This is the country of Grenfell Tower
This is a country of Grenfell towers
This is the country of promises made meant never to be kept
This is the country that prints its own money then says that it’s in debt
This is the country of deportation, transportation, denial, frustration and criminal deregulation
This is the country of imperial measures and roman numerals
This is the country of Westminster weddings and care home funerals
This is the country that locked down late
This is the country that calls itself great
This is the country of hypocrisy parties and poverty safaris
This is the country where a prince sells the Big Issue for a day, hooray
This is a country that thinks it’s at war
This is a country that says it’s at war
This is a country that somehow wants to be at war
This is the country where the vested interests of the proprietor dictate the headlines
This is the country that sells planes and bombs to armies that still use landmines
This is the country of run it down to sell it off
This is the country of the insufferable toff
This is the country of fire and re-hire or fire and hire someone else
This is the country whose only answer is just to tighten your belts
This is the country of misconduct in public office and rising hedge fund profits
This is a country of structural prejudice
This is the country of in-work benefits
This is the country of Hillsborough, Orgreave, justice delayed and justice denied
This is the country where the Prime Minister just lied and lied and lied and lied
This is the country that does its politics in easy three-word bites
This is the country that wants to debate if humans should have rights
This is the country of the hostile environment
This is the country of Grenfell Tower
Tag: grenfell tower
Steve at the TUC
Steve’s speech to the 2019 TUC Congress on behalf of the FBU:
President, Congress: Steve White, Fire Brigades Union.
On the 14th of June 2017 a fire occurred at Grenfell Tower in west London that killed 72 people. 72 people who had every right to believe that their homes had been built, maintained and refurbished with their safety from fire in mind. Those 72 people, and hundreds of others: bereaved, survivors, residents, deserve justice.
Last year, phase one of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry considered the events of that night, considered 668 statements from firefighters, operational and in control, and heard oral evidence from 88 of them.
I want to thank our members, at the incident and in control rooms, who were faced with a situation that they were never trained to deal with, who worked tirelessly throughout the night to save as many lives as they could.
I want to pay tribute to every member who gave a statement to the Inquiry, re-living that night sometimes at great personal cost, and to the members that we witnessed day after day giving oral evidence to the Inquiry, honestly, and clearly to the best of their ability.
I also want to place on record our thanks for the immense work of FBU officials from around the country who ensured that every member who gave evidence to the Inquiry was supported by their trade union. Our message to our members is clear: The FBU have got your back.
Congress, I also want to pay tribute to the community who continue to respond to this tragedy with dignity and tenacity.
We are all still waiting for the Inquiry’s interim report.
It is bound to be critical of the London Fire Brigade.
It may also make criticisms of individual firefighters.
Rest assured that we will respond robustly if any of our members are attacked by the Inquiry. It is our duty to ensure that our members are not scapegoated for the failings of those above their pay grade, be they fire service bosses or government ministers.
Phase two, what happened before and after the fire, is unlikely to start until next year and may go on for years. The FBU will continue to participate in the Inquiry as long as necessary. We have made detailed submissions about the fire safety regime, deregulation and the failures of politicians over many decades.
We need to remind politicians that the people who lived in Grenfell Tower are not to blame for what happened.
We need to remind politicians that firefighters are not responsible for the fire at Grenfell Tower.
The owners and senior managers of the building, the construction firms, the contractors, those who sold and installed the cladding, the fire doors, the windows, all need to answer for their role in this tragedy; as must local councillors who made decisions to contract out the building and ignored their own residents’ concerns and, above all, Westminster politicians who watered down fire safety regulations, imposed austerity on the Fire and Rescue Service (and indeed on all of us) and who failed to respond to the advice of coroners, fire safety experts and the warnings given by this union.
Congress, I ask you to support us in our campaign, Grenfell: Never Again.
We seek to engage with the community and other campaigners to demand:
The removal and banning of all combustible cladding. (And comrades, I’m sure that you all saw pictures of the fire at Worcester Park in the early hours of yesterday morning and asked questions about its construction).
A national review of the Stay Put policy.
The strengthening of tenants’ rights.
New national structures for the Fire and Rescue Service, and
An increase in specialist fire safety officers.
Comrades, we must make sure that nothing like Grenfell Tower ever happens again.
Congress, I move.
Justice for Grenfell!
We might know a song about that (but you’ll have to ask us when you see us).
Racism – the hospitable environment
Horrified last November by images of the burning effigy of Grenfell Tower, I resorted to song and recorded Nice/Not Nice.
Today we learn that in defence of one of the perpetrators, Paul Bussetti, his lawyer claims his actions to be no worse than those of the Prime Minister, directly quoting Johnson’s “flag-waving piccaninnies” and more.[1]
We warned you in 2008, and again in 2014. He’s not a harmless fool, he’s a dangerous ideologue. The Prime Minister’s racism validates racists. We live in dangerous times.
Steve
1. https://www.metro.news/grenfell-racist-is-no-worse-than-our-prime-minister/1655944/
Justice For Grenfell
Yes, we do know a song about that but for reasons that we won’t share here[1] we can’t link you to it.
What we will say is that two years on from the fire at Grenfell Tower, hundreds of buildings in this country are still clad in dangerous, flammable material. In the case of some privately owned blocks, the landlords and the government know about the cladding but have still failed to warn their residents.[2]
Two years on, the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, situated conveniently close to the chambers of the participating barristers at Holborn Bars but distinctly inconvenient for members of the Grenfell Community to attend, has forensically examined the response of the London Fire Brigade on the night of the fire but has so far failed to ask a single question of those responsible for fixing flammable cladding to the outside of the building, let alone those that created the political climate that allowed it to happen.
Two years on, we are told, we are still at least two years away from any criminal prosecution, and of that there is yet no guarantee.[3]
The silent walk convenes this evening at 7 p.m., the demonstration assembles at Downing Street tomorrow at noon. Join us; show your respect, demonstrate your anger, convince those in power that we will not go away. Demand justice for Grenfell.
Steve White & The Protest Family
- Ask us at a gig or demo
- 24 Housing, 10th June 2019
- The Guardian, 10th June 2019
Steve White & The Protest Family 