Grenfell Towers a Mother's Escape

It was said Grenfell Towers fire began within the first hour after midnight, a fridge on the fourth floor exploded. It was not the fault of the person who owned the fridge though it does depend on the circumstances of this incident. It is the fault of the fire and safety regulations, one comment I heard was the fire had gone from the fourth floor to the 18th floor in eight minutes. Further there was no firealarm system in the building, considering the many millions which had been spent on refurbishment again this is mind boggling. Cosequently cospiracy theories have arrisen the local council of Kensington and Chelsea have been practicing social cleansing. There has to be no doubt such an abhorent thing was happening, though whether it was deliverate is another question, but rather it is a matter of unintended consequences when a local authority begins to attract the wealthy.

There is one story about a mother who escaped Grenfell Towers which is an active expression of how it is necessary to do something. At about 1 a.m. she phoned the police to say her Tower block was on fire, she was worried, the smoke was thick and she feared for the safety of her two sons, both young aabout 10 and 12 years of age. She asked what should she do as her flat was on the twelth floor. The reply was to keep the door closed and stay inside. She took their advice and waited. The fire got worse so she rang the Police again. She asked them if the firebrigade was coming, she said there was fire on her floor she needed firefighters on her floor. Over the next hour and a half she rang them up a total of five times, of which the first four times they advised she stay in her flat, don't move from there it was safest. Then she phoned again and now it was about 2 a.m. the voice on the phone said get out now, if you don't you will die. She was a little taken aback by the urgency of the voice as the Police had not phoned her back to tell her about the change in their advice after all had she known an hour ago it would of been better to have made the attempt then. Perhaps the firebrigade were giving advice to the Police and after a short period of fighting the blaze they recognised nothing could be done. The resident took towels and wet them, she took her boys and went to the front door opening it to thick acrid stinking black smoke. One of her boys said:

"Mummy I don't want to go," her response was,
"If we don't go we will die."

They left their home. There was no description from the mother of how they managed it down the stairs, how that single stairwell was most likely thick with smoke or how she may have passed bodies and firefighters on those stairs. It might of been crowded and awkward to drag her sons out with her. She did it though, she saved her own life and the lives of her sons. The emergency services didn't reach her floor and they failed to phone her back and inform her to get out. It was only her persistent phoning and pestering of the Police she took her own safety into her own hands. Now she says her sons are wary of Police advice, she says they feel like they don't trust them.  It is understandable, in this real incident the organization of the emergency services sounds like it was attrocious. They may have done what they could, but there was a lot they didn't do and I don't understand given they have breathing apparatus why there had not been a group which had climbed those stairs and told all the residents to get out of the tower. Perhaps the fire was an ongoing situation and they continued to take and evaluate information as it came in.

The blame is squarely on the shoulders of Kensington and Chelsea Council. They say all fire safety regulations were met. But as there has been no change to these regulations for at least ten years they were out of date. The tower housed working class and lower class people, the kind of people who are the salt of the earth, the kind who do their best just to make ends meet. Grenfell Tower is in an area full of multiple millionaires, we saw Lilly Allen stating she had never seen an incident where the media were downplaying the number of deaths. At the point of her interview they had 17 confirmed recognised deaths. Lilly said how she had walked up and down the area past firefighters and Police who were saying there will be at least 150 deaths. Why on earth could the media not use such phrases as "expected deaths to reach over 100 persons?" It was as though they were trivialising the extent of this tragedy. At the moment this figure has now gone up to 58.  Additionally the emergency services state it is likely it will take weeks if not months to recover all the bodies and some of them may not be identified. Given the inferno raged for hours some of those bodies turned to complete ash as it had effectively been an incinerator. The building will need to be made safe, the process will be painfully slow. As the days pass more information will come out more stories with sad endings.

The incompetent Teresa May

It seems like Theresa May is being hit by the most unfortunate of circumstances, the kind of events which determine an individual's personality, the kind which are a bare all to the world. So it is. First came the decision to have an election when her poll ratings were stratospheric, not a bad decision some might think however, this led on to the election campaign. During which May was shown to dislike the prospect of a face to face confrontation with the other party leaders, she preferred to say it was the electorate that mattered. Her case would be put to the voters and she would only take questions from the voters. Stating this was a little like dodging a bullet, unsucessfully. This bullet didn't hit her in the head but it did disengage her ear from her head instead. For May's performance on TV was disasterous, she came across as the Maybot, spouting of cliched comments and then there were some embarassing questions to which she physically shrinked in front of the cameras. Where as Corbyn had ascerbic questions and a pan full of flaming fried rice thrown at him, yet he stood his ground particularly on the issue of not wanting to kill millions of people with nuclear weapons. May however wouldn't mind pressing the button providing she also allowed her fellow wealthy people to get in a last fox hunt before the end of the world.

