Six days after telling bereaved and survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire that the building will be “taken down to the ground” Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities, Angela Rayner was back in North Kensington to explain the decision to the community. Here’s a summary of the event with some observations.

11^th February, Kensington Academy

In the school’s theatre, I count 19 lanyard-wearing government officials, some more suits on laptops, plus some behind a screen at the back of the room. The power balance is set; we sit separately from them and await their arrival. We are the audience and we will watch them perform on stage. We are their guests, victims, offered tea and told NHS counsellor support is available. We can say things, but we have no decision-making power. It all happens to us, still. Angela Rayner should be asking us questions, but she is on stage to answer our questions. Sort of.

Host

Former Bishop of Liverpool, the Right Reverend James Jones hosts. He was recently in town performing the same role for Kensington & Chelsea Council (RBKC) at public events following publication of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Report. He quotes the title of his own report into the Hillsborough atrocity:

“The patronising disposition of unaccountable power.”

Rayner speaks next, tells us the government has given people the opportunity to “feed into” the “process” of the “discussion” on the future of the tower. It is familiar-sounding waffle to the people of North Kensington.

Community

The community is invited to contribute…

Person one – the community should be “treated with dignity and respect” and hasn’t been.

Two – runs through a timeline of responsibility and how accountability has been avoided.

Three – points out that any supposed ‘division’ between bereaved and survivors is not real and has been manufactured by outsiders “who are obsessed with the tower.”

Four – says there should be memorials at Parliament and the Town Hall.

Rayner Again

Rayner expresses regret that news of her decision “got into the media” before she had been able to speak to the relevant local groups. She provides a sketchy outline of the meetings she has held. “There isn’t a consensus” says Rayner but there does seem to be a consensus, just not the one she wanted.

She says the event “isn’t a tick box.” But it is of course.

Community Again

Person five – asks “Why were we separated into bereaved, survivors and community?” and answers her own question: it was divide & rule from those in authority. She asks if there will be a decontamination zone; will there be an investigation into soil toxicity? What about the school when the neighbouring building is being demolished? How long will it take?

Six – speaks “on behalf of the Muslims” and says a mosque should be built near the site, as well as a building from which the community can govern itself. He points out that the only Grenfell-related criminal convictions have been from within the community.

Seven – asks what Rayner is doing about the national cladding scandal, says that Lancaster West estate has suffered constant disruption since 2017 and criticises the Deputy PM for not giving the community options over what should happen to Grenfell Tower.

Eight – Refuting Rayner’s claim that there is “no consensus” this person points out that the Memorial Commission’s reports have expressed the community’s wishes clearly and that 75% of us want the tower to remain.

He says there’s only one real reason to get rid of the building, a “metaphorical and literal cover-up.”

He tells Rayner that by demolishing Grenfell Tower the government is giving RBKC what they have craved for decades, as expressed in their 2010 Local Plan (now apparently removed from the RBKC website): to remove social housing blocks from lucrative real estate land in the north of the borough. He appeals to Rayner “as a human being” to not collude with RBKC’s long-term plans. But she is not there as a human, she’s there as an enforcer for a system designed to keep power away from communities like the one in the audience.

Rayner on RBKC

The Deputy PM responds, keen to show the audience which side she’s on: “There are powers I can take against the council.”

Person eight interrupts, “Then why don’t you put them in special measures then?” but the Bishop is on hand to cut him off and ensure Rayner doesn’t have to answer.

Rayner continues that she has been “very robust” with RBKC that things need to “improve.” She says that RBKC is nowhere near being “the best borough” and says she’s made that “really clear to them.”

It begs the question, why doesn’t she put them in special measures then?

Rayner clarifies that she made her decision to demolish Grenfell Tower based on “what people have said and the engineering report.”

Which people?

Alex Norris, Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Norris tells us there will be no work done on the demolition before the eighth anniversary. It will take two years. The government will appoint a contractor soon. There will be air quality screening and enhanced health checks.

The Deputy Prime Minister speaks, telling us the North Ken community should be “treated with dignity and respect.”

Community Again

Person nine says nothing much.

