UK General Discussion: 2017 and onwards, Mayhem

[Antonio the Sixth]

Ugh, this is horrifying. Britain really can't catch a break lately.

[Leftbehind]

Dreading the final death toll, it looks like a f**king death trap, and it hit at the worst possible hours where not many would be alert enough to escape in time - and following the usual instructions of remaining in your flat would've sealed your fate. Just horrendous.

[parochial boy]

This is absolutely sick, people at the landlord should be going to prison do the rest of their lives. It's also emblematic of where the housing crisis in London stands today - political decisions have helped cause this. Something needs to change

[KingSweden]

I have to imagine Ulster nationalism died out as a cause for Scottish nationalists around the time Rangers finally started signing Catholic players

You are mixing two things. The sectarian culture that thrives among some Rangers fans isn't Scottish nationalist, but British unionist ("loyalist").

In Glasgow Celtic fans (and other Catholics) are significantly more likely to be SNP supporters than Rangers fans.

Christ how did I mix up the Orange Order and SNP

[Phony Moderate]

Thus far Corbyn, Khan and the Queen have all met with survivors. A certain someone else has yet to do so.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

May is done!

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Gee, only an 86 point swing in the difference of their net favorables in less than 2 months.

[Antonio the Sixth]

This is absolutely sick, people at the landlord should be going to prison do the rest of their lives. It's also emblematic of where the housing crisis in London stands today - political decisions have helped cause this. Something needs to change

Yeah, exactly.

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

Wow, May makes Hillary a master of self-awarness.

[Silent Hunter]

May did visit a church today... and there was an angry crowd outside. If she'd turned up outside the police cordon yesterday, there probably would have been a riot. Khan himself got heckled when he visited; Corbyn and Her Majesty have no connection with any of the events surrounding this.

[Silent Hunter]

The Grenfell fire is increasingly looking like housing and London's own Aberfan. Completely horrific. If some of the things that have been suggested - and by responsible people please note - are true then there's a decent chance of criminal prosecutions.

The source appears to be an exploding fridge; quite how that fire got through the wall and onto the external cladding remains to be determined.

[Silent Hunter]

Queen's Birthday Honours announced

Biggest one is the George Medal going posthumously to the PC killed by the Westminster terrorist.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Queen's Birthday Honours announced

Biggest one is the George Medal going posthumously to the PC killed by the Westminster terrorist.

I'm honestly shocked Olivia de Havilland wasn't a dame already (yes, I knew she was still alive).

[Blair]

This story really as Al says seems to be morphing into Aberfan levels of tragedy. The governments response has been very slow; no doubt because they've been monumentally distracted with A.) Trying to form a Government B.) Do a Queens Speech C.) Get ready for the Brexit Talks next week. All Theresa May had to do was visit on Wednesday or Thursday, meet with residents, announce the inquiry+some other things and take the abuse.

I really can't see May surviving; the only thing she's being kept for is a Queens Speech. It feels very much like Brown in '09 where everything just seemed to be going wrong all the time. 

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The source appears to be an exploding fridge; quite how that fire got through the wall and onto the external cladding remains to be determined.

The trigger to the Aberfan disaster was several days of heavy rain. Rain, of course, happens in Wales. Similarly, minor fires caused by electrical appliances will happen in residential areas. Normally, in a tower block at least, they are barely a problem (one of the more annoying aspects to the coverage of this has been ignorant people acting as if all tower blocks are death traps in case of fire; actually, no. The opposite is usually the case as the people who designed them - as misguided as they were in certain respects - were not monsters and did consider the issue of fires very carefully). At Aberfan the slag heap collapsed, hurtled down the mountain and killed 144 people; all within a few minutes. At Grenfell Tower the exterior of the building caught fire and it went up like a torch, killing (it now seems quite likely) a broadly comparable number of people, again all within a shockingly short space of time. Neither thing should ever have happened; both did because particular decisions were taken that should not have been (we don't know exactly what they were at Grenfell Tower yet, but we will). Just left hoping that in this instance the legal system is now properly equipped (and prepared) to relieved some form of justice.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

@TSEofPB
A cabinet minister told friends he was 'worried about [May's] state of mind'

...

