In search of a conspiracy.

by Rick Johansen

The celebrity luvvie and former pop star Lily Allen does herself no favours in politicising the Grenfell House tragedy. Quite why she was on Channel 4 news, suggesting that the mainstream media (MSM) was somehow orchestrating a cover-up of the numbers who have lost their lives, is beyond me. Allen has received a great deal of praise for her comments but I hold them in contempt.

Speaking to Jon Snow, she referred to the fact that only 17 people have been declared dead so far, Allen said: “I feel like the government are trying to micromanage people’s grieving here. Seventeen? I’m sorry but I am hearing from people the figure is much closer to 150 – and that many of those people are children. They are off-the-record numbers I have been given from policemen and from firemen.” Let’s attempt to deconstruct that statement.

“I feel like the government are trying to micromanage people’s grieving here.” No, they’re not. Allen appears to be suggesting there is some kind of conspiracy, a cover up. Of course there isn’t. A couple of days ago, an horrendous fire swept through a tower block leaving nothing but a shell behind. We all know the death toll will rise dramatically in the coming days and months, but here’s the thing. Emergency services deal in facts. If they say that 17 people have died but the death toll is expected to rise, isn’t that sufficient? Would Allen prefer it if they took a guess?

Allen is “sorry, but I am hearing the figure is closer to 150”. She has been told this “off the record…from policemen and firemen”. “Off the record?” So far as I am aware, Allen is not a journalist. Apart from her status as a “celebrity”, why was she wandering around asking heroic emergency services workers, some of whom may have been women (Allen doesn’t seem to have noticed that), who were either performing vital humanitarian work or just resting? Allen seems to think that the emergency services should guess how many people have died because they don’t know. That’s just stupid.

It’s stupid because it is likely, probably certain, that the fire was so severe that some people’s remains will never be found. More than that, some of those who died will almost certainly not have been residents of Grenfell House.

I am not saying that what happened was none of Allen’s business because as human beings it is all our business. I am not saying, either, that she is not entitled to an opinion, no matter how crass that opinion is. Here we have a tragedy where a large number of people have died, where many more are fighting for their lives, where many hundreds of people have lost everything and are homeless, where the emergency services have shown heroism beyond the wild imaginings of ordinary people and Lily Allen shows up to play politics.

Of course, people have the right to be angry. The death toll is indeed likely to be in the region of numbers suggested by Allen’s emergency sources and we will discover soon what caused the fire and who was to blame (and someone will be to blame). We can, and must, have a public debate about a country where millions of people are unable to buy their own homes whilst vast numbers of luxury properties all over the land, especially in London, are left empty. More than that, we must ensure that all tower blocks are safe. But for God’s sake, firefighters and police officers are still risking their lives at Grenfell House, trying to find the remains of victims and the causes of the fire. Isn’t that the most important thing right now?

Lily Allen doesn’t make me smile.

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