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Showing posts with label Grenfell Tower. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Grenfell Tower. Show all posts

Saturday, 16 September 2017

Threat levels, who declares them and the nature of the threat


By Dude Swheatie of Kwug, now resident in Hereford

Today, in trumpeting the biases of the mainstream UK press, the BBC (British Broadcasting Company) summarises today's Daily Mail 'Web giants with blood on their hands' front page:

Daily Mail, 16 September 2017: "PM to confront web giants with blood on their hands"
Prime Minister Theresa May will order internet bosses to crack down on extremism in the wake of the Parsons Green attack, says the Daily Mail. It reports Google, Facebook and Microsoft could be in the firing line after instructions to make the bomb were "still available online". The paper adds Mrs May will warn technology companies they need to do more to stop extremists at a summit with the French president next week.  (1)
For the 'threat terror level' declared by UK Government to be 'critical' is nothing new. Why though do the BBC etc not broadcast the lowering of the 'threat terror level' that occurs? And what impact does that have on the mainstream public psyche?

Over three months ago, the BBC website reported on "What is the 'critical' terror threat level and what [it means]":(2)
The UK terror threat level has been raised to "critical", following the Manchester Arena bombing which killed 22 people.

This is the highest terror threat level possible and means an attack is "expected imminently".(2)

The announcement of 'critical terror threat' level leads to knee jerk reactions

It was against that sort of backdrop that on Wednesday 14 June the news came out on televised and Internet news channels, of a blaze that consumed a North Kensington tower block in a matter of hours, before 'Grenfell Tower' became a 'household name' — ie, a label that required no introduction.(3) It was also against that backdrop that the 40 year old woman who accompanied me to my Housing Benefits registration interview in Hereford declared instantly that it was obviously the work of 'Islamic terrorists'.

I had heard however in the early hours of that day in 'live' reporting from the Grenfell Tower site that a Grenfell survivor had reported their neighbours issuing the warning, "My fridge has just exploded! Get out now!" or words to that effect. Indeed, I recalled having heard that a Southwark tower blaze a few years ago had been the result of a faulty Beko fridge component (4) and so I was more skeptical about my companion's 'knee jerk' response that was obviously linked to the post-Manchester bombing raising of terror threat level to 'critical'.

After an enquiry into the cause of Grenfell Fire too, it was confirmed that white goods were yet again to blame.(5) Of course, there is also the fact that the Grenfell Action Group had been campaigning on the matter of fire safety in the Grenfell Tower area since at least 2012.(6) This was despite a five-year London Fire Brigade campaign regarding the safety of white goods.(7) LFB reports:
"Nearly one fire a day in London involves white goods. Most fires caused by these appliances are not down to the owner but by faults beyond the control of the householder." (8)
The solution to this problem, the LFB concludes, involves total recall of dodgy white goods.

The solution to the problem of wide availability of information about how to make 'home made bombs', Theresa May and the Daily Mail declare, is to clamp down on 'web giants with blood on their hands' for helping to service Internet searches in responses to queries about how to do terrorism. In that 'solution', I am reminded of the collusion that such 'web giants' engaged in with the Chinese government in order to suppress freedom of information as they 'broke into the Chinese market' as a new territory.

I would argue that it is in their tax dodging practices and resultant denial of support to the UK economy for essential services to vulnerable people that the 'web giants have blood on their hands', and that in reality Theresa May and her crew have raised the threat level to economically vulnerable people from 'severe' under Labour to 'critical'. This fact can currently be gleaned from perusal of such sites as Disability News Service,(9) especially with regard to its coverage of UK Government reneging on its United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities duties.(10) There is also Kate Belgrave | Talking with people dealing with public sector cuts,(11) and Taxpayers Against Poverty.(12)

Prospective Kwug placard design: T May & Co, State Terrorists
May's government caused a "human catastrophe" by cutting disabled people's support, the Committee of the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities has stated,(13) while the Chairperson of the UNCRPD has gone even further in unpublished interview comments.(14)

In conclusion, by colluding with the suppression of information about the State Terrorism that occurs under Theresa May's government, under a State of Theresa May & Co-mandated Internet, 'web giants' really would have 'blood on their hands' through the suppression of such information, just as the BBC's subservience to denial of the statutory abuses to benefit claimants lays the taint of 'blood on their hands' to that establishment.

What legitimate authority does a Government with blood on its hands have to dictate what information should and should not be available on the Internet? Who are they to do the prescribing of truth?

Link references

  1. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs/the_papers
  2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/40027916/what-is-the-critical-terror-threat-level-and-what-does-it-mean 
  3. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-40274519
  4. http://www.health-safety.net/News/Warning-on-fridge-freezer-fire-risk-after-tower-block-blaze
  5. http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/news/LatestNewsReleases_Brigade-reissues-essential-safety-advice-on-white-goods-following-Grenfell-fire.asp#.Wb0TDcbjIkI
  6. https://grenfellactiongroup.wordpress.com/2013/01/28/fire-safety-scandal-at-lancaster-west/
  7. http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/820566/Grenfell-tower-fire-London-hotpoint-FF175BP-london-fire-brigade-campaign-five-years-safety 
  8. http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/total-recalls-white-goods-campaign.asp
  9. http://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/ 
  10. https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/?s=uncrpd 
  11. http://www.katebelgrave.com/  
  12. http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/
  13. https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/prime-minister-lies-on-benefits-spending-in-response-to-un-human-catastrophe-claims/
  14. https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/portraying-disabled-people-as-parasites-could-lead-to-violence-and-killings-says-un-chair/ 

Friday, 7 July 2017

Social Work Action Network response to Grenfell Tower and Unison petition against National Accreditation and Assessment System

Social Work Action Network (Swan) brings together social work academics, students, practitioners and service users to campaign for social work that advances society rather than the twin dysfunctionalities of 'managerialism' and privatisation.(1)

The following is presented here with permission as a Guest blog post, having been received by the Kwug Blog editor as a Swan London mailing list member.

