On Grenfell's second anniversary, 60,000 Britons are still living in firetraps clad in the same deadly, decorative materials

It's been two years since the Grenfell tower block in north Kensington burned, killing at least 72 people: the blaze revealed deep corruption and indifference among Britain's richest people and the millionaire Conservative politicians who do their business in Parliament, from the fact that the highly flammable cladding responsible for the blaze was added so that the building would be more attractive to rich people in nearby luxury tower blocks, to the fact that the fire came five years after Tory PM David Cameron declared war on "safety culture" to the fact that Tory politicians (overwhelming landlords themselves) had voted down a bill to require landlords to ensure that the properties they rented were safe and "fit for human habitation", to the fact that local Tory councillors had deliberately chosen a more fire-prone cladding to save 5.7% on the cost of materials -- the same local government that forced Grenfell survivors to bid against each other for new homes and then paid the same company that installed the flammable cladding to replace it.

We may never know exactly how many other towers are at risk: the Tories say that "IP rights" prevent them from disclosing which blocks failed their housing safety tests, and refuse to disclose which towers are clad in the same materials in Grenfell because otherwise, the terrorists will win (no, seriously).

Meanwhile, the companies involved have paid no meaningful consequences for their role in the Grenfell deaths: Rydon, the contractor had a banner year and handed out whopping pay rises for its execs, and the company that made the cladding continues to insist that the problem could have been solved with a kitchen fire-extinguisher. Read the rest