Political Decency

There is, of course, nothing so distasteful and untimely as attempting to politicise a tragedy. On the very day of the Grenfell Tower disaster, it would be gratuitously offensive to draw attention to Gavin Barwell, the noted self-help author for politicians fighting marginal seats who has now been appointed as the dead-eyed warden's Lord High Everything Else. A housing minister before he lost his marginal seat, Barwell delayed a fire safety review which had already been delayed several years; doubtless his caution was justified given that mere experts seem to have meddled in the review's preparation. Equally premature and boorish would be any mention of the seven years' worth of cuts to fire services by the Bullingdon Club and their little orange enablers, including the now martyred Tim Farron and the London Haystack as was, who today sent his thoughts and prayers to the victims of the fire. Thoughts and prayers are, after all, cheap. It would unquestionably be wrong to scavenge political capital by recalling that legislation forcing landlords to keep their properties fit for human habitation was brought before Parliament not long ago, to be voted down by the party of apolitical capital. Perhaps worst of all, in light of the disappointingly non-terroristic and un-Cobra-worthy nature of the disaster, would be to hint that certain strange, un-British, white-genocidal customs may occasionally save a life. These matters are not appropriate for a day such as today, and it is simply not decent to raise them.