David Aaronovitch Blames Journalists Over MMR
In a hard hitting opinion in The Times today, he effectively blames journalists for stoking up the MMR fiasco. Here’s the final paragraph.
The MMR scare was the fault of journalists of all stripes. With honourable exceptions, notably Brian Deer, hacks combined to mislead the public, and now those same journalists want to deny responsibility for it. They shouldn’t be allowed to. Forget phone hacking and paparazzi, MMR is the Hillsborough of my profession.
We need quality journalism in the UK, not scare and celebrity stories that sell papers to the gullible.
Another Serious Problem In The Gulf
This story on the BBC’s web site, looks like a severe problem that is going to happen in the Gulf States.
It would appear no-one has died in these high-rise fires, but it strikes me after reading the article, that regulations and building materials aren’t what we would expect in Europe or North America.
A few years ago, I went to Dubai and the number of residential towers going up was amazing. But how many of them are fire traps?
We’ve had the some problems with tower blocks in this country, like the fire at Lakanal House in 2009, but hopefully we’ve not sed too much dangerous cladding. The only tower block, I’ve lived in was Cromwell Tower in the Barbican, which was built in concrete to a very high standard in the 1960s. You felt very safe in that building.
Typing “Barbican Fire” into Google, just gives you this relevant link and that’s about an event, where the City of London Fire Brigade and showing children how to be aware of fire.
My only quesion, is do fire brigades do enough of that sort of thing.
The Anonymous Widower 