Morning Call: Cameron’s bonfire
The Grenfell report is an indictment of the former PM’s government.
Good morning, George here. It was an appropriately sombre day at Westminster as the final report of the Grenfell Tower inquiry was published. As the Conservatives contemplate their future direction, it’s one of their former leaders who is under scrutiny. David Cameron has been accused of ignoring legal advice on arms sales to Israel and his government is excoriated in the Grenfell report. More thoughts on that below.
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There is no shortage of parties blamed in the final report of the Grenfell inquiry: “dishonest” companies, the “indifference” of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, and every government from 1991 to 2017. But no administration is subject to fiercer criticism than that of David Cameron.
The inquiry, chaired by the former court of appeal judge Martin Moore-Bick, states that by 2016 the Department for Communities and Local Government was “well aware” of the risks posed by flammable cladding but “failed to act on what it knew”. Instead, “the government’s deregulatory agenda, enthusiastically supported by some junior ministers and the Secretary of State, dominated the department’s thinking to such an extent that even matters affecting the safety of life were ignored, delayed or disregarded”.
What was this deregulatory agenda? Cameron prided himself on his crusade against red tape with the government introducing a “one-in, two-out” rule on new regulations in January 2013 and a “one-in, three-out” rule from March 2016. The former prime minister routinely hailed this mission. In a speech in January 2014, he boasted that his would be “the first government in modern history that at the end of its parliamentary term has less regulation in place than there was at the beginning”. In another address in 2012 he declared that he wanted to “kill off the health and safety culture for good”.
But this dogmatic mindset – endless talk of “bonfires of red tape” from allies – had consequences. The Grenfell report states that “the government determinedly resisted calls from across the fire sector to regulate fire risk assessors and to amend the Fire Safety Order to make it clear that it applied to the exterior walls of buildings containing more than one set of domestic premises”.
In his sober response to the report in the House of Commons, Keir Starmer cited the criticism of Cameron’s government and spoke of “a moment to reflect on the state of social justice in our country”.
Of the five Conservative prime ministers over the last 14 years, it is Cameron whose government has had the most significant afterlife. The former prime minister held office for longer than any of his counterparts and had the most developed policy agenda (aided by years of preparation in opposition).
One way to view Starmer’s premiership is as a challenge to Cameronism. Though the Prime Minister has moved Margaret Thatcher’s portrait from her former study, he is not abandoning the Thatcherite settlement. That would entail reversing the privatisations of the 1980s, raising the top rate of income tax and re-regulating the City of London.
But on numerous fronts, Starmer is confronting Cameron’s legacy. Public-sector pay, which was frozen by George Osborne, is rising in real terms once more. Public ownership – through GB Energy and the renationalisation of the railways – is being restored as a legitimate tool of economic policy. The onshore wind ban imposed in 2015 has been reversed (by Cameron’s former opponent Ed Miliband). The 2016 Trade Union Act, which imposed dramatic restrictions on the right to strike, will soon be repealed. Workers’ rights are expected to be transformed through the Employment Rights Bill (see my interview this week with the Trades Union Congress general secretary Paul Nowak). Regulation is no longer a dirty word.
In a 2013 speech, Cameron declared that it was his mission to build “a leaner, more efficient state... not just now, but permanently”. Though questions remain over whether Labour will truly break with austerity, Starmer is unashamedly expanding the state. The Grenfell report is a reminder that small government, as much as big government, has consequences.
George’s picks
Megan describes the “insidious negligence” revealed by the Grenfell report.
Rachel on how Robert Jenrick emerged as the champion of the Tory right.
Pippa reports on the race for Lambeth Palace.
Ben on why Kamala Harris’s campaign is stalling.
This week’s leader on why the rise of the German far right is a warning to Labour.
Whether making our 500ml bottles out of 100% recycled plastic (excl. cap and label), attaching our caps to prevent litter, or our support for a Deposit Return Scheme across the UK, Coca-Cola is taking steps to improve the circularity of our packaging. Find out more here.
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Ferdinand Mount: One-way traffic
John Kay: We are all capitalists now
Harvey Neptune: CLR James and America
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And with that…
My thanks to Barney Horner and George Monaghan.
Have a great day, Will Dunn will be with you tomorrow.
George — @georgeeaton
It is a problem with intellectual socialists, such as Ed Miliband and Douglas ? when they achieve power they assume they need to revise everything that went before. Thus, in 2010 when Cameron and Osborne were starting to dismantle everything that Blair and Brown had achieved, Miliband decided he needed a three year reassessment of Labour policy. That took until 2013 by which time we had austerity in all its viciousness, the dismantling of Sure Start and the belief by Cameron that Miliband would not win the 2015 election. I discussed the stupidity of this with Guardian columnist Polly Toynby who assured me that the Labour leadership was bound to bounce back and defeat the Tories. The Rowntree Trust estimated that 170,000 had died because of austerity. Needless to say the so called policy review was a damp squib and came to nothing, apart from allowing Jeremy Corbyn to retain the Labour leadership without any requirement to have any sponsors. Brilliant minds quite often cannot see the wood for the trees.
who lived there? I know these blocks, Grenfell an East African stronghold. Can you tell me how many legal occupants were there? Or even how many legal inhabitants. I lived in similar place in London, because they didn't keep proper lists, anyone who applied while they were filling it, got a place, a flat. People who had been on the list for years were not even contacted. I have little sympathy with this huge sob for Grenfell and apportioning blame, even to firefighters who are supreme.