UK Politics Mega-thread - Page 368

Thousands of people in five London tower blocks are being evacuated while authorities assess buildings clad in the same material that went up in flames during last week's deadly fire at Grenfell Tower.

Georgia Gould — leader of Camden Council — said in a statement on Friday that the evacuations will last three to four weeks while officials "undertake urgent fire safety works." She did not say how many people would be affected, but the BBC reported that more than 800 homes are subject to evacuation.

A Camden Council official at the scene told BuzzFeed News late Friday night that up to 4,000 people could ultimately be evacuated within the next 24 hours.

By Saturday morning, the Camden Council called the situation "unprecedented" but said it was "doing all we can to support residents and keep them safe."

"I know it's difficult, but Grenfell changes everything and I just don't believe we can take any risks with our residents' safety and I have to put them first," Gould added during a news conference.

The towers evacuated were Taplow, Burnham, Bray, Blashford, and Dorney.

“People are on the ground now talking to residents, working with them, to move them to the rest centre, it’s happening immediately," Gould said.

Gould explained that people will be moved into temporary housing, hotels, and the homes of family and friends. Camden Council announced early Saturday morning that the rest centre was nearing capacity and that it had secured beds at nearby hotels, including a Marriott.

However, a manager at an area Marriott told BuzzFeed News that the evacuees who had checked in came as normal, paying customers and he had not had any communication

The fire at Grenfell Tower, a 24-storey residential high-rise in north London, left 79 people dead or missing. Authorities said on Friday that the blaze began in a faulty fridge-freezer.

In the aftermath of the fire, the cladding and insulation on the building failed safety tests, with authorities discovering it was combustable. Police have said manslaughter and other charges are being considered in response to the deadly blaze.

Officials told BuzzFeed News that they could not force people to leave their homes, but they began "strongly advising" residents to evacuate Friday evening. However, by early Saturday morning a number of people were refusing to leave.

Amid the evacuations, two brothers, Mohammed Iskanda and Abdul Iskanda, told BuzzFeed News they weren't sure where they would go.

"They rushed us as well, and apparently if you don't want to leave, fire brigade are allowed to force you out," Abdul Iskanda, who uses a wheelchair, said.

Mohammed Iskanda said the way the evacuation was carried out was "was just not good enough."

"They told us we're gonna stay in the community centre, but we need certain accommodations because my brother here is a wheelchair user," he added. "But then some of them are saying we won't find out until tomorrow morning."

Edward Strange, a resident evacuated on Friday, told Sky News that forcing people from their homes was a "complete overreaction". He also expressed skepticism that the safety upgrades would be finished in a matter of weeks.

"It will take months," Strange said. "I've got a job on Monday, I've got to work tomorrow, what am I meant to do?"

Two other evacuees told Sky News they found out they had to leave from watching the news on TV. They were eventually told that "there's been deficiencies" in their building, one of the men added.

The other said that the evacuations were being conducted "all in a panic."

Labor MP Tulip Siddiq was supportive of the evacuation, telling Sky News that while it is disruptive she "would have done exactly the same thing if I was leader of Camden council."

Earlier this week, officials said that 14 other buildings had incorporated the combustible cladding. Hundreds of other buildings across the UK are also covered in some type of cladding, although the government refused to say on Friday how many of them have been through safety checks.

On June 25 2017 08:33 Jockmcplop wrote:
It was the EU negotiators looking for our Brexit plan.

They didn't find one.

On June 27 2017 21:50 Dapper_Cad wrote:


I heard they got a coffee stained scan of a shakily written note that read:

1. Piss about
b. Panic

On June 27 2017 22:02 Plansix wrote:

This has to be one of the most British posts I’ve seen in this thread in months.

On July 01 2017 04:11 GreenHorizons wrote:
I hear tales that none of the royals want to be king/queen when the time comes. I know they still want all the royal benefits, but if they didn't take the throne, is it possible the royal family could be dissolved, or do the people want to have a royal family more so than the royals want the responsibilities of being king/queen? So you're more likely end up splitting the baby, giving them the benefits without them taking much of the responsibility?

