Never a second of self doubt

A friend used to refer to some of the people we worked for as people who experienced 'never a second of self doubt.' Most of them were men. Not very important men in the great scheme of things. They were just men who had learned how to use the system to make sure they could rise to the top of the pile - and they made damn sure, when there was trouble, they were not the ones left holding the sticky end of the lollipop.

But at least there was a limit to the amount of damage they could do to the rest of us. They usually reached retirement age and then had to go. (That, of course, is not the case with the Donald Trumps of the world. They're a whole other set of psychopaths and narcissists).

When I switched on the TV tonight I saw a fire officer giving evidence to the Grenfell Inquiry. 'A moment of self doubt' wasn't in this man's vocabulary. He was gutted. This fire happened on his watch. He had carried out the inspections and was on-site when the fire was raging. He followed the protocols set down for his - and his firefighters' - jobs and it all went to hell in a handcart, not because he and his people had done anything wrong but because they had only asked the questions they had been trained to ask. The real questions to ask - what the hell was in the cladding on Grenfell that made it go up like a rocket? what do you do when it's clear a fire is racing through the block and people are following the instruction to 'stay where you are'? - these questions were well above his pay-grade.

My hope is that this man - who I think is an honest man - Michael Dowden by name - and not a big boss of the Fire Brigade or the local council that built the flats but a humble watch manager, is not being set up to carry the can for the guys at the top of the pile. I also hope he's kept his membership of the Fire Brigades Union up to date because he may need it when it comes to fighting his corner.

I live in a block of flats that shelters both elderly people and people with learning difficulties - and there are more and more of us. The written instructions we've been given is to stay where we are in the event of a fire, although I notice a few people head out of the block into the car park when the alarm goes off. Should we still stay where we are? Or should we look at what people in Japan and the USA do in the event of earthquake and volcano alerts?