In fairness, politicians don't earn that much in relative terms.

They do when you add in their consultancy jobs and dinner party speaking gigs etc etc.

You go on about 2010.

In Camden where over 3,000 residents had to be evacuated from several tower blocks, the flammable cladding was fixed in 2006 by a Labour council working under the Blair government.And of course McDonnell in the mid-80s worked as the head of policy for 'Camden Council'. Is he certain that he bears no culpability for any failings in social housing in London in recent decades ?

As for MPs, you know darned well that their base pay is just under the limit of the tax hike proposed by Labour.Co-incidence or what ?

Also of course, in 2005, regulatory reform (fire safety) order introduced under Blair’s Labour government shifted the responsibility for fire inspection from the fire brigade to the local council. It in effect ended the practice of routine fire inspections.

We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. [Orwell]

Yes the £80k is in reference to the top 5% of earners not an arbitrary figure.

Also nearly every MP has a second source of income in excess of £4k pa.

Given the current Labour front bench hate the Blair government more than the Tory front bench that's hardly an attack on them. Also given the example you are referring to is of cladding fitted in 2006 I doubt McDonnell had much say in the specification of the fitting. The current council leader in Camden has acted with a lot more grace and humility than that sorry excuse in Kensington.

No its political, because people burning to death in a building, which has cladding that fails fire safety tests is entirely political.

There was no shortage of fire fighters fighting the blaze, but there was no feasible method by which to rescue people trapped on the higher floors, or for fighting fires above the third floor.

I don't think it really matters whether its a Labour council or Conservative council, those people died unnecessarily, and despite being in existence for decades, there was no reasonable methodology for dealing with fires at that altitude or for the rescue of people.

For me, both Labour and the Conservatives, and every council since that tower was built bear some responsibility for these events.

But citizens dying is entirely political. Trying to hide away behind inquiries and investigations, suggests to me, that its going to be the 'Hillsborough' long haul to justice.

Once upon a time, people would have resigned over this kind of scandal, even if they weren't directly at fault, but represented the body accountable.

When people in the UK die, because of negligence, and in this case its increasingly looking like the cladding wasn't up to fire standards, then we should be angry and political about it.

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