So that counts two events, calling an election and then barely turning up for the campaign. A third bite of this pretty vingery cake was when May decided to get in bed with the Democratic Unionist Party. Who could be termed as a strong if not far right wing faction of the Tories, a party which has endorsements from the such like as the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), the Red Hand Commandos and the Ulster Defence Force. Lets also not forget to mention the DUP are creationists believing creationism should be taught in schools, abortion made illegal, there should be no such
thing as same sex marriage, capital punishment is acceptable, perhaps they'd use capital punishment against the LBGT community if it was considered an appropriate method of making them normal heterosexual again and so have become kingmakers for May. In an obvious quirk of fate where the media had previously chastised Corbyn of perceived terrorist sympathies we now have an actual prime minister who is actually supported by a part of right wing terrorists if not interlectually challenged. Further the agreement with the DUP is not a carte blanche support for every policy May's government will put forward, but rather a selective when they coincidentally agree with the Tories. So May's government have to ensure their policies are right wing enough to get that additional support only an extremist would consider reasonable. Of course by siding with the DUP May has now successfully thrown into the air a question of whether the Good Friday agreement will continue unharmed, for if the IRA start counting their bullets we are all in the shit.

And lets throw a fourth and highly sensitive event she has face planted her poor version of humanity, i.e. the towering inferno of death Glenfell Towers, where at least 30 people have died and with the actual numbers likely to exceed 100 and more. At Glenfell when May visited she did not talk to a single survivor for imagine if she had, the tabloids would of gotten her in an extremely embarressing situation because relatives would of wanted answers and compassion. May spoke to the fire services but could show no humanity to the survivors or residents of this area. When May left a church in the area, she ran out of a side door to shouts of "May's a coward." There is no compassion in May, not for poor or working class people, she comes from the same cloth as many Tories. The one which arrogantly has written through it, "I am better than you." So it is, May has thumped a nail in her own coffin the likes of which can not be removed. The other nails she put in varied from small to medium, the Glenfell Towers one is a big rusty nail and she has not only smashed it in the lid she cut her fingers on it and is now being poisoned. Probably not fast enough for the likes of many.

So after one very arrogant Cameron we now have an equally arrogant and disasterous May, Cameron was the worst PM for the working and poor classes but May has now outstripped him. When will she go? When will this woman be thrown out with the very dirty bath water?

May can't hear the death bells toll

It is an inevitable fact of life, you pays taxes, deal with change and have to die at some time. Hopefully later than sooner, but it doesn't matter because we'll all be eating daisies and those who have gone before us will shortly be met by the living. So it is with Teresa May, she will not be able to survive the next few months, she has now put her lot in with an extreme right wing party in order to stay in power. Her slogan phrase of safe and secure has now bought the most dangerous unstable government ever.  It is a disastrous result for the country.

May's controlling personality has popped out on the public arena like a topless titillating picture of a beautiful 22 year old smiling to horny young men. She was so narrow minded as not to even include her own cabinet on how to compile a manifesto and keep them clued up as to what is happening, the Tories or rather May produced the worst manifesto ever. This was quantified by of all people George Osborne not some raging lefty tea cosy wearing CND supporter. But maybe the worst part of her personality is the inability to actually understand she should step down and pass the buck to another candidate, and there is only one person for the job who also is a woman and who also very nearly lost her own seat, Amber Rudd. Perhaps Rudd would actually talk to her own colleagues. May is a woman who says one thing and then does another, her mind is as weak and changeable as play-doh. First she is not going to hold an election then while out on a walk she changes her mind and does hold one. Of course the hubris came about because at the time she decided the Tories had a 20 point public opinion lead. Except a mere four weeks later the incompetent looking chemistry teacher Corbyn had actually reduced it to such an level were there given perhaps one more week of campaigning he would of done it. Maybe it didn't help there had been terrorist attacks so it was temporarily suspended. There can be no doubt on the subject, this election was called only for the benefit of May not for anyone else. So it is the Tories have lost a number of their very own MPs and have made a pact with the devil DUP. A devil who will ensure every drop of support they give is paid for by May a hundred fold in the concessions she will have to give back.

