The Khan Inquiry Gets It's Judge.

Over the night of June 13th (13/6/17) into June 14th (14/6/17) a fire completely destroyed the Grenfell Tower apartment building on the Lancaster West housing estate in the Kensington area of the UK city of London. So far 80 people are either confirmed dead or missing presumed dead.

Almost as if they had time to plan the UK Labour Party used the fire as an opportunity incite public anger as part of a campaign against the governing Conservative Party. This included London's Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan calling for a Public Inquiry. A tactic frequently used in British politics to delay or avoid entirely criminal prosecutions.

In a moment of weakness Britain's Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May granted this demand of the Labour Party. Today retired Judge Sir Martin Moore-Bick has been appointed to head that Inquiry.

This has led to some complaints by the Labour Party because although qualified in criminal law Sir Moore-Bick is an expert in commercial and contract law. It must be said that is exactly the type of Judge you want leading an Inquiry of this type.

The first job of the Inquiry will be to examine how the fire started and spread.

Unless it immediately finds evidence of arson it will then move on to explore whether criminal negligence played a role. The most severe negligence offence is Manslaughter by way of Gross Negligence. This can be sentenced in exactly the same way as murder.

In order to determine whether negligence has been a factor the Inquiry will have to look at whether due diligence was performed in the contractual relationship between the building owner and the Tenant Management Organisation (TMO).

The Inquiry will also have to look at whether due diligence was performed in the contractual relationship between the TMO and any maintenance contractors.

The Inquiry will also have to look at whether due diligence was performed in the contractual relationship between those maintenance contractors and their suppliers.

The Inquiry will also have to look at whether due diligence was performed by the Labour-led Fire and Emergency Planning Authority in issuing the building with a fire safety certificate.

Once you've got through those very complex aspects of contract law proving criminal offences such as manslaughter and possibly fraud is actually the easy bit.

19:40 on 29/6/17 (UK date).

Edited at around 14:50 on 30/6/17 (UK date) to add;

Today the UK Times newspaper has run a story that has been picked up by the BBC. It claims that the metal panels on the outside of Grenfell Tower were originally intended to be made of Zinc but were changed to Aluminium to save money during renovations.

Although it is not as aesthetically pleasing as Zinc Aluminium is actually one of only a small number of substances that has is 100% fireproof. It has no ignition point. So on the face of it this story is utterly meaningless.

However in the immediate aftermath of the fire the Labour Party claimed that these metal panels had only been fitted for aesthetic purposes. The implication being that the evil Conservative Party don't even want to have to look at poor people.

This is simply a lie. The panels were fitted as part of an insulation system to prevent energy waste. This involves putting a layer of insulation wool against the exterior brickwork of the building and then placing metal panels on top of the insulation wool to protect it from the elements and keep it attached to the building.

This insulation wool is actually laminated front and back with Aluminium foil to make it more fire resistant. The problem is that this wool is delivered in huge blocks and then cut into the right sized panels by workmen on site. As a result the top and the bottom of the wool panels is not laminated with Aluminium.

The existing fire testing only requires these wool panels to be exposed to heat on their laminated sides. The enhanced testing that so far has produced a 100% failure rate requires the wool panels to be exposed to heat on their unlaminated tops and bottoms.

Obviously the investigation will need to be completed before we can be sure but it appears that the fire has spread up through the unlaminated wool panels.  The exterior metal panel has nothing to do with it.

Therefore one of the main recommendations is likely to be that these wool panels are laminated at the top and the bottom.

That could mean having them tailor made at the factory but I think the race is now on to patent an Aluminium tape that can be applied to the wool panels by workmen on site.

15:05 on 30/6/17 (UK date).