#justice for grenfell

[scavengedluxury]

7 years since 72 people burned alive in Grenfell for developers’ greed. No justice. Thousands still living in death trap homes.

[ceevee5]

[inmyendzz]

In My Endz: North Kensington, Shot by Ayah Mamode

Today marks 6 years since the Grenfell tragedy, where a fire broke out in the 24-storey block. The fire was exacerbated by unsafe cladding approved by the KCTMO (Kensington & Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation) and K&C (Kensington & Chelsea) Council.

The unsafe cladding that worsened the fire still remains on a number of Council Blocks across the UK - 6 years on and social housing tenants’ concerns surrounding fire safety are brushed under the carpet.

Today I’m posting this in memory of the 72 people who passed away, as well as the hundreds of tenants who have been displaced from their homes as a result. Also to keep in mind all the Firefighters and Locals who helped the residents.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-65894129.amp

[ship-of-foolzz]

Also, one small highlight.

In the words of my housemate:

I know it seems all doom and gloom in politics at the moment, especially in the states, but I wanted to remind everyone that last night marks a positive.

For the first time in 14 years we no longer have a tory government.

The number of green seats has quadrupled since the last election.

The current labour party is not perfect, but any stretch, but this marks a landslide in politics, and it's a demonstration to our leaders that they need to listen to us.

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Today is the 7th anniversary of the Grenfell Tower Fire, in which 72 people lost their lives. Cheap cladding used by corner cutting developers likely contributed to the severity of the fire and lives lost, but there have never been proper answers.

No justice! No peace!

[sortyourlifeoutmate]

Indeed, and I like that the broad conclusions of the inquiry - ie it is the fault of years of greed, laziness, neglect and deliberate choices to remove checks - are reflected in the histrionic "They need justice!" headlines of today's papers.

(Except the Telegraph. They stuck it halfway down the page.)

I particularly like it in light of, say, the express and the mail because it's amusingly pathetic. The kind of regulations and oversight that might have (possibly, maybe) prevented Grenfell from ever happening are exactly the kind of things they'd normally rail against, but since people died they have to act appalled.

"Oh! However might we have prevented this tragedy?" You know how, and you would have whined about it, because you whine about it now.

But anyway, their calls for 'justice' (I never much like that word) are hardly a surprise given that a chunk of the press (and, I'm sure, the nation) only see justice in terms of someone being punished for what happened. That's all that's required.

There is no appetite for looking into the why of what happened or any interest in making moves against stopping anything like it happening again. Nothing can change, no, but there will be punishment.

I suppose this might be because ultimately what's responsible is the creaking, greedy system we're all stuck in - a system some people are doing very nicely out of, thank you, and so are terrified of seeing anything happen to it.

Red tape! Red tape! Grr! Anti-business! If I want to lie about how flammable my cladding is that's my right! Keep your nose out!

Sigh.

Mostly though - and the bit that gets to me, having listened to some of the inquiry while it was going on - it's the little things, not the outright dishonesty. That's obviously bad.

Someone being lazy? Oh, why bother fixing that? Oh, why bother making a plan for that, that'll never happen. Oh, no need for that. Oh, I'll do that tomorrow.

That's everyone. Everyone does that. And most of the time it doesn't matter, so everyone keeps doing it. And then one day it does matter.

I don't know, man. Nothing will change.

[oldbaton]

Yo I saw a play about Grenfell last night and the entire text was woven in from actual testimony word for word and they way they were able to craft a narrative about it? And these actors were top notch it was a transfer from the national in London.

And the second act is when they’re actually experiencing the fire and I was just. Floored. And the ending had this coup de theatre that was just. Oh my god it’s the best one since the revival of three tall women. Just tears in that house.

And the way it took this and turned it into this conversation about “what do we tell the stories of people who survive something?” Bc no footage of the fire was shown on any of the clever screen work segments. And the way it explored it and e concept of justice was just. Ugh.

Best thing I’ve seen in 2024 thus far

[jaybird1306]

Disability campaigners lose legal fight over Grenfell recommendation

Campaign group Claddag, founded by Georgie Hulme (right) and Sarah Rennie (centre-left), took the government to the High Court

By Hayley Clarke & Nathan Standley

Journalist

Campaigners have lost their High Court battle with the government over its decision not to implement evacuation plans for disabled high-rise residents.

Campaign group Claddag wanted it to be a legal requirement for escape plans to be in place for those who might not be able to get out safely in an emergency.

But a Home Office consultation found the Grenfell Tower Inquiry's recommendations would be too costly and impractical to implement.

It is pursuing an alternative idea.

