Morning Mugs
Well, that's been a roller coaster few weeks.
But overshadowing even unnecessary elections we have the spectre of Grenfell. Very few events leave me searching hopelessly for words. 9/11 certainly did, just for the scale of what unfolded 'live' before our eyes. Before that it seemed terrorism was really confined to IRA bombs in the UK and sporadic embassy incidents abroad. Then came our own version with the events we now know as 7/7. As horrific as they were we didn't see them unfurl before our eyes, we just merely witnessed the dreadful pain and sadness of the aftermath. Since then we've seen mass murder take place in Nice and Paris. In Berlin, at a market myself and my better half had been visiting just a week earlier. We've seen Manchester impacted in the most vile way, Westminster Bridge and just weeks later Finsbury Park Mosque. All leading to the futile waste of innocent lives on the back of some misguided dogma, whether religious (a fairytale then) or pig ignorant right wing hatred (equally stupid as religion). In all those cases though the perpetrators would justify the fatalities and injuries as related to their moronic cause.
With Grenfell, there is no stupid religious or right wing dogma driving the impact. No what drove this was incompetence and the insatiable thirst for profit maximisation. It was the ultimate failure of allowing the market place to manage people's lives.
Whatever you think of state intervention as a political creed, it can't just start and finish with collection of taxes, the NHS, defence and roads. Many years ago people lived in council houses, maybe tower blocks, maybe smaller blocks of flats, terraced or semi-detached dwellings on council estates. Yes, snobbery existed and will always exist between those who rent and those who choose to buy. But ostensibly, those people on the council estates were proud, normal, working class families who knew that having a roof over your head was the most important thing for your family. Then Thatcher destroyed that ethos. Or tried to. because she was the first major politician to whore herself (yes I mean that word) to the supposed freedom of the market place. She famously once said 'there is no such thing as society' and then used the sale of council houses to ensure that mantra became the lead force behind selling those houses on. People were persuaded it was good. it was the future. It was 'better' than renting.
And now we have no new council houses being built. Councils can't borrow to build and then rent. House prices are rising as they have ever done. First time buyers can never get the deposit to buy, let alone the mortgage. People are forced to rent in an uncontrolled market, self governed by landlords who have constantly lobbied for reductions in red tape (i.e Health and Safety) to ensure they can maximise profit. Thatchers work. Social housing is now run by management organisations as with Grenfell, again forced to run things on a lowest cost first basis rather than a best value ethos which may not necessarily be the cheapest option. People have to pay rents in excess of what their mortgage payments would be but are refused mortgages on UNAFFORDABILITY grounds despite years of proven payments of more expensive rent payments. Where's the sense in any of this?
A combination of these factors, especially the 'lowest cost' ethos when refurbishing the Grenfell block will be used to explain how and why this tragedy occurred. Lets hope this weak and hopeless government finally act to change this entire public housing ethos. Allow councils to borrow and build. Allow them to prioritise council housing for those who live and were brought up in the area. Allow people to build their communities within these new estates and encourage pride by making them places to be proud to live in. Remove the pathetic stigma which creates the divide between buyers and renters. Look to Germany for how to do this. But lets push for change. It's time the people really did speak and the market freedoms were put on a leash when it comes to housing, transport, education and the NHS.
Later Mugs, GJ
