Channel Four News aired an astonishing interview tonight in which singer and Lily Allen accused the government and the media of ‘micromanaging’ people’s grieving by massively downplaying the actual death toll.
As of the time of writing, the reported death count in the mainstream media was 17, but Allen says that reports from ‘policeman and firemen’ on the ground have put the real figure at closer to 150.
Allen stated that:
I feel like the government are trying to micromanage people’s grieving here… I’ve never in my entire life seen an event like this, where the death count has been downplayed by the mainstream media. 17? I’m sorry, but I’m hearing from people that the figure is much closer to 150, and that many of those people are children.
Channel Four presenter Jon Snow responded, saying that:
The difficulty is that they have to identify bodies. And there can be very little left in this building.
However, Allen replied:
I appreciate that. But these are families. And when… you identify a body, you report it to the next of kin. There are no next of kin.
Allen clearly feels that the media and the government are downplaying the actual death toll to avoid an inevitable backlash from the public, stating that:
If people’s hope turns to anger, they’ve (the government) got a real problem on their hands.
A massively increased death toll of 150 in the disaster at Grenfell Tower would mean an extremely angry public demanding answers from the government.
Answers that this current regulation-stripping Tory shambles would almost certainly not be able to provide.