In October 2019, the chairman of the Grenfell Inquiry recommended that there should be a legal requirement for owners and managers of high-rise residential buildings to prepare "Peeps" (personal emergency evacuation plans) for residents with mobility issues or visual, hearing or cognitive impairments.

In the Grenfell fire, which killed 72 people in June 2017, 41% of the tower block's disabled residents died.

Future of Grenfell Tower still unsure six years on

'I want to escape a burning building not sit and wait'

Disabled Grenfell residents 'had no escape route'

In response to the inquiry's recommendations, the Home Office launched a consultation on whether to implement the Peeps proposals.

In May 2022, the government indicated that it would not be introducing a legal requirement for Peeps amid concerns about practicality and cost.

Claddag, which was founded by two disabled tower-block residents, Sarah Rennie and Georgie Hulme, took that decision to a judicial review at the High Court in December.

During the hearing, the Home Office's legal representative argued that the government was actually still consulting on the proposals and a final decision had not yet been made.

Announcing her judgment on Friday, Mrs Justice Stacey ruled that the government had in fact decided against implementing the Peeps recommendation, but said it was entitled to do so after weighing up the fire-safety implications against the costs of delivering it.

In a joint-statement, Claddag's founders said the government had decided to "prioritise money over disabled people's lives" and "leave disabled and older people living in high-rise buildings without means of escape".

A Home Office spokesperson said: "We are pleased with the court's decision as it allows us to get on with delivering proposals that enhance the safety of residents whose ability to self-evacuate in an emergency may be compromised.

"We are currently analysing responses to our public consultation on Emergency Evacuation Information Sharing Plus, which is an alternative to Personal Emergency Evacuation Plans, to understand how best to achieve this."

[eaglesnick]

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.

Only In England!

The recent case of Andrew Malkinson, who was wrongly imprisoned for 17 years for a crime he did not commit, has highlighted failures within   the criminal justice compensation scheme.

First, the Justice Secretary decides if the individual is entitled to compensation. It is not an automatic right.

“The statutory scheme gives the Justice Secretary discretion to pay compensation to a wrongly convicted person “when his conviction has been reversed or he has been pardoned on the ground that a new or newly discovered fact shows beyond reasonable doubt that there has been a miscarriage of justice”.(commonslibrary: Miscarriage of Justice: compensation schemes)

If the Justice Secretary does decide an applicant is eligible for compensation, an independent assessor decides how much is awarded - up to a maximum of £1million if the applicant has been wrongly imprisoned for more than 10 years

But here is the rub. The assessor:

“…can make deductions for any conduct of the applicant that contributed to the conviction, for his criminal record and for “saved living expenses” .(commonslibrary: Miscarriage of Justice: compensation schemes)

It is the phrase “saved living expenses” that beggars belief, for what it means is that the victim of wrongful imprisonment and a miscarriage of justice is CHARGED for their stay in prison out of their compensation payment!

The " Miscarriage of justice: compensation schemes”            document (06/03/15) clearly states:

“… these deductions may be so great that only a nominal amount of compensation will be payable.”

In other words the State, having wrongly imprisoned someone and having deprived them of their freedom and reputation, then add insult to injury by charging them board and lodging  for their wrongful incarceration.

I only learned about this today, after listening to an interview with Andrew Malkinson, but it has been going on for decades.

“A man freed after spending 11 years in jail for a murder he did not commit has been charged £37,000 for his bed and board while behind bars."  (Independent: 24/05/02)

Wrongly convicted prisoners, the Windrush generation, the Post Office scandal victims, the Grenfell Tower survivors, and Hillsborough disaster victims have all experienced the reluctance of the State to admit liability and pay compensation even after the courts have ruled they are legally entitlesdto compensation.

No wonder Mr Malkinson has decided he no longer wants to live in this country!

[blogger360ncislarules]

Peter Kosminsky, the BAFTA-winning television director and writer, has claimed that the funding emergency for British dramas is the “greatest crisis we’ve ever faced in my working lifetime.”

In an exclusive interview with Deadline, the Wolf Hall director claimed that the industry is in danger of self-censoring provocative, public-interest series because of the risk that they won’t secure the necessary finance to enter production.

The funding crisis is dominating discussions in the UK scripted community, as executives lament a perfect storm of issues, including U.S. streamers pulling back from co-production, shrinking international sales advances, persistent inflation, ad revenue declines, and BBC funding cuts.

Pact, the UK producer trade body, estimates that there are around 15 British series that have been greenlit but are unable to enter production because of funding shortfalls. The BBC has admitted multiple shows are in “limbo,” with Deadline revealing that one series experiencing issues is A24’s adaptation of Booker Prize-winner Shuggie Bain. 

