Safety first

The revelations in this BBC article about developments (or lack of them) in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy are absolutely scandalous. Most notably: "166 private residential buildings out of the 176 identified with aluminium composite material (ACM) cladding - the same type used on Grenfell Tower - are yet to start work on removing and replacing it." It's only been two years, for fuck's sake. Incredibly, the owners of some of the buildings have tried to push the cost of remedial work onto residents, who are already traumatised by the knowledge that their homes are unsafe.

Such has been the level of inaction that the government has now decided to step in and foot the bill - or at least provide £200 million towards it. The Tories should be held responsible for an awful lot of things, including introducing and then enforcing legislation that ensures such tragedies can never occur in the future, but I don't see why they - or, ultimately, the taxpayer - should have to bail out these despicable individuals and companies to whom lives matter far less than profit margins.