Remember when there was a campaign against the appointment of Sir Martin Moore-Bick as chair of the public inquiry into the Grenfell disaster? In 2017, David Lammy, now Foreign Secretary, criticised the choice of a “white, upper middle class man.” The then government’s preference for a retired High Court judge, someone assumed to be automatically out of touch by dint of his colour and social class, was deeply worrying according to campaigners who saw this in terms of identity politics. On Sky News, Lammy said seven years ago of the appointment: “It’s a shame that we couldn’t find a woman or an ethnic minority to lead the inquiry in 2017, and I think the victims will also say themselves, when push comes to shove there are some powerful people here – contractors, sub-contractors, local authorities, governments – and they look like this judge. Whose side will he be on?” Well, it turns out Sir Martin was all along on the side of the truth. His report, published this week, is beyond damning. In forensic detail, it lays out the chain of disastrous misjudgments, arrogant behaviour, greed and confusion across both the public and private sector that led to 72 people losing their lives inside a tower block in west London on that fateful summer night.