The final report of the Public Inquiry into the Grenfell Fire is now published

Sir Martin Moore -Bick has blamed a number of individuals and organisations not least the London Fire Brigade condemning the lack of leadership of the Brigade .

I served for twelve years , four of them as Chairman of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority and all twelve as Conservative Group Leader . I also served on the various Committees of the Local Government Association responsible for Fire Services in England.

That twelve years was war , War between the workforce represented by (mainly) the Fire Brigade Union and the Management , war between the Politicians and the workforce and distrust between the Management and the Politicians . 

All senior Officer appointments ie of Assistant Commissioner and above were done by all Party members panels . It was usually "buggins turn" and anyone who tried to resist this , as I did, immediately earned the distrust of senior officers . Firefighters mostly join the service at 18 ,except for those who transfer from the armed forces and all senior uniformed officers have risen through the ranks . During the 2002 National pay strike the then Commissioner of London Fire Brigade told me we could only rely on eight officers , him, his Deputy and the six Assistant Commissioners . In the event two hundred officers kept working in London and I admired every one of them due to the intimidation they faced for years afterwards . John Prescott who as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government was "in charge" of Government policy during the dispute was heard to say he had been driven past Euston Fire Station and "the Governors are on the picket line" . Yes John they were all members of the Union.

There are just few quality Officers in Senior ranks in the UK Fire Service . In January this year the Chief Fire Officer of the West Midlands Wayne Brown , the only black Chief Fire Officer in the Country committed suicide after being suspended as his CV was distinctly dodgy. Wayne was a former London Officer and was considered amongst the brightest of his generation.

The Fire Brigade Union has the most extreme left wing leadership of any Union . For a number of years after the National Pay strike the Union disaffiliated from the Labour Party and the Annual Conference of the Union has often spent more time discussing Israel than terms and conditions of firefighters . 

Sadly and Bizarrely the uniformed men and women (mostly men) always support their Union come what may . Any attempt to even make minor changes to pay and conditions is always resisted by the Union and "modernisation" is a dirty word. As for Equalities the Union often employs top lawyers ro defend any member accused of the most heinous of racist offences. In my time a black firefighter based at Clerkenwell had a Banana placed on his seat in the appliance . Some firefighters thought it was a joke. God help any openly Gay firefighter . Not much has changed today if you read the most recent reports of HM Fire Service Inspectorate.

The general public cannot see past the fire station doors and considers firefighters as heroes. I just think the Fire and Rescue Service is a Local Government Service some of whose staff wear uniforms. When Sadiq Khan newly appointed Fire Minister visited London Fire Headquarters he was introduced to the Senior Officers of the Brigade and the Directors . Our then two woman Directors were absent and the Commissioner apologised . "Would they be wearing fucking uniforms as well?" was Sadiq's response ?"

I think I dealt with about thirty Fire Ministers and Shadow Fire Ministers in twelve years , some were reasonably effective others totally useless and achieved nothing in the matter of months they held office.

Ms Rita Dexter was one of the two women Directors of the London Fire Brigade appointed in 2002 when Valerie Shawcross the then Labour Chair of the Authority cleared out  the coterie of male Directors inherited from the Regime of free spending Tony Ritchie the former Leader of the London Fire and Civil Defence Authority who was considered too corrupt by Ken Livingstone to appoint to the new Authority. I was responsible for Ms Dexter's appointment encouraging her to apply when she failed to be appointed Chief Executive Barnet Council despite being the acting Chief Executive . She is clever , efficient and effective but overreached herself twice attempting to conduct a coup , once against Sir Ken Knight ( easily the best Fire officer in the UK of the last twenty years) and then a few years later against the then Commissioner Ron Dobson. The coup failed and Ron turned round and proposed to abolish the post of Deputy Commissioner then held by Ms Dexter which members duly did and that was the end of her ! 

Although not quite . She reappeared as a witness at the Grenfell Inquiry where her answers to questions landed the uniformed officers in the shit up to their necks. Her dramatic long pauses and her constant on the verge of tears has to be seen to be believed but had the desired effect . 

Ms Dexter (as is the way with the establishment) now sits on the House of Commons Standards Committee where she passes judgement on Members of Parliament's minor misdemeanors.

Then there was the career ending evidence of Dany Cotton the Commissioner at the time of Grenfell. Her behaviour post the fire was somewhat strange and she took a considerable amount of sick leave with the rumours that she would claim to be too ill to give evidence . She however appeared but her defient tone "I was putting out a fire " and her closing remarks that she would not change a thing were enough for Sadiq to sack her a few weeks later. Her send off from Fire Brigade Headquarters like some sort of conquering hero was a complete slap in the face to the poor families of victims of the fire and was considered bizarre by a number of senior officers. Dany was the first woman to head the London Fire Brigade and had been appointed by Sadiq soon after he took office in 2016. Although as she climbed through the ranks ahe also appeared tough having been appointed Commissioner she reversed many of the sensible reforms of the last twenty years much to the delight of the Fire Brigades Union .

At previous Inquests and Inquiries the Fire Brigade along with most public bodies had always rehearsed their witnesses to ensure accurate evidence and joined up thinking . At the 2011 Inquests into the deaths of the terror attack of July 7th 2005 this had proved very valuable when the evidence appeared to be suggesting Fire Brigade incompetence but in the end all was well. Dany Cotton apparently did not rehearse as no lawyer would have advised her to imply "Je ne regrette rien".

Much has been made by the Grenfell Inquiry of the 2009 Lakanhal Fire in Southwark in which six people died . Once the Inquest was out of the way (and Southwark Council had been fined under Health and Safety regulations) , the London Fire Authority set up a Committee to look at the lessons of Lakanhall chaired by Val Shawcross. Much was made of the minutes and agendas for this meeting at the Grenfell Inquiry and despite what appears to have been some blocking from less than helpful London Officers resulted in correspondence between the Authority Chairman James Cleverly and Ministers notably Brandon Lewis . The Government in effect ignored the results of the London Committee's findings and I suspect Mr Lewis regrets signing some of these letters even if his civil servants drafted them. 

During World War Two all local fire services were taken over by the Government and formed into a National Fire Service . I believe the current situation is so serious and progress of change is so slow that was need to do the same. Many of the County Brigades consist of virtually two men and a dog and a large number of retained , part time voluntary firefighters and their Chief Officers are considered a joke. We also need to deal with the Fire Brigade Union either ban firefighters like Police Officers from belonging to a union or just get the Fire Brigade Union to merge with one of the large Local Government Unions .

We cannot continue as we are .