7 September 2024
There are small signs that the UK is beginning to move on from the depredations of recent years.
David Cameron, first of the five prime ministers under the last Conservative government, committed himself to “a bonfire of red tape”. The principle was of course widely applauded as necessary to “boost the economy” but he tragically failed to tighten regulations that were inadequate or ambiguous, such as fire regulations that are designed to ensure the safety of buildings.
In 2013, following the death of six people in a fire in the cladding of Lakanal House, a London council block, the coroner recommended that fire safety regulations should be tightened up.
Eric Pickles, housing secretary at the time, was keener on cutting back regulations and is reported to have “ignored, delayed or disregarded” matters regarding fire safety and risk to life. In his recent examination under oath, Pickles still claimed, in the face of hard evidence to the contrary given by his officers and contemporaneous documents, that cutting regulations did not include building regulations.
Then on 14 June 2017, four years later, 72 people (of whom 15 were disabled) were killed in the catastrophic fire at Grenfell Tower, another London council block.
The 1,700-page report of the official inquiry into the latter disaster, which was published last week, has made it clear that almost everyone colluded in concealing the risks and must bear the blame.
The report found that three firms, Arconic, Kingspan and Celotex, “engaged in deliberate and sustained strategies to … mislead the market”; the architects, Studio E, did not act as a “reasonably competent architect” and “bears a very significant degree of responsibility for the disaster”; the builders Rydon and Harley Facades, and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s building control department also share responsibility for the fire and the deaths it caused.
The inquiry also says the government was “well aware” of the risks posed by highly flammable cladding “but failed to act on what it knew” and, even worse, that some £250m more has been since been given to firms involved in the incompetent refurbishment of Grenfell Tower
The good news is that this report is likely to get so much publicity that firms are likely to be excluded from future government contracts and, with luck, key individuals will face corporate manslaughter charges. The bad news is that this is likely to take years and they don’t sound like the sort of people who will die of shame..
More good news is that the new government has scrapped the one-word judgment on state schools after Ofsted ‘inspections’. Why did it take so long after the suicide of head teacher Ruth Perry after her school was downgraded from ‘outstanding’ to ‘inadequate’ to get politicians to make the change to a system that was obviously fundamentally flawed.
The new government has also cancelled the VIP helicopter contract on which Rishi Sunak spent £40m so he could get from London to places like Southampton and Essex. Not much quicker than the train but so, so much more comfortable my dear. (Even E2R sometimes used a public train from Kings Cross to get to Kings Lynn on her way to Sandringham.) The helicopter contract, which Sunak extended in December last year, expires this December and had already been put out to tender by the Conservatives.
Other good news is that, after a 2-month review, the Foreign Office believes there is a “clear risk” that exporting arms to Israel may allow them to commit serious breaches of international law, and the UK is to suspend some arms export licences to Israel.
According to the Financial Times, our contribution only comprises 1% of Israel’s arms imports (or 0.02% according to GBNews, which has estimated that 98% of arms exports will still be allowed). Still, we have to start somewhere and any reduction is to be welcomed.
Even better is the news that America is bringing criminal charges against at least six of Hamas’ top leaders for the 7 October attack on Israel which has since led to more than 40,000 deaths. And no, I’m not one of those who believe that all Gazans are Hamas terrorists even though they elected a Hamas-led government. Nor do I believe that Brits were all Conservative until very recently and are now all Labour even though they elected both the governments we’ve had this year.
This then made me wonder what would happen in America if Donald Trump was elected president before the various criminal charges he’s facing are resolved. Can a president pardon himself before a case has been judged? If they can, and Trump does, surely that’s an implicit admission of guilt.
Do presidents actually have the power to pardon themselves anyway? Surely the writers of the Constitution couldn’t have intended that, after being elected in November, a president-elect could go on the rampage with a weapon and then pardon themselves after they take office in January. Or didn’t it cross their minds that Americans might be stupid enough to elect somebody like Trump?
Labour is planning to remove the remaining 92 of the nepo babies from the House of Lords. Whether that will significantly reduce the numbers actually attending and voting remains to be seen.
Although I conceal it well*, I’m a great believer in complaining about bad service in the hope it will encourage firms to improve their service for others so I think it’s only fair to acknowledge good service when I come across it.
I recently decided to replace a couple of worn-out shirts with one offered by Savile Row Company and discounted to my price limit, but the discount code didn’t work so I emailed them asking why. (Have you noticed how few companies now publicise their email addresses, presumably because they provide lousy services and then get fed up with people emailing them to complain?)
Anyway, they answered by return saying that code had expired but they had another which gave a better discount and the shirt arrived 2 days later, even more cheaplier than I’d expected. Well done Savile Row Company!
* Comparatively well?
Lesser Mutterings 