Everyone should listen to the wise words of Arnold Tarling being interviewed on BBC this morning. Arnold is a surveyor and fire safety expert, and how Paul would have loved to have discussed the matters being aired this morning.
Guardian Newspaper
On the face of it the topic was cladding on buildings, whether it burns readily and why, after numerous fires and warning from experts the Building Regulations were not amended to reflect the known issues when they were reviewed in 2000, 2006, 2010 and 2013.
Arnold is a decent chap and he argues that the various government ministers responsible over the years have been ill advised. Ministers don't have the technical knowledge and they have to rely on their advisors. Allegedly.
But why would anyone deliberately ignore warnings?
Could there be capitalist cronies who have shed loads of cladding to off-load? Probably. As nations around the world have banned the flammable materials it will be shifted elsewhere, to a country where the cronies can maybe get a government to accept the material, just so lang as they can retain deniability.
When we were in Australia Paul wrote many letters and made submissions to government inquiries into planning that were started after fatal bush fires. After a few years of reading the responses he concluded that houses were being planned purely for profit and without regard for the safety of the Australian people.
Experts in many fields, from academics to fire chiefs and CSIRO researchers would always engage with his arguments and agree that good planning could mitigate fire riskss, but politicians would never reply to his letters.
They retained deniability.
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