Come to think of it Ireland may become the ultimate wobbly football in May's new chaotic coalition of support. For the peace accord between loyalists and Sinn Fein and rule of Ireland shows the very first microscopic fracture. The bowl may well be able to hold soup and keep everything together but in the back of the minds of every British person who remembers the days of old and IRA terrorism a chink of concern raises it's head. Were this government to impose a further peace arrangement they would now be a bias party. We shake our head and hope so desperately the IRA are not renewing talks with their fellow extremists and hope they to have got to like peace and relative freedom. And all for the sake of a 61 year old self centred woman, a woman who should not be allowed to hold any power, not even allowed to switch the dishwasher on because we all know she's the type who would throw your clothes in there as well.

At this time even atheists cry out, god fecking help us.

Three mobile network make it difficult to leave

I very much dislike phoning a company to find they have a service which comes out of a developing country. This says something to me.  Such as the pursuit of profits means the cheapest service they can provide. Service which is delivered by individuals who speak English with a distinct accent and clearly have never lived in the UK. Three is one such company to outsource its services.

In what can only be described as a deliberate bully tactics, Three mobile phone service this morning belligerently talked over me and obstructed supplying a PAC code. If there was any doubt about trying to leave Three to get a better telephone deal I am now 100 per cent committed to ensure
I do get a better deal and within three minutes of putting down the phone had already contacted another mobile phone provider and taken out a direct debit. Whereas the phone call to Three had taken a total of twenty-three minutes and repeated requests with the words "please give me a PAC code."  It didn't seem to matter to them though, the request I made was like water falling off a duck's back. As if it had meant nothing at all as if my words didn't matter to them. And the reality was my words didn't, because they were the words Three didn't want to hear, they didn't want to know this long term customer was about to leave their service. So like holding onto a cliff and about to fall into a crocodile infested water Three held on to my phone call for dear life.

I was polite all the time, and am sure if I'd had given them the opportunity to drop the call they would of, because this is the way such companies play it. Get the customer so irate they will say something which means the call is terminated.  This creates a catch 22 situation where the only way to resolve the situation is yet to phone up again.  Ringing up and then getting disengaged is a strategy in itself to ensure the customer continues with their contract and is unable to cease it. In this way Three can go on for days ensuring they'd eek out a further time where a customer must pay for a service no longer wanted.

Perhaps they didn't understand the character of the person they were talking to, for once I had vaguely made up my mind to leave Three but was then confronted with brick walls of Indian service clients wanting to stop the cancellation from taking place the more obstinate I got to be, the more necessary it became to ensure this contract would be ended. The only regret I have on this matter is not recording the phone conversation and also not advising the conversation was being recorded and would be submitted to Ofcom if the very reasonable request was not complied with. I got there in the end or hope so. For I'll not actually find out until I get to see my bank statement and check they have finished taking direct debits from my account. Fingers crossed another phone call will not be called for.

And so, time for another election

For the second time in two years, an election lays at our doorstep. The disaster of the 2015 election had meant yet another five years of Tory rule, but if this one is also won by the Tories it will guarantee their power tenure will stretch to 12 years in total. Given the outcome of the last election I have absolutely no idea what is going to happen and a deep seated dread hangs over my head. The dread is there are more Tory voters out there than any other party, the result possibly being another win and the utter and complete decimation of the UK. I do not say this lightly. With a deficit now at 1.7 Trillion pounds in total and the mantra of what is good for business and the economy is good for the UK actually being a oxymoron. It's true we need to make the UK a productive country, one which makes goods and in doing so also employs people. The two do go hand in hand. Yet the realities of a Tory government have been to improve unskilled employment pool by reducing wages and increasing the selection and devaluing those who do have skills.  It's been done by the deliberate run down of the welfare system under the guise of encouragement to work, when what it really is, is blackmail into work scenario. As job seekers are made to sign a commitment to look for work and are expected to collect evidence they are actively seeking work in order to continue getting benefits. As for the disabled, the gradual erosion of employment support allowance and adherence to work capability interviews. Which are interviews designed in such a way to remove claimants off disability benefits by a senseless point based system which checks whether they are able to do the most menial of actions and concludes the claimant is able to work. The future could be the entrenched continuation of this process which does nothing but keep politicians and bureaucrats in jobs.

