Smoke in the stairwell. Shouldn't have been there early on, because of fire doors, though they are usually only rated for 30 minutes.

Or that the fire department were still following the pre cladding plan for the tower because a new post cladding assessment had not been carried out and passed to them.
As I mentioned there is no set limit on how quickly the owners must fulfil this requirement.
My post about the sprinklers was not to make out like they'd have stopped this disaster but to show the political influence on the regulations that can lead to this cladding still being compliant in 2017 despite years of warnings when it would never have passed in 1986.

Anyone informed enough to estimate how likely it is this happened?

Haggerty? Seriously lol

I wonder if it's dawning on her that she cannot survive. I wouldn't be very suprised if she announces that she's standing down and sees her last duty as the succession.

She is bloody awful at everything, it feels like.

Haven't followed the fire story much because it's just too sad and anxiety inducing, but I don't see how May is to blame in any way here. Seems like another case of her suffering the consequences for Osborne and Cameron's opportunism and poor decision making.

There's some valid criticisms of the way it was handled in the days straight after it happened. Not speaking to some of the people affected was a major PR mistake. I can understand her not wanting to do it as she is pretty much guaranteed to get abuse but as a minimum she should have done it in a controlled setting like the Queen did. There's a lot of stuff going around Facebook about cuts imposed by Boris and the voting records of certain MPs that also happen to be landlords. I try to avoid those sources though as they're inherently unreliable so I'm not sure what the real story is.

A Favor, Please ... from across the pond

I would be grateful if somebody posted the full text of the Sunday Times front page article concerning Prime Minister Theresa May having 10 days to step down - or else. (I have tried to access the article, but it's blocked behind a pay wall.) I have poor eyesight, so it's difficult to read the small print posted above. Thanks!

On another note, last night I was watching C-SPAN rebroadcasting the forming of the New Parliament last Tuesday in the House of Commons. At first it was confusing as I could not understand why a conservative MP (a lady) was giving a speech about another [conservative] MP amid much laughter and cackling. I didn't recognize him at first, but the MP being "lauded" - if that's the right word - was the Honorable Sir John Bercow. It appeared that Mr. Bercow was desperately trying to avoid the appearance of being deeply embarrassed. Suddenly, after a unanimous voice vote, Sir John Bercow was "dragged" to the Speaker's Chair where he proceeded to give a very gracious speech accepting the honor of being re-elected as Speaker of the House. As Mr. Bercow was being dragged to the Speaker's Chair, a graphic appeared onscreen noting that it has been a longstanding tradition, going back centuries, that the Speaker is "dragged" to his chair immediately following his election. I suppose being elected Speaker must have been a dubious "honor" 400 years ago when a Speaker's ruling that the Queen or King didn't like could result in the Speaker being banished to the Tower of London! (If that's the case, it would explain why no MP wanted that job ...)

Sometimes I wish American politics was more like what goes on in Westminster. It would be great to see our Speaker of the House dragged to the podium - all in good fun of course - when power shifts from the Democrats to the Republicans or vice versa. I would also love to see weekly "President's Question Time" in the Senate where President Trump has to stand there and take a barrage of questions from Democrats. It would be great watching Trump sweat and all the senators laughing out loud when Trump says "Make America Great Again!" or brags about how badly he kicked Hillary's butt. Trump is so sensitive to criticism that we'd probably see his hair melting. (Ha! Ha!)

your first request would constitute a criminal act so i have reported you to the local constabulary

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DCjWxP6W0AARYBc.jpg:large

Great, what a friend you are! Et tu BOIDS?

Non-paywalled version of much the same story. In this version it's hardcore Brexiteers threatening May she better not do anything sensible or else. The 10-day thing, here and in the Sunday Times, is simply because the House will vote on the Queen's Speech in 10 days, and if it doesn't pass then May doesn't have the confidence of the House and probably can't carry on.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...-a7795556.html

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/polit...-a3567541.html

Weird how no British high rise developers mentioned this since Wednesday.

I do hope that's true. The best result now is if law breakers are arrested and subject to legal proceedings, while illegal cladding is removed from other blocks as hastily as possible.

57 On Red:

It appears that Theresa May is caught between a rock and a hard place ... she's damned if she does and damned if she doesn't. If she doesn't remain "hard" on Brexit, she loses the support of hard Brexit MPs. On the other hand, if she remains hard on Brexit, she loses the support of the DUP - along with her [very slim] ruling coalition. So it appears that she's being forced to choose between [political] death by hanging or [figuratively] being shot. Either way it appears she's doomed as PM.

What happens if Ms. May, seeing the writing on the wall, decides she would rather resign - and retain a shred of dignity - rather than face a vote of no confidence in the Parliament? If Ms. May were to announce she was stepping down before the scheduled "Queen's Speech" on June 28, would that mean another general election?

