The fire in London shames our democracy!
It is so sad that up to 100 people have been engulfed in fire.
The community affected is poor multiracial and multicultural and so has no voice. The council’s response betrays the typical reaction of a bureaucracy being defensive and camouflaging responsibility until stories have been straightened out. The lack of emotion from politicians suggests that they have finally mastered “disassociation” the psychological condition which renders ordinary people unworthy of concern or empathy. This is precisely the issue we at Blue Revolution have noted over the last seven years or so.
Politicians unavoidably represent the interests of their party and themselves. The party all too often reflects the interests of a lobby and special interest groups. The parliamentary system provides a framework for this disassociative process. Binary politics makes everyone prone to denounce opposition and makes every politician defensive and quick to condemn others or be condemned. This type of politics works when the binary system reflects the interests of two equally powerful interests groups but those interests (landowners, capitalist, or industrialised workers) no longer exist and whilst the system tries to reflect the needs of ordinary people, ordinary people are now too diverse so it can’t.
Binary politics can’t deal with the complexity of the North Kensington community, it really does not and cannot connect with most of that community with its racial, cultural and class and age-related diverse dimensions. The tower block had been renovated but there was disquiet about the quality of the work by residents. Where were the champions standing up for the ordinary people? There were no champions, experts and politicians seem to have been unconcerned about the safety of the tower block and as for our old friend the judiciary is concerned, well who could afford to get them involved. It is the time the politicians stopped propping up their 18th century legal and political systems and an array of other expensive old institutions and started to listen to and empower ordinary people. Only then will people feel heard and safe and behave like active participants in the features of their lives that most affect them. This is the antidote to an obvious growing public anger.