Social Work Action Network response to Grenfell Tower and Unison petition against NAAS


Dear SWAN London supporters,

Grenfell Tower

SWAN has issued the following statement on the Grenfell Tower tragedy:
http://socialworkfuture.org/articles-resources/uk-articles/567-swan-statement-on-the-grenfell-disaster-social-work-must-critique-policy-not-simply-deliver-it

Here is another insightful blog on the same topic posted on the BASW site:
https://www.basw.co.uk/blog/blog_read.php?pid=33

National Assessment and Accreditation Systems (NAAS)

You may be familiar with Unison's recent national survey about the proposed National Assessment and Accreditation System (NAAS) for Childrens' Social Workers. SWAN support Unison's position that the government should scrap plans to roll out its new assessment and accreditation scheme for social workers because it will take up valuable time that could be spent helping families in need.

Unison has just launched an on-line national petition to call on the new Minister for Children to drop the NAAS.
Here is the link to the petition, which non- Unison members can also sign:
In solidarity
SWAN London

--
Social Work Action Network (SWAN) London

Visit the national SWAN website at http://socialworkfuture.org/
Sign up for the Critical and Radical Social Work journal at http://www.policypress.co.uk/journals_crsw.asp

Note

 http://socialworkfuture.org/who-we-are



Friday, 30 June 2017

Axe the Housing Act: March for safer homes, 1 July 2017

From: Axe The Housing Act
To: @
Sent: Friday, 30 June 2017, 0:16
Subject: Safe homes for all - march 1 July, film night 4 July, meeting 12 July



The terrible Grenfell fire and the failed response of local and national
Government, is now exposing the lethal mix of cuts, neglect and refusal
to listen to residents,  across Britain.  In hundreds of meetings,
people are attempting to hold landlords to account and force them to
act. Several councils have committed to fit sprinklers in all tower
blocks: these include Birmingham, Sheffield, Croydon, Southampton.

  Housing is now high on the public and political agenda, and will be a
key theme of the Peoples Assembly march this Saturday 1st July.  We will
assemble with other housing groups from 12 noon outside BBC Great
Portland St W1A 1AA, and give out our new leaflet -

We are co-sponsoring a London-wide meeting 12 July on Grenfell and fire
safety, with Matt Wrack of Fire Brigades union, Kevin Courtney of
Teachers union, tenant groups and campaigners - see leaflet:
.  Please invite local residents and others concerned to secure justice
for Grenfell and safety in our homes, schools and hospitals.

And on 4 July 6.30pm you are invited to a book launch and film night,
for a free showing of Ken Loach's classic 'Cathy Come Home', at the
Genesis Cinema  93-95 Mile End Rd, London E1 4UJ. Book a free ticket
  Combine a relaxed social event with some serious talk.  All welcome


Next open organising meeting 22 July 11am venue to be confirmed.  Notes
from last organising meeting here:


If you want leaflets for your local campaign, or speakers and help
organising local events, please email or call on 07432 098440.  Help
build the housing movement to win safe, secure homes for all.
Best wishes
Eileen Short
for
...........................
axethehousingact.org.uk

--
...........................
axethehousingact.org.uk

Friday, 23 June 2017

Jimmy Reid on tower blocks as 'filing cabinets'

In the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster, I'd say that we need to look again not just at the matter of the 'cladding' materials used, but moreover at the nature of people's living conditions,

Heed the words of the late Scottish trade unionist and Communist Jimmy Reid in his 1972 inauguration speech as Rector of Glasgow University:

"Everything that is proposed from the establishment seems almost calculated to minimise the role of the people, to miniaturise man [sic]. I can understand how attractive this prospect must be to those at the top. Those of us who refuse to be pawns in their power game can be picked up by their bureaucratic tweezers and dropped in a filing cabinet under 'M' for malcontent or maladjusted. When you think of some of the high flats around us, it can hardly be an accident that they are as near as one could get to an architectural representation of a filing cabinet.

"If modern technology requires greater and larger productive units, let's make our wealth-producing resources and potential subject to public control and to social accountability. Let's gear or society to social need, not personal greed. Given such creative re-orientation of society, there is no doubt in my mind that in a few years we could eradicate in our country the scourge of poverty, the underprivileged, slums, and insecurity...."(1)

Also from Glasgow is Matt McGinn's 'Jeely Piece Song' aka 'Height Starvation Song'.(2)


For more of how things could and should be, there is a Taxpayers Against Poverty series of blog posts about solutions to the UK's housing crisis.(3)

Blog post by Dude Swheatie of Kwug


Link references