After Grenfell: Tory haters are using the victims’ graves for a political slogan
Much nastiness has been written about the Tories since the horror at Grenfell. As I’ve said, the race to blame, to point the finger and scream “Murderers” at people who clearly aren’t is degrading. However tempting it is to demand instant justice, such behaviour should be resisted.
To behave so when brave men and women are searching for bodies in the blackened tower, and below that grim and dangerous task the missing and dead’s relatives and loved ones are hoping and praying for miracles is cruel. People are seriously ill in hospitals across London. Medics are fighting to save their lives. Many more people are shellshocked by what they survived.
But no sooner was the fire news than party politics waded in. Important questions are being funnelled into party lines. The Labour Party’s assumption that it has a monopoly on grief is despicable. But it’s been ever thus since Tony Blair told us Princess Diana was “Queen of all out hearts”. (But, as one commenter writes notes, Theresa May is a politician who can’t seem to do politics at any level. She’s working out her notice. Emoting in public might be the least of her worries.)
And I think we’ve reached rock bottom in this party political campaigning on a ruined building and destroyed lives. As Jeremy Vine notes: “Somehow using what is effectively a vertical graveyard for a political slogan seems wrong at this time.”
It is wrong. It’s horrible. To use the dead of Grenfell Tower to draw battle lines in another General Election is callous – it might even be more callous than those dastardly Tories.
Posted: 17th, June 2017 | In: Politicians, Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
