its own staff to volunteer, unpaid, leading to a shortage of help.
The board heard how the RBKC felt ‘great concern over community tension’ with a ‘small number of known local instigators’ being ‘very vocal’ and ‘hostile’ about the incident. Fearing that these ‘embittered residents’ may ‘incite a mob’ with their ‘fabricat[ed] stories’, the council appointed a PR firm to deal with the pressure while the fire was still burning. It took 48 hours to hand over control of the incident under established London-wide procedures for emergencies.
The establishment’s shocking disdain for the Grenfell survivors during the disaster and the inquiry proves that they will never care about the plight of society’s most vulnerable. If you want to hear first-hand about the series of unpunished errors that led to the fire, the streams for the daily witness testimonies can be found here.
Lawyers for the victims and survivors of Grenfell have suggested that they would have been treated better if they had not been living in social housing. If you are sick of being treated like a second-class citizen by an establishment that sees seeking justice as not worth their time, make a campaign with us at https://findothers.com/.