As the Queen said in her birthday
message, as a nation we have faced a series of human tragedies leaving a sombre
mood. A string of terror attacks including those in Manchester, London
Bridge and then Finsbury in recent days has left us all wondering why there is
so much hate in the world today. But we have also shown our strength together
and have been resolute as a country in making sure such hate does not prevail
and that we carry on with our lives.
On top of these events we have
had the appalling Grenfell Tower fire tragedy last week. The suffering of
those caught up in this dreadful event causes distress to everyone. There
has been anger too since it seems extraordinary that, with all the building
regulations and fire regulations that are in place, cladding that seems to have
been flammable could have been used on the building. The government has
established a Public Inquiry to investigate why the fire was able to spread in
the way that it did. While anger is understandable, we should, at times like this,
reserve judgement and blame until an inquiry fully establishes exactly what
went wrong and then we should act to ensure such mistakes are never made again.
The disaster was also a reminder
of the tremendous and often dangerous and difficult work done by our
emergency services, including local firefighter Ben Holehouse who used to live
in Camborne and now works for the London Fire Brigade and was one of those who
fought the fire at Grenfell Tower. Closer to home, this week fire crews
across Cornwall also fought a major fire at the recycling centre at Pool.
Despite the gloomy tragedies in
recent months, we have to carry on with life as normal. On a brighter
note last weekend the sun was shining for Murdoch Day in Redruth and the town
turned out in force. The streets were packed and local schools danced to
celebrate the life and achievements of William Murdoch, the local inventor and
engineer. Murdoch was one of the pioneers of steam power development in
Cornwall and famously invented the first ever gas light using piped gas. The day was a happier and brighter end to an otherwise tragic
week.
