Terror Attacks and Grenfell - the British Establishment in Crisis

In the space of a month the UK has suffered three terrorist attacks and seen the mass incineration of dozens of people in a tower block in London. Taken together, they describe a British political establishment in crisis, struggling to deal with the consequences of its own actions and policies at home and abroad.

The destabilization of Libya and Syria, following on the back of the destruction of Iraq, has resulted in blowback, while the courting of Islamophobia at home as a deflection from the root cause of this blowback, has only given succour to the far right and far right extremism.

Hope resides, however, in the outpouring of togetherness and solidarity that has taken place in the wake of each of the aforementioned events, with people of all faiths, races, and backgrounds giving lie to the notion that in societies underpinned by free market economic nostrums, the essential divide in society is between Muslim and non-Muslim, migrant and non-migrant, refugee and native. No, the essential divide is the same as it's been since time immemorial — the divide between rich and poor, between those who have wealth and power and those who do not.

Listen as John sits down with Ben Chacko, editor of the Morning Star newspaper in the UK, to pick over the fallout of one of the most tempestuous months the UK has experienced in many years.

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