Evening Standard comment: Grenfell fire – who should take responsibility?

Survivors of the Grenfell fire have welcomed the police letter confirming they have sufficient grounds to allow them to investigate Kensington and Chelsea council and the borough’s Tenant Management Organisation in connection with the offence of corporate manslaughter.

This doesn’t meet the demands of some former residents that individual members of the council and management should be held to account but it does confirm that the police are taking the question of responsibility for the fire very seriously indeed.

We cannot, plainly, anticipate the outcome but it is clear that the police will follow the evidence they have. That should in itself go some way to meeting claims of a cover-up after the fire.

The corporate manslaughter case does not preclude charging individuals for their part in the chain of decisions — omission and commission — which ultimately led to the fire. Indeed, it is possible that the police may yet bring gross negligence manslaughter charges if there are grounds for them.

The intention behind all this is not vindictiveness, still less some kind of institutional lynching, but to establish clearly what went wrong and who was responsible.

It is all too easy in a complex organisation, as any local authority is, for responsibility for what happened to become diffused. What we need is for the individuals, the culture and the chain of decision-making that allowed the fire to happen to be identified.

Change is already afoot as a result of the tragedy of Grenfell. We already know that other London boroughs have used insulation similar to that in Grenfell Tower.

Today the Department for Communities publishes its findings into new “whole system fire tests” including both cladding and insulation; at least 60 tower blocks have failed them.

It is small comfort for the bereaved, but the terrible lessons of the Grenfell fire are already being learned.

Troubles of Trump

The troubles of the Trump administration just get worse.

After a late-night Senate session, the administration’s bid to repeal Obamacare, President Obama’s healthcare provision, was voted down — and prominent Republicans, including John McCain who is still recovering from an operation, joined with Democrats to vote against the measure.

In the past Mr Trump has been dismissive of Mr McCain; he isn’t now.

But given the nature of some of the president’s appointments, he hardly needs enemies.

There has been a furore following the report in the New Yorker magazine about the president’s director of communications, Anthony Scaramucci, and his intemperate remarks about White House staff, including Reince Priebus, chief of staff.

Congratulations are in order for the journalist in question, Ryan Lizza, whose deadpan and factual style was quite devastating. US reporters are most certainly holding the administration to account.

On our bikes

The Prudential RideLondon brings a festival of cycling to the capital this weekend.

More than 100,000 people are expected to take part, including 25,000 who on Sunday will tackle a 100-mile route from the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park to The Mall — via Surrey.

That London has so embraced cycling is all to the good in the battle against pollution and as a way to stay fit.

And for those not so keen on pedalling, the news that Brompton is to unveil its first electric model means there is no longer any excuse not to get on your bike.