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He won a thumping majority in a historically Labour-voting constituency and against a very good (if low profile) sitting MP, so I wouldn't write him off just yet.
With hindsight he was probably right, but it was a damned silly thing to say.
If it's about the Grenfell comments, it was a major slip up for a politician, to make such a comment on sensitive topic.
As a private citizen I would have to agree with him, just this once. Especially post-Grenfell after the LFB has demonstrated how poor their decision making is. I will trust my own judgement over theirs.
“The stay put is a building safety strategy policy, it’s not a London Fire Brigade policy or fire service policy."
“It is the policy that’s based on buildings behaving in the correct manner that allow firefighters to enter that building and put the fire out.
Maybe he should be criticsing the local council instead? They probably saved around 5 thousand on using the cheaper cladding even though they are sitting on reserves of around 274 million and managed to give 5 million to the Opera Holland Park
“Brexit is having a wee in the middle of the room at a house party because nobody is talking to you, and then complaining about the smell.”
AIUI each flat is supposed to be a fire-containing structure, so staying inside it is safest unless the fire is in your flat. However if you wrap the building in a chimney into which the fire will escape from its original flat then spread and accelerate, then getting the hell out is probably the best option.
There are many contributory factors at play here, it's probably wrong to blame any one failing, including any made by the residents.
Maybe he should be criticsing the local council instead? They probably saved around 5 thousand on using the cheaper cladding even though they are sitting on reserves of around 274 million and managed to give 5 million to the Opera Holland Park
Who's to blame for the cladding and building regs lack of sprinklers etc. is separate to why so many people were instructed to stay put and die, contrary to any common sense.
LFB is fully to blame for not applying commons sense and overruling the "stay put" policy the minute it was evident that the fire containment on which the "stay put" policy is critically reliant has failed. And that was like 15-30min into the fire. At that point saving lives by evacuating people, should have taken precedent over firefighters climbing upstairs to fight a fire that is clearly out of control.
I haven't read the newly release official report, but if I remember correctly shortly after the event there was evidence that even after the decision to evacuate was taken by the relevant person in charge it took quite some time for the new information to be propagated to the call centre, leading to a situation that people were being advised to stay put even after the evacuation decision had been made. Which is yet another major failure of the LFB procedures.
The amount of wasted resources and disorganisation in LFB is laughable, couple of months ago during strong winds a decorative glass panel on the 8th floor in the nearby building had become lose and was swinging dangerously. No less than 5 fire trucks arrived disgorging dozens of fire fighters. A couple of them just strung some yellow tape and were warning passersby, a couple went upstairs to secure the glass and the majority just stood there chatting among themselves for several hours. It was painful to watch.
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