A year on from the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower that killed 72 people, the tragedy has become a symbol for many of the big divisions in British politics. Austerity, inequality, immigration and the housing crisis are just a few of the issues debated and disputed in the aftermath of the blaze, with accusations flying in parliament and in the press about warnings that went ignored and a lack of provision for survivors (as of 13 June, according to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, 68 households from the estate are still living in emergency accommodation).
The independent public inquiry that opened on 14 September 2017 has the task of establishing what happened on the night of 14 June 2017 — what the fire safety provisions were, how the fire spread, and how surviving residents were evacuated and rescued. But it too has a symbolic role to play in establishing the facts in a transparent fashion and allowing survivors who feel rejected and ignored by authorities to make their own experiences part of the public record, almost as if it were a truth and reconciliation-style panel.
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