Why is the Church of England banning Conservatives from the Grenfell memorial service?
Conservative councillors have been asked to stay away from this week’s service at St Paul’s Cathedral being held to commemorate the victims of the Grenfell disaster.
The authorities believe that 71 residents died when a fire destroyed the tower block in June this year in West London. Cladding added during a renovation programme was flammable. A public inquiry is underway. Not all of the survivors have been rehoused, which, as the new leader of the council has explained, is down to their understandable fear that if they leave the hotels where they are living and accept temporary accommodation they will be forgotten and lost in the system.
Tensions are high six months on. Understandably, the tragedy has come to symbolise the social divide and concerns over public policy and spending restraint. The council had amassed large reserves while not doing enough on social housing. Belatedly, it is buying up property and investing.
But the situation post-Grenfell is obviously complex. The new Labour MP for the area, Emma Dent Coad, sat on the board of the organisation that oversaw the renovation of Grenfell. She declared herself more than satisfied with it at the time. Since then she has made very little of her previous involvement with Grenfell. Her exceptionally robust attacks on the Tories and weird comments about the royal family have raised eyebrows.
The new Conservative council leader, Elizabeth Campbell, has got down to work in an impressive fashion. She has admitted how badly the council failed. Reports suggest she and her team are working round the clock to deal with the aftermath.
Meanwhile, as ever in these tragedies, in the manner of Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities, some rabble rousers and agitators have attached themselves to the noble cause of the survivors of Grenfell. Have they had any influence on the decision to tell Tory councillors – or “all Conservatives” according to reports – to stay away from the service? St Paul’s and the Church hierarchy would not allow itself to be bullied, surely?
In such difficult circumstances it should be the job of St Paul’s and the Church of England more widely to encourage reconciliation, understanding and forgiveness. All should be welcome at St Paul’s. That is supposed to be a key component of the Christian message. Excluding Conservatives from a memorial service is a very odd way to go about it.
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