Notes From Khanistan.

Over the course of the night of June 13th 2017 (13/6/17) into June 14th 2017 (14/6/17) a fire completely destroyed the 129 apartment Grenfell Tower on the Lancaster West housing estate in the Kensington area of the UK city of London. The fire left 80 either dead or missing presumed dead.

The UK Labour Party have treated this almost exactly the same as the US Democrat Party treated the June 12th 2016 (12/6/16) terror attack against the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida, US. A perfectly normal part of their campaign to be exploited to score points off their political rivals.

However as the investigation has progressed a number of worrying details have begun to emerge of how London Fire Brigade (LFB) responded to the fire.

The main one of these is that it was London Fire Brigade who certified Grenfell Tower as safe. So no matter what the arguments are about cladding, sprinkler systems etc ultimately it was the LFB who told all the other authorities that the building was safe.

The initial fire crew that attended the scene put out the fire in the apartment where it originated. They then packed up their equipment and went to leave the scene.

I don't think this is as dramatic as it first sounds. They were called to put out a fire in a single apartment. When they realised that it was the entire building that was on fire they remained at the scene and called for extra resources. Obviously though the Public Inquiry will have to look in detail at that chain of events and whether the correct decisions were made in a timely fashion.

More worryingly is that after a major incident had been declared the LFB waited a full 30 minutes before requesting what is known as an aerial platform. This would have allowed them to reach above the area of the building that was burning and douse it with water to prevent the fire spreading further.

What worries me about LFB's integrity is that they have claimed this delay was caused by government cuts to their budget. That is simply not true. The required resources were available just minutes from the scene. However the decision to request those resources was not taken for a full half hour.

Then there is the decision not to evacuate the building for up to four hours after the LFB first responded to the fire.

This has been put down to a firefighting tactic known as; "Defend in Place." The principle behind this tactic is that buildings such as Grenfell Tower are designed so any fire is contained in each apartment. Failing that it is contained between floors. Therefore evacuating the entire building would actually further endanger residents by putting them at risk of panic and crushing during the evacuation.

However within 40 minutes footage of the fire spreading up the exterior of the building was all over the TV news. Therefore I find it hard to understand why the Fire Officer in command of the incident was unable to identify that the Defend in Place tactic had failed and order an evacuation.

These failures by the LFB and whether they are justifiable or not they are certainly failures seem very similar to the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium disaster. Unless you believe the wilder conspiracy theories no-one set out to kill 96 football fans that day.

The Hillsborough disaster actually began with a crush amongst fans on the Leppings Lane road outside of the stadium. The Police Officer in command that day David Duckenfield then decided to open an exit gate to allow the fans to enter the stadium more quickly. Ironically this was done in an effort to protect the fans from being crushed.

At the same time as opening the exit gate the Police Officer in command failed to block the entrance to the central terrace pen. This meant that fans were crammed into that central pen rather than being evenly distributed across the three pens.

The Police Officer in command then failed to identify that the central pen had become overcrowded and order it to be evacuated.

Finally the Police Officer in command of what at that time was a major incident failed to request that ambulances that were lined up outside be allowed to enter the stadium to treat the injured.

Although public perception has changed a lot since then at the time of the Hillsborough disaster the police were hailed as heroes just as the LFB are being hailed as heroes in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire. There was lots of talk of officers bravely putting their lives in danger to rescue the injured from violent football hooligans.

These tales of heroism grew into a sort of reverence around the police that meant their actions were never properly questioned during the subsequent Taylor Public Inquiry.

During that Inquiry Duckenfield claimed that the dynamic nature of the disaster caused him to freeze up so he couldn't be blamed for his actions and inactions. Now 28 years later Duckenfield is finally to be charged with Manslaughter by Way of Gross Negligence meaning that claim will finally be tested in Court.

So in light of the Grenfell Tower fire there are very serious questions to be asked of London Fire Brigade. Any criminal investigation would be remiss if it failed to ask those tough questions.

The LFB is under the authority of London's Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan. He also has responsibility for London's Metropolitan Police Service (MPS). However the rules are quite clear that he cannot and should not attempt to influence policing policy.

Over the course of last night (13/7/17) we've been given a stark reminder of how Sadiq Khan is coping with his responsibility for crime and policing.

Over a 90 minute period two young men on a Motor Scooter/Moped sprayed acid in the faces of five people apparently in the course of committing a series of robberies. This represents the convergence of two growing crime problems within London.

The first of these is the use of Motor Scooters in robberies.This involves often two people riding a Motor Scooter riding up onto the pavement to steal valuables such as cellphones from people going about their daily lives. Often the Motor Scooters themselves are stolen.

