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I’m sorry but has everyone lost their fucking mind.
What about when parliament was illegally suspended and not only did no-one face any legal consequences the same government was voted back in. That seems like it sent kind of a “do what you like” message.
What about when a campaign that literally changed the future of the country was found to have broken electoral law and all that happened was they got fined? Seems to me there was a distinctly “no go ahead mate it’s fine” vibe around that time.
What about when the UN special rapporteur found the government’s austerity project caused untold misery, violated people’s human rights and grossly penalised the already vulnerable and no-one in the government had to resign? Very “no honestly guys it’s fine” energy I’d say.
What about when Sajid Javid refused to help a child and that child subsequently died and absolutely nothing happened? That gave off quite a “no consequences” impression I think.
But yeah power and accountability in this country hinges on a bloke in a car and now is the moment something must be done, ok.
We don’t even know what power looks like in this country because we’re still obsessed with the idea that rules have power.
For us, the very idea that a rule might be broken holds more horror than the life and death consequences of grossly immoral decisions for which there are no actual rules.
Has anyone yet gone to prison for Grenfell? Just checking in on this country where power is held to account and rule-flouting is strictly punished.
I’ll bet the Venn diagram of people who have suddenly decided power must be held to account having never previously held power to account and people who thought the LRB Grenfell piece that absolved the council because they were nice well meaning guys is a perfect circle.