On July 01 2017 08:51 Ghostcom wrote:
I think there was an interview with Prince Harry recently where he essentially said what you wrote in your last paragraph - that is: None of them are particularly keen on taking on over but they all consider it their duty.

In the same interview he talked about the other drawbacks of being member of The Royal Family such as the publicity surrounding his mother's death and how he struggled to tackle it (the quiet nights at hospital can get pretty boring and I end up reading gossip which I really shouldn't).

Out of curiosity: Do the UK Royal Family also (like the Danish) receive apanage?

On July 01 2017 08:51 Ghostcom wrote:
In the same interview he talked about the other drawbacks of being member of The Royal Family such as the publicity surrounding his mother's death and how he struggled to tackle it (the quiet nights at hospital can get pretty boring and I end up reading gossip which I really shouldn't).

Theresa May’s director of strategy has become the latest member of her senior team to quit, leaving the premier without the authors of her Brexit vision at a critical time in negotiations with the European Union.

Chris Wilkins will leave his post inside May’s office in 10 Downing Street at the end of this week, he said by telephone on Wednesday. Since the election, May’s been hit by a string of resignations in policy, strategy and communications. As well as leaving the prime minister short of advisers that she knows and trusts at a vital moment, the departures suggest that staff see little future in the job.

“It’s not quite rats deserting a sinking ship, but it does indicate that people feel things can’t go on as they have been going,” said Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary, University of London. “There needs to be some kind of reinvigoration, but this does indicate that some people feel that can’t be done.”

The departure means that May has lost both her top strategists in the wake of last month’s general election. Nick Timothy, her co-chief of staff, quit the day after May’s Conservatives were stripped of their parliamentary majority in the poll. He and Wilkins wrote the Brexit speech in January in which she set out her plan to take the U.K. out of the single market and customs union.

Britain has less than two years to negotiate Brexit, with large questions about what it even wants a deal to look like still unanswered. Last week May held her first formal meeting with business leaders to discuss that question. This week the Home Office announced a study into the impact that migrant workers have on the economy.

As well as Wilkins and Timothy, May’s other chief of staff, Fiona Hill, quit in the immediate wake of the election. Katie Perrior, who resigned as May’s communications chief when the election was called, has made a string of public attacks on the way May’s office was run.

Wilkins, who informed May of his decision last week, before she went on vacation, said he intends to work in the private sector as a communications consultant.

“I always planned to leave but agreed to stay on after the election until the summer, and will be leaving at the end of the week,” Wilkins said. “I continue to support the prime minister and wish her and the team well for the future.”

He was said to have been dismayed by the disastrous result for May’s party in last month’s election, and in particular the way the Conservative Party’s campaign was run, according to two people familiar with his thinking.

Wilkins worked as the premier’s chief speech writer, a role in which he helped shape her vision of reforming the U.K. economy to prioritize the needs of ordinary working people who had been overlooked in the past. Alongside Timothy, Wilkins believed May should have fought the general election as a candidate who would radically change Britain.

Instead, Wilkins was said to have been frustrated that the election consultant Lynton Crosby ordered May to campaign on the promise of providing “strong and stable leadership,” a message that allowed her to be portrayed as the establishment candidate, the people said.

On July 28 2017 02:16 Jockmcplop wrote:
Our government is failing hard at Brexit right now. They look unprepared, incompetent, vague and just clueless about what they want or how to get it.
Surely something has to give or we will end up with the worst deal you can imagine.

On July 28 2017 02:41 KwarK wrote:

They might end up getting offered the worst deal but if they can't pass it in the Commons then that doesn't mean anything. Incompetence is, in this case, paired neatly with impotence.

On July 28 2017 02:48 Gorsameth wrote:

That is the worst deal tho right? Cause a deal not passing the Commons doesn't matter for brexit. 2 years from now England is out, deal or no deal (unless a unanimous vote to keep negotiating is passed).

On July 28 2017 03:06 KwarK wrote:

Sure, but the clock running out sucks for both sides. There's an element of MAD to this. Sure, the sides have competing interests, but they also depend upon cooperation to avoid both of their interests being fucked.