Kosminsky is concerned that the problem is going to get worse before it gets better. “It’s not because projects will pile up in limbo without enough money to complete their funding, but because more won’t even get to that point,” he said. “Producers, directors, and writers won’t bother trying to submit them because they know there’s no chance of making them.”

He described this as becoming “silent, insidious self-censorship” that could lead to the “invisible” decay of shows including Mr Bates vs The Post Office, the ITV drama that caused political outcry and expedited a fight for justice, and Three Girls, the BBC grooming gang series.

Kosminsky compared the crisis to the closure of steel factories in the UK, resulting in a skilled workforce retraining, retiring, or losing work. “There’s a real danger that we lose the habit of making these kinds of dramas,” he said. “We’ve got one of the proudest traditions of television in the world and if our industry has got to the point where we can’t make that kind of drama anymore, because streamers don’t think it will travel internationally … we’re in a desperate situation.”

Kosminsky pointed to a personal example of a series he has funding concerns over. Almost two years ago, the BBC greenlit a three-part drama about the Grenfell Tower fire, a national tragedy in which 72 people perished in a devastating blaze at a London housing block. 

Work is ramping up on Grenfell following the public inquiry and the BBC remains committed to the project, but Kosminsky is uncertain he would have embarked on the series in the current climate. “It will be a complicated drama involving special effects and visual effects and probably quite a large cast. And it’s not unreasonable to ask: how’s this going to get made? Currently, we’re voyaging hopefully.”

The director, whose body of work includes BAFTA-winning limited series Warriors, was speaking after his headline-grabbing evidence to lawmakers last week, in which he revealed that Mark Rylance took a significant pay cut to get Season 2 of Wolf Hall made for the BBC. Kosminsky said he worked on the Tudor drama “completely unpaid” for periods and felt a duty to get the show produced to honor the memory of author Hilary Mantel, who died in 2022.

Kosminky’s solution to the funding crunch is to require streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video to hand over 5% of their UK subscription revenue to a cultural fund for British content. He pointed to 17 other territories, including France and Germany, where similar schemes are in place.

Kosminky has met with the government to discuss the idea, which he first raised in 2018, but ministers appeared to have ruled it out as a solution. Sir Chris Bryant, the creative industries minister, said on Tuesday that “we haven’t got any plans” to follow other European countries in introducing a so-called streamer levy.

There are concerns that a levy could disrupt the UK’s screen ecology — including the high levels of investment from the likes of Netflix and Apple TV+ in series including The Gentlemen and Slow Horses — though Kosminky is not persuaded by this argument. Either way, the BFI is carrying out a review of streamer levies, which is expected to report over the summer.

Kosminky is clear that expanding tax credits is not the answer. He argued that tax breaks for lower-budget series would not be enough to plug funding gaps and could drive up rate inflation as streamers take advantage of incentives in the UK to make stories for a global audience.

Netflix has shown, however, that the two are not always mutually exclusive. Although they are not about urgent and uniquely UK issues, series with a distinctly British flavor, like Baby Reindeer and Fool Me Once, have scored massive audiences around the world.

Kosminky said: “I don’t think that streamers have set out to crush trouble-making drama. This destruction of a time-honored strand of our British programming is an unintended consequence of their of financial model.”

[freenewsreport]

Ben Myers KC: Exemplary Advocacy Skills in Action

Early Life and Education

Ben Myers KC, an accomplished English barrister, has made a significant impact in the legal field, particularly in business and financial crime cases. From a young age, Myers demonstrated a keen interest in law, leading him to pursue a stellar education that laid the foundation for his impressive career. His academic journey included rigorous training, honing the skills that would later distinguish him as a leading Silk in his field.

Career Beginnings

After completing his education, Ben Myers KC began his career with a clear focus and determination to excel in criminal law. Early in his career, he worked on diverse cases, gaining valuable courtroom experience and building his reputation for meticulous preparation and persuasive advocacy. His dedication quickly earned him recognition, and he joined Exchange Chambers, where his career flourished.

Specialization in Criminal Law

Ben Myers KC is widely regarded for his expertise in business and financial crime, a specialization that has made him a sought-after barrister. In addition to his work in financial crime, he handles general criminal cases, regulatory law, and professional discipline matters. His versatility and deep understanding of complex legal frameworks have made him a trusted figure in the legal community. Notably, Myers has been involved in cases prosecuted by key agencies such as the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

Achievements and Recognition

The legal profession has consistently recognized Ben Myers KC for his exemplary advocacy skills. Both Chambers UK and The Legal 500 have awarded him high rankings for his expertise and contributions to the field. These accolades reflect his dedication to excellence and his ability to deliver outstanding results in high-stakes cases.