This type of crime is being driven by the policies of the MPS. They will not give chase to suspects on Motor Scooters in case through their own reckless and criminal behaviour the suspects end up injuring themselves. As a result criminals know that if they use a Motor Scooter to commit a crime the police won't event attempt to try and catch them.

As with all other motor vehicles the police also have the power to stop any Motor Scooter without cause and seize any vehicles that are found to be stolen, not insured or not taxed. However for some reason the police decline to do this.

The second growing crime problem is the use of acid as a weapon.

This was something that was actually very fashionable amongst football hooligans in the 1970's and 1980's. You used to be able to by a brand of Jiff lemon juice that was sold in a squeezable plastic bottle in the size and shape of a lemon. You would then drain out the lemon juice and replace it with something more corrosive such as Ammonia or Nitric or Sulphuric acid before squirting it in someone's face.

The use of acid as a weapon along with football hooliganism very much fell out of fashion following the Hillsborough disaster.

What seems to have brought the use of acid back into fashion in London is the capital's close cultural links with nations on the Asian sub-continent. Particularly Pakistan.

Particularly within Pakistan's Muslim communities the honour system still very much exists. This holds that if a woman is thought to bring dishonour on her family she is to be violently punished by the men in her family. If the supposed dishonour is vanity the woman is often punished by having acid thrown on her.

The number of these attacks in Pakistan greatly increased in the late 2000's and early 2010's largely being imported from Taliban controlled Afghanistan. To stop the practice being imported from Pakistan to its own Muslim communities India actually banned the retail sale of acids in 2013.

Through the capital's cultural links to Pakistan the honour system and the use of acid as a weapon has been imported. There is has mixed with criminals old enough to remember the 1970's and 1980's.

In 2016 there were 458 acid attacks in London. However until today they've not made it onto the news. With one notable exception.

On June 21st (21/6/17) Resham Khan and Jameel Muhktar were attacked with acid in the Beckton area of east London. This was given widespread media coverage because Jameel Muhktar wanted to use the incident to promote the conspiracy theory that Islamaphobia amongst British authorities meant the crime wasn't being investigated. There are several things wrong with that.

Firstly there were 458 acid attacks in London alone in 2016. So the MPS failing to investigate an acid attack is far from an uncommon event.

Secondly the majority of those 458 acid attacks were carried out by Muslims as honour punishments. Normally against a daughter, sister or cousin who'd brought shame on the family by dressing in western clothes, seeking an education or drinking alcohol. Exactly the sort of things that Resham Khan had been doing.

The police are generally discouraged from investigating these crimes out of the misplaced sense of cultural sensitivity which Sadiq Khan relies on for votes.

Finally following the attack Jameel Muhktar was placed in a medically induced coma for several days. That made it rather hard for the police to interview him hampering the investigation.

Then of course there is London's ever growing problem of knife violence. I think this was best summed up during the June 3rd (3/6/17) marauding run-over and stabbing terror attack in the London Bridge area of London.

During the course of that incident there was another stabbing attack in the Vauxhall area of London which is around 30 minutes walk from London Bridge. This led to great concern that London was suffering a widespread marauding attack.

It turned out though the Vauxhall stabbing attack was just another one of London's everyday stabbing attacks.

Last night's acid attacks have led the national news throughout the day. Now the media have started to realise that it reflects very badly on Sadiq Khan and the Labour Party it will be interesting to see how the story gets downgraded.

I've already noticed that now Friday prayers have begun at the local Mosque both BBC and Sky News are declining to broadcast live from the scene.

15:50 on 14/7/17 (UK date).

Edited at around 19:10 on 14/7/17 (UK date) to add;

BBC London News who you thought would be all over this story instead decided to bump it to item two. Sandwiched between two stories about how awesome Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan is.

As for Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan he has reacted rather predictably. Along with local Labour MP Diane Abbott he has tried to shift the blame onto the national government by demanding they introduce legislation designating acid as a type of offensive weapon.

As such I should point out that all corrosive substances including acids and the far more potent alkaloids have been designated as offensive weapons since the introduction of the 1953 Prevention of Crime Act. The transfer of said substance to a secondary container demonstrates intent.

Therefore the question is really why under Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan the MPS feel they are unable to enforce this particular law?

It is likely to be the same reason they feel they are unable to enforce the laws that state that you can only drive a Motor Scooter with the owner's permission while you are insured to do so and said vehicle is properly taxed;

The Labour Party need their thugs on the streets to scare up votes.