Since you folks are British and I'm a "Yank" (Ha! Ha!), what do you think the chances are that Ms. May will announce she is stepping down as PM prior to June 28? (Just curious ...)

This is almost as good as watching Ian Richardson playing the dastardly Francis Urquhart in "House of Cards" thirty-five years ago.

Regrettably what Hammond said is not true.
Reynobond PE is marketed as being suitable for buildings up to 10m or the height of a fireman's ladder, the Reynobond FR with the fire resistant mineral core up to 30M and for anything above that they say use the A2.Grenfell Towers is 60m.
Building regulations documents does not say PE-core panels should not be used.
Building regs say to "act safely" but don't give specific definitions as many britishsafety regs are principle rather than rule based.
This is what the building control update promised in 2013 (after RICS and the Fire Brigade highlighted the problems with this type of cladding)by the housing minister would have specifically addressed.

A week is a long time in politics (copyright Harold Wilson), but unless the 1922 Committee tell her she's had it I'd expect May to keep on trying to get her Queen's Speech through. If she does it, she technically commands the confidence of the House and she can carry on for the time being. It's harder for any other party to form a government and other top Tories may not fancy the poisoned chalice much at the moment. If she does come undone the situation's even less clear and we might need another general election, but the Tories would rather avoid that as the wind is with Labour (plus voters might punish the Tories for making a hash of it and dragging everyone out to the polls again).

How she or anyone else squares the Brexit circle is hard to see, as her own MPs are divided on it. She could probably get cross-party support for a softer Brexit (whatever that actually meant), as Labour would be in favour and many Tory MPs are pro-Europe not least for business reasons -- business doesn't see much sense in hard Brexit. But May seems more inclined to hard Brexit and the DUP might settle for a deal that just butters up Northern Ireland.

House of Cards was written by a former speechwriter, adviser and party chief-of-staff to Margaret Thatcher, so he knew whereof he spake, though of course he gave it the old Richard III treatment for style points.

I'm told the PE core is not permitted on buildings above 40ft in the US. Our regulations seem to be seriously behind the curve.

cecil parkinson said that the main thing the tories learned from john major's time in office is that the public will punish you if you give the impression of taking yourselves more seriously than you take the country

i think they'll be loath to force a leadership election right now - last thing most voters wants is another political maelstrom, we've enough on our plate

looks like there are a few local yokels kicking up a fuss about a challenge and maybe a handful of MPs but i think the real power brokers want her to stay for now. i cite boris' reaction in the immediate aftermath of the election and the gushing plaudits after her meeting with the backbenchers as evidence

course she knows she's on an indeterminate but 100% real medium-term time limit which can't be very pleasant, and at any point she might just say i've had enough of this bluddy malarkey and quit

To me it beggars belief that anybody, regulation or not, thought it a good idea to encase a high rise building in flammable insulation.

I've worked in the construction industry the majority of my working life and I've seen a lot corners being cut and I know this is with the benefit of hindsight but that just seems like one corner that was to dangerous to cut. It is not like it is prohibitively expensive to use the fire resistance cladding, 5 or 6 thousand more expensive, if the reports I've read are to be believed, in a 8 to 10 million refurbishment project.

Exactly - it's despicable and as I've shown in my previous posts concerns about this use of cladding have been raised repeatedly by BRE and the Fire Services.
Why on earth it wasn't addressed by an update to building regs as promised in 2013 is anyone's guess - but wealth creators gonna create.
In his interview on Peston, Hammond acknowledged that the previous governments' role in this must be looked at then said the previous labour government must also be looked as the claddingwas a factor in the 2009 Lakanal House.
They should certainly be looked at in terms of overall building regs/safety/oversight but the coroner's verdict was only published in 2013 and as I keep saying BRE and the Fire Brigade acted on this and demanded and were promised change - which did not happen.

Based on what you're saying we're potentially in a grey zone of liability where the government says Reynobond PE was explicitly only safe up to 10m using it above this height was illegal and specifically banning PE cladding was superfluous and KCTMO/refurbishers claim the 10m limit of Reynobond PE was merely a recommendation.

I believe the less fire resistant cladding was used to provide greater insulation rather than for direct savings purposes.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbi...oat-trip-slip/

Noone will care about Tories getting rid of May in five years. They'll vote based on stuff like how the economy is doing and what bribes the various parties are offering them as always. Six weeks ago Labour MPs openly derided Corbyn. Now they claim he's the best thing since sliced bread. Less than a year ago Labour MPs gave Corbyn an overwhelming vote of no confidence based on his "campaign" for remain, criticism which retrospectively looks very accurate. Now Corbyn is very popular among left wingers most of whom were passionately remain!