A sombre nation

Photo: By Natalie Oxford

I awoke to the disaster which was Grenfell Tower and looked at the pouring smoke from the building from my twelth floor balcony in horror. I cannot imagine what was going through the minds of those directly affected and still inside. Even now we still don't know how many have died. Clearly the body count will increase as the investigation in the ruins begins.

Having lived in a tower block for near on twenty years fire is one of those things you really hope does not happen but has even here on my floor in one of the flats opposite. The fire was contained and we were only evacuated for a short time. The buildings all concrete. No bloody cladding. Whoever thought that was a good idea should never be let near a building site again.

People died because of politically motivated aesthetics from what I can see. Never again should council or social housing residents ever be put in such a position again.

This comes at a time when the nation is still in shock from several terrorist atrocities, events which have united ordinary people against a common foe. The latest disaster shows how divided we have become as a nation and frankly how leaderless we have become.

Theresa May having messed up electorally, now fails to show true grit by meeting the residents. Corbyn got better press though his supporters actions in and around the protests leave a lot to be desired. Only the Queen came out of this as a figure with any public credibility in myview.

The nation lacks decent politicians. Neither May nor Corbyn or the outsider Farron come close to the standards of the politicians I grew up with. Where are the Harold Wilson's and Denis Healy's or even (god forbid) the Margaret Thatcher's of this world? Such a grim lack of talent on the front benches.

The only politician to impress me of recent times was Hilary Benn and he's in no position to take a leading role due to rise of the far-left inside Labour. The Tories are at their weakest ever and the alternative is a shower of rabid protesters who don't understand how democracy works as shown by McDonnells call for a million on the streets to bring down the Tories.

Meanwhile as the nation remains in a mournful state there will be an "al-Quds" day march with the flags of the Iranian backed terrorist organisation Hezbollah being flown in the streets of London. An insult to the victims of terrorism in this country.

A march that will be attended by many supporters of Corbyn, though he himself is likely to shy away from attending unlike in previous years.

For those who want to see a return to political rationalism the extremes of ideology that seem to be taking hold the failure of Mrs May to front a decent election campaign that if based on her seeming "one-nation" conservatism could have broken the Corbynistas is blindingly obvious.

There seems little hope that a decent political choice will exist by the next general election which will be sooner rather than later. So many Labour types have surrendered to Corbyn. Their party is currently lost to reason as are the Conservatives.

There seems little hope for the immediate future on all fronts. Weak government, terrorist threats and a disastrous brexit all add up to a more than uncertain future.

Will reason ever prevail?