Money to Burn

The company which provided the major fire hazard for Grenfell Tower spent thirty-two million of its insurance money compensating victims and survivors, and fifty-five million compensating shareholders for the inconvenience. Fortunately, all but one and a half of those millions were covered, so the actual losses to the company amounted to little more than a lunchtime's worth of boardroom bonuses. No criminal charges have yet been brought over the disaster, and given prevailing attitudes to health and safety, corporate regulation, and landlord control, it seems unlikely that anyone of any consequence has very much to worry about. Nevertheless, it is apparently newsworthy that a company which concealed the facts about a dangerous product in order to protect its profits also cared forty per cent more about its shareholders than it did about its victims.