Pensioners have been saved by the triple lock. It is the vote buyer, if pensioners are kept sweet they will vote, the funny thing is the pensioners do vote for Tories and have helped keep them in power. Just as have those who have been fed the lies of scape goating migrants as parasites to the welfare system. It's completely untrue. A more salient reason the UK has been kept in this prolonged depression is the failure to leash the big businesses. The businesses which make millions if not billions and yet don't pay taxes or contribute to the UK. For example Thames Water, which used to belong to us all and was then sold off has paid it's share holders £1.16 billion in dividends between 2006 and 2015. Yet the tax contributions from this company indicate multiple years where they pay no corporation tax. So the large refugee family living in two houses with no one working and getting state handouts are put on the front page of the tabloids, yet the monies paid to them are less than dandruff on the shoulders of fat cat executives at Thames Water. If histrionics come into it, were the tabloids to run a front page on how much lost tax from big corporations could pay towards schools, hospitals and welfare then perhaps the voters would understand more why Tory leadership is literally killing this nation. Whether pensioners or the misinformed working classes catch onto this and understand they have been hoodwkinked by a dead cat thrown on the table is another thing.

I once read a Greek philosopher considered the common people should not be given the right to vote in politics. His argument was they were not educated enough or understanding enough of the political systems. They were swayed far too easily by emotional argument. On the face of it this seems true, especially when I look around me at the political literacy of colleagues at work, some have near to no understanding of politics. And for the politicians this is wonderful, they love ignorance because they then don't have to face difficult and uncomfortable questions. Imagine what the country would be like if every single voter had at least a A'level in politics. Then were to yet again listen to politicians and repeatedly ask themselves why am I being fed bull shit, why is this politician avoiding giving a straight answer, what exactly are they saying? I necessary condition every listener should have is to firstly listen with scepticism, examine realities, question every statistic quoted by drilling into it and examine every denigrating remark against opposition politicians because this is usually a method of throwing the voter off the scent. Knowledge is and always will be the great leveller but it requires study and effort and our current government dislikes it very much when voters get a mind of their own.

Teresa May doesn't like the public

It is painfully obvious Teresa May does not like to canvas and certainly doesn't like to engage in the throws of a debate which could lead anywhere. For her politics has to be controlled, it has to be engineered and a script written. She must be prepared before she gives a speech or an interview, and in doing so knows exactly what she will talk about and will not talk about. This has been evident in her interview with Andrew Marr when told nurses were using food banks her response was to say the reasons were complicated. So the thought of having a TV debate is terrifying, she really doesn't like the stress of the camera or a debate which could meander off to anywhere. She is afraid and so she should be. For in reality even Cameron's debate with Corbyn was somewhat lacklustre so the same would be more so with May. When going off script she is like a cat thrown in the sea.

Whether the electorate or media like it or not, opinion polls are always used as guidance to tell us where we are now. Yet the last election showed they were woefully wrong. Their predictions completely missed the target and why might this be such a salient point? For simply the nasty Tory party have been shown to hold a twenty point lead, so what if they are so wrong now and what if this lead is no a lead at all. There is a gamble when any election takes place, but there is more of one when it was not needed. May just did not have to go to election, she has forced it because she saw an opportunity and she still believes the opportunity exists, that she will not only win but in doing so will completely wipe out Labour, perhaps for a generation. All because Labour have lost momentum even thought they have Momentum, they are not showing votes in the polls. Like any good Tory, May has ensured the relevant boundary changes have happened to help strengthen her position, to put her party back in power. She also sees the force of the media as backing her and has a hubris of invincibility about her. Corbyn appears as always to be his own worse enemy, but perhaps so is May for now we are getting to see her spots, getting to see exactly how wide that yellow streak is down her back. Like a chinese general Loa Tzu, she believes she is in a fight she can not lose. However she may well lose because of her own actions. By alienating the media, by engaging in BREXIT talks with the same stupidity you'd only normally see from Trump. She has made it seem BREXIT equates to a vote for the Tories, but this is losing the plot entirely, BREXIT and voting Tory are two very different things. Perhaps she hopes by clouding the waters no one will see her slight of hand as she pulls out of the hat a red white and blue bunny rabbit.

Mark my words, if May doesn't do a TV show and doesn't debate on live TV she will come off the worse for wear, just as she is now looking rather craggy and old. She needs to take a seat, sit on the sidelines and keep her trap shut. But of course she can't, this will be her downfall.