Ten – is a Community Representative on the Memorial Commission and pinpoints page 55 of the Commission’s interim report and page 93 of their final report as setting out a consensus across survivors, bereaved and community for keeping part of the tower.

“Do you realise that by bringing it to the ground you have removed our opportunity or option or choice to do that? We’ve got five design teams shortlisted to come up with an idea and we specifically created the design brief so they can know that local people and bereaved and survivors would like to have part of that building.”

She questions whether Rayner has utilised information from the Memorial Commission – “I am one of them and I haven’t met you…It’s an easy back-pedal for you Angela.” But Angela is not for back-pedalling.

Eleven – asks Rayner about her consultations that informed her decision: “Who did you actually speak to?”

She asks what percentage of those consulted who were from the local community, what percentage were bereaved and survivors and what percentage were young people.

She challenges Rayner’s “no consensus” line, saying it is clear that we do not want the tower taken down “especially before people have been put behind bars.”

“We’re so tired…of being told ‘don’t worry, we’ve spoken to the community, we’ve spoken to you.’ Everybody has the same opinion, so I just need to understand, who have you guys actually spoken to? I can name a few people in this crowd right now who are not from the community. So, are these people being let into this meeting that’s supposed to be ‘private’ the same people that leaked stuff to the press?”

She is referring to news of Rayner’s decision being provided to the media the week before. There’s a disruption at this point as an individual suspected of leaking information defends herself. The Bishop is on hand to restore decorum.

Regarding the question of who Rayner met, we understand she met 19 people over two meetings. At her 5th February meeting with bereaved and survivors, she apparently refused to answer the same question about who she had talked to.

Rayner’s Decision

The meeting has lasted just under an hour and it’s Rayner’s turn to speak again. She answers none of the questions and tells us “that decision has been made” – Grenfell Tower will be demolished.

“Why did we bother with six years of Memorial Commission work?” asks Person Ten, but the Bishop again nips in to ensure no follow up questions can penetrate Rayner’s Iron Dome of pre-prepared talking points.

“Community”

The Right Reverend unexpectedly grants a last round of comments to the audience.

Person Twelve – “you have to make it right and do it the right way” and a few gesticulations prompt Rayner’s security take a few steps forward.

Thirteen – points out that the same strategy as before the fire – imposing decisions on North Kensington – is being used again.

Fourteen – an Iranian survivor of the atrocity speaks via a translator. Her translator is the same individual who defended herself against the insinuation that she had leaked Rayner’s decision to the media. Person Fourteen thanks Angela Rayner for being “brave enough” to make her decision and says the Engineers Report supports the government’s plan.

Fifteen – a stalwart local Labour Party man who contradicts most of the other speakers by telling Rayner “you met us so many times” during his gushing and sycophantic intervention.

A word or two on the former Bishop of Liverpool

James Jones KBE (Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) started the event with a warning against “the patronising disposition of unaccountable power.”

He added, “I am here tonight because the Deputy Prime Minister has asked me if I would chair this meeting…I was hesitant about doing so…because I haven’t suffered the things you’ve suffered. Out of a sense of our shared humanity, I felt a duty to accept.”

He set expectations low, he didn’t really want to be there. He felt duty-bound, and presumably we were supposed to be grateful. Did the Bishop consider himself the only person in Britain qualified to host a public meeting? Does he think that nobody else has a sense of shared humanity that can compare to his? What is the magic dust he thinks he sprinkles on proceedings?

Presumably we are supposed to be deferential to him because he’s a man of the cloth knighted by an unaccountably powerful family mired in sordid scandals.

What was it about the Bishop that inspired Rayner to ask him to host this community meeting? I’d guess his performance hosting RBKC’s public meetings following publication of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry Report last year was deemed satisfactory by those wanting Grenfell to now disappear from public view. In those meetings, Jones did not press the council’s leaders to answer the questions put to them. He performed the same service for the Deputy Prime Minister.

In his patronising tone, he read an acrostic poem based on the word GRENFELL, then told us to stand for 72 seconds of silence. He positions himself as the honest broker between North Kensington and power. But like Angela Rayner he is a servant of the unaccountable power he warned us about.

by Tom Charles
@tomhcharles
@urbandandyLDN