Leadership in Complex Cases

Myers is celebrated for his ability to navigate intricate legal challenges. He has played a pivotal role in high-profile cases such as Operation Larkshot, a significant investigation into money laundering activities. His strategic approach and attention to detail were instrumental in achieving favorable outcomes. Additionally, he provided invaluable legal counsel regarding the Grenfell Tower tragedy, further demonstrating his capability to handle sensitive and impactful cases.

Conclusion

Ben Myers KC continues to set a benchmark in the legal profession with his exceptional advocacy skills and unwavering commitment to justice. His expertise in business and financial crime, coupled with his ability to manage complex cases, has solidified his reputation as a leading barrister in the UK. Whether it is his involvement in high-profile investigations or his work in regulatory law, Ben Myers KC exemplifies what it means to be a distinguished legal professional.

[ceevee5]

No lies detected.

[itsrattysworld]

Without Prejudice Colonization In Reverse The Decriminalization Of Mervelee Myers London Early Years Foundation June O'Sullivan Drag Queen Storytellers Richard Harty MIC Barrister Samantha Jones Given Reference By Judge Freer Grenfell Tower Inquiry Panel Housing For Women CEO Zaiba Qureshi Change I Was Minute Taker Customer Scrutiny Panel Disbanded Housing Ombudsman Resident Panel HMCTS DJs Swan Greenidge Sterlini Richard Hayes Pigram Bell Naidoo K05EC530 Unlawful Injunction Ms H Presley Needs Justice Lewisham Council End Gender Based Violence 7/1/24

Refer to Without Prejudice Mervelee Myers Facebook 18 Pages Account Disabled 2024 Google My Business Suspensions LinkedIn 1st 0f 3 69 Publications Influencer Twitter Legal Team Contact BWB Re LEYF ET Judgement TikTok 55K Views 300+ Comments Instagram Target Website From Scratch Stolen Guy Lawfull Mark Upton Housing For Women Devonshires Solicitors LLP K05EC530 YouTube Channels 6:15K 1:08K…

[southlondonpress]

FOE, CONS, JUSTICE 4 GRENFELL

[collymore]

The insolence and prejudices which vilely envelop the murderous, Grenfell Inferno!

By Stanley Collymore

How dare it be suggested that MPs actually care about common people! Since they only need them when it's election time, for in between such elections these distinctly and quite irrefutably common people simply don't matter. So candidly let's really be both literally and perfectly honest about this that governments and big businesses effectively don't basically crucially care about truly ordinary people so your MPs aptly taking their cue from them simply thoroughly likewise do effectively behave accordingly! And anyway, what's being undertaken literally evidently, relative to the Grenfell Tower Inferno situation, is really actually simply virtue signalling!

And that's undoubtedly so, because any crucial fight for justice, and the true workings, of an authentic criminal inquiry will be actually purposely drawn out over several and most likely, over ten years; actually by which time the same companies undeniably literally responsible for this obviously devastatingly Grenfell Tower Inferno, simply will have changed their names and ownership, and the actual culprits, distinctively involved in this quite unwarranted and clearly catastrophic deaths, of these luckless 72 persons, will crucially have retired, died or predictably conveniently and rather callously and similarly unflustered opportunistically taken up residence obviously in significantly safe locations outside the United Kingdom! (C) Stanley V.  Collymore 7 September 2024.

Author's Remarks: Self-evidently some lives and ethnicities are obviously and unquestionably regarded as undoubtedly far superior to others; and it doesn't require a Mensa IQ to ascertain who those favoured individuals are! Significantly too, justice needs to be administered quickly in order to have any genuine effect!

And haven't you got it yet? Not only in the case of the Grenfell Tower tragedy but also generally; the UK's parliament is a joke, and in essence nothing more than an institution stuffed with largely self-serving sycophants; and as the evident bunch of leeches that they unquestionably are, clearly with their snouts stuck in the requisite financial troughs. So the Grenfell Tower catastrophe and clearly who the victims are wouldn't matter much, if at all, to the majority of them. As discernibly quite clearly, these casualties don't look like them!

[businesspr]

The Grenfell Fire and the Unbearable Slowness of Public Inquiries

Holding an inquiry has become one of the British government’s go-to responses to outrageous harm. But that approach can sometimes stall change and delay justice. source https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/12/world/europe/grenfell-fire-public-inquiry-failings-scandal.html