The Tory Record of Strong and Stable Finance - Pull the other one

This morning Teresa May was interviewed on the Andrew Marr show (Sunday 30th April 20107), inevitably Andrew asked if his was going to be an election of sound bites and then the words 'strong and stable' were used. Of course May then goes on to state this is the most important election she has experienced in her lifetime. It would be because she's the who is running for PM it doesn't take an idiot to realise this. The underlying emphasis of Teresa's interview is the Tories are doing their best to build a strong economy and it is only through a strong economy the country is able to finance everything, be it the welfare system, education system or the NHS. But really we have to ask how effective has Tory governance been in achieving this? For it seems a strong economy means to the large disadvantage of many and the advantage of a few.

The Tories and May are constantly arguing it is only possible to have good Education, NHS, Welfare benefits etc etc if we have a productive and strong economy. Yet the UK has probably the worst economy since the second world war. With the total deficit now reaching £1.7 trillion pounds of debt. Under Tory leadership in the last 70 years than any other government. Counting 42 years of Tory rule and the total borrowing of the Tories £961.80 billion pounds. Since 2010 that is the last 7 years this Tory government has borrowed £555 billion pounds. It is working families who are now using food banks more than they have ever before, not just those who are living of the welfare system. May tells us 'she' has taken 4 million of people out of the tax, however this begs the question why is it 4 million people earn so little they don't pay any tax, for it shows we are increasing the number of low paid employees. Fact, nurses have had a reduction in their income by 14 percent since 2010 and are having to attend to food banks because they are unable to afford food to feed themselves as well as those people claiming benefit or in work benefits. The Trussell Trust has reported last year a massive 1.4 million food parcels were given out by food banks the most ever provided. Lets add a few more important items since the introduction of Universal Credits and austerity, the UK is now seeing a rise in infant mortality rates, child poverty is rising to such an extent there is nearly 1 in 4 children living in it. Additionally the rise of elderly deaths due to poverty is now higher than it has been seen the second world war.  The Work Capability Assessments have led to 600 suicides and highlights how this government deals with the disabled.

The table below can be seen with others from Richard Murphy see link below

http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/03/13/the-conservatives-have-been-the-biggest-borrowers-over-the-last-70-years/

As mentioned in yesterday's BLOG making a dividing line between rich and poor will kill the prospects of a Labour win in this election even if the statistics are true and clear that poorer people the disabled, the elderly and even the working people die and the middle classes are being neglected. They are not represented by the Tories.  Whilst the wealth of the business classes always look to the Tories in search of support reducing their taxes and increasing their profits. Their big bucks get a voice and it is heard whereas the voting voice only gets heard when there's an election.  There is no apparent social conscience because the Tory's respect wealth and it influences every legal decision made in the House of Commons. The consequence is the streets of Britain are now lined with more homelessness and poverty than they have ever been before. Policies implemented by the Tories are creating the worst an most unequal society ever, which will continue to get worse than it is now if the Tories continue to remain in power. Tax avoidance and non payment is the game, as we all witness the largest multi-corporate companies making their money and not paying tax because the find a way to offset it against some other expenditure.

BREXIT has been a massive spanner thrown into the political works of government. And unfortunately it has become a contributing factor in the decision which are being made by MPs. Yet it was not necessary to have an election to cement BREXIT, for the EU does not care what the majority levels are of any government. They are only concerned with screwing the UK over as hard as they can. Rightly Tim Farron leader of the Liberal Democrats has highlighted how crazy the notion of BREXIT was, we all know Cameron's decision to bring about the referendum was to shut up his own Tory MPs and to give him a get out of jail card, for he was tired of government. Perhaps it must of been taking a toll on him telling all the lies he has.  BREXIT like the current pending election was for one thing, for the benefit of the Tories.  It should also be noted Tim Farron didn't want to remain in the EU but he could see the impact of being taken out of the EU was far worse than breaking free. It is sad to see how easily the electorate has been split by an issue which is likely to be based more on immigration that actually anything else. For immigrants are seen as the easy scape goat of blame rather than the party in power.

The first past the post system of of politics does not work. It would only be through some kind of proportional representation true political awareness and issues could come forward. But it's not going to happen. So to vote is to vote tactically, vote for that candidate who is more likely to be a stronger opposition to the Tories just to ensure the Tories are out of office than to split the votes into smaller segments which will ultimately no be represented at all.