Accidents happen, used to be the saying. Not any more, they don't. One of today's society's depressing features is the fact that when something goes wrong nowadays, it has to be someone's fault. And usually, not the person whose fault you would naturally assume. So, for example, we have turned in to a place where hard working and caring social workers are routinely blamed for child protection failures, forgetting that the actual reason the tragedy occurred was an evil individual perpetrating a horrific crime. Money laundering crimes? I know what we should do: let's put all the onus on professionals like lawyers and accountants, and blame them when dirty money finds its way in to the economy. It couldn't possibly be the fault of the person who accumulated their ill gotten gains from criminal activity, could it? That would all be too easy. You've been scammed out of money by cyber criminals, for making a mistake transferring funds while using an unfamiliar online banking device that the bank more or less forced you to use by making it more and more difficult to bank in any other way. That will be your fault too, sorry. Doesn't matter if you're 80 years old, find it difficult to use technology, and didn't understand all those warnings that appeared when you started the transaction. It won't be covered by your home insurance policy either, because the insurers haven't been forced by legislation to include this as a standard part of your cover. The police probably won't be able to help because it's a financial crime and they don't have sufficient resource to investigate financial crimes.
A few years ago I remember watching President Obama as he addressed the nation after a failed attempt to commit a horrific act of terror on the American people. This attempt had been stopped shortly before a potential bomber stepped on to the plane and I expected Obama to stand up, remind the US people of the need to remain vigilant at a time of extremely high terror alert, and thank his security services for their work in preventing another disaster. Much to my surprise he went down a different route. It was unacceptable that the incident hadn't been stopped earlier, he shouted, banged the table and announced there would be a high level enquiry in to the unacceptable performance of his security services. Really? Had those security people not just saved many lives by their hard work and dedication to the cause? It was a massive error of judgement on his part, in my opinion, and I wonder if he looks back and thinks the same way.
That of course brings me on to Grenfell. This was a terrible tragedy, with many people losing their lives after a fridge went on fire in one of the flats, the fire then spreading quickly through the high rise tower block partly due to the inadequacy of the material used for the outer cladding of the building. Fire fighters from all over London and beyond attended that night, trying to fight one of the most difficult and complex fires they had seen. 72 people died. The inquiry into the fire suggested that the advice given to residents in the tower block to stay in their flats was wrong, and before we knew it news programmes and newspapers were full of stories effectively blaming the London fire brigade for the deaths.
I fully appreciate the need to learn from major disasters, and the role of the public inquiry in facilitating this. The excellent recent safety record in the North Sea oil sector is attributed at least in part to lessons learned from the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988. However we live in such a blame culture now that the original, and very important, purpose of those inquiries appears to have been forgotten in a horrible desire to point the finger of blame at our public services, or indeed at anyone else who can be made out as a scapegoat. We are now in a situation where the fire service - yes, I'll say it again, the fire service - are actually being blamed as the cause of the Grenfell fire deaths. It is completely ridiculous. I even heard one high profile campaigner given airtime on national news to suggest that there were racist undertones to decisions made by fire fighters that evening, although this was later retracted. Our media needs to do better than act as the medium for this messaging, but sadly I fear that ship sailed long ago.
I fully appreciate the need to learn from major disasters, and the role of the public inquiry in facilitating this. The excellent recent safety record in the North Sea oil sector is attributed at least in part to lessons learned from the Piper Alpha disaster in 1988. However we live in such a blame culture now that the original, and very important, purpose of those inquiries appears to have been forgotten in a horrible desire to point the finger of blame at our public services, or indeed at anyone else who can be made out as a scapegoat. We are now in a situation where the fire service - yes, I'll say it again, the fire service - are actually being blamed as the cause of the Grenfell fire deaths. It is completely ridiculous. I even heard one high profile campaigner given airtime on national news to suggest that there were racist undertones to decisions made by fire fighters that evening, although this was later retracted. Our media needs to do better than act as the medium for this messaging, but sadly I fear that ship sailed long ago.
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