[DC Al Fine]

Question for the Brits:

When and how did the practice of standing as a sacrificial lamb candidate before getting one's own safe seat develop in the UK? Also, are these candidacies mere paper candidacies, or does some future Tory/Labour cabinet minister actually trek out to Liverpool/Surrey to knock on doors and take abuse?

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

IT'S STILL HIS TURN!

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Remember all those times people hyped Adam Afriyie for leader during Cameron's time in office?

[Antonio the Sixth]

This is amazing. The next few years in British politics are going to be a treat to witness.

[Silent Hunter]

Question for the Brits:

When and how did the practice of standing as a sacrificial lamb candidate before getting one's own safe seat develop in the UK? Also, are these candidacies mere paper candidacies, or does some future Tory/Labour cabinet minister actually trek out to Liverpool/Surrey to knock on doors and take abuse?

Don't know when it started, but every PM since Thatcher ran and lost in a no-hoper before getting in for the constituency they held throughout their parliamentary career.

Some of these candidacies generally are most certainly paper candidates; especially in no-hoper seats. Thus it can be very amusing when someone who doesn't think they've got a chance actually wins a seat - the guy who unseated Nick Clegg last week had to buy a suit at a 24-hour Tescos...

However, if you do well enough in a no-hoper, you stand a good chance of getting selected for a marginal or a safe seat later. So, basically, future Cabinet ministers will have to do that sort of thing.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

The source appears to be an exploding fridge; quite how that fire got through the wall and onto the external cladding remains to be determined.

The trigger to the Aberfan disaster was several days of heavy rain. Rain, of course, happens in Wales. Similarly, minor fires caused by electrical appliances will happen in residential areas. Normally, in a tower block at least, they are barely a problem (one of the more annoying aspects to the coverage of this has been ignorant people acting as if all tower blocks are death traps in case of fire; actually, no. The opposite is usually the case as the people who designed them - as misguided as they were in certain respects - were not monsters and did consider the issue of fires very carefully). At Aberfan the slag heap collapsed, hurtled down the mountain and killed 144 people; all within a few minutes. At Grenfell Tower the exterior of the building caught fire and it went up like a torch, killing (it now seems quite likely) a broadly comparable number of people, again all within a shockingly short space of time. Neither thing should ever have happened; both did because particular decisions were taken that should not have been (we don't know exactly what they were at Grenfell Tower yet, but we will). Just left hoping that in this instance the legal system is now properly equipped (and prepared) to relieved some form of justice.

Yes, that's the crucial thing about disasters: even if it's very easy to trace back some key spark point and blame the fallguy, they normally have a large number of other causes. It's like the Herald of The Free Enterprise, the ship which capsized because the bosun fell asleep and forgot to attend shift so they had their bow door open. But there was a while bunch of other problems that compounded the disaster - the ballast tanks were overly filled to allow vehicles on prior and they didn't bother emptying them (because ferries have done the cross channel run with open or broken doors), the crew were rushed and poorly trained     with focus pushed mostly on saving time, the captain and his team had no indicators or cameras on the vehicle deck to indicate they had an open door etc.

(I have a morbid fascination with maritime disaster)

[Terry the Fat Shark]

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-40322960 several hurt in Finsbury park after somebody plows a car into crowds again

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

Looks like the attack targeted Muslims coming out of that mosque according to CNN.

Video of the arrest https://twitter.com/Known_As_H/status/876584605276676097

[Citizen (The) Doctor]

All of MI5 is going to be sacked at this rate.

[Silent Hunter]

The attack was specifically on the Muslim Welfare Centre on the other side of the railway bridge to the Finsbury Park Mosque; the latter is of course the former stomping ground of Abu Hamza.