Londyn how we doing me alright alright
yeah my name is Ben Bailey Smith I’m an
artist born and bred in West London but
you know before I got into show business
I spent 10 years as a youth worker
working in youth clubs in Edgware Road
in Paddington in Queens Park made a veil
set up my own youth center for the
children of refugees and asylum seekers
in in Queen’s Park so I had quite a
profound shift from working in my
community working with local people and
working with people from overseas living
beneath the poverty line it turn into
show business quite a quite a big shift
to be honest I’ve always kept one eye on
the community that I came from and last
year there was a huge tragedy and I have
to say a travesty that occurred right in
the centre of that my old stomping
grounds essentially in the fire that
engulfed the Grenfell tower causing
fascinatingly out of that fire a phoenix
arose in the shape of justice for
Grenfell which is a community layer
non-profit organisation fighting for
justice in an area where no one else was
willing to go it’s a tough fight it’s an
incredible fight it’s one I’ve been
privileged enough to see up close and
tonight I want to share with you some of
the stories from white right within that
organisation so yeah and what we have
for you is is something unique a real
piece of insight I would say and please
now welcome to the stage
the youngest member of the justice for
Grenfell team with a whole new approach
to fighting for justice it’s Tasha braid
Tasha hi hi doing good good
now you born and bred labradors
West London ah fascinating
to meet you and talk with you before
this because I guess I assumed before I
met you you were somebody who’d grown up
fighting in Justices you involved in
charities left right and center and then
Grenfell arrived and you’re like what’s
on my doorstep I’m involved but actually
your story is really different how did
you get involved um yeah my story is
quite different I have no experience in
this whatsoever
I went down in the morning with my
boyfriend and kind of saw what was going
on and then kind of kicked into action
started trying to compile a list of
names and addresses of people who could
give spare rooms CNN put my number up on
their humanity on their Twitter page so
I had loads of incoming rooms flooding
in and that was my first kind of that
was how I tried to help Ashley after
that I kind of helped in donation
centers for a little while and then all
of a sudden this darkness hit me and it
was a dark it was sadness sadness had
never felt before and an anger that I’d
never experienced before
Eva so I had this kind of Darkness for
about three to four months and it was
just PTSD and it was really bad and I
mean it’s nothing what the bereaved and
survivors have been through it was my
own experience and I knew I needed to
find a way to deal with that so I saw a
leaflet justice for grandfa were
organizing a coach to go up to
Manchester to the protest at the Tory
Party conference and I was like right
I’m gonna go with them so I jumped on
the coach we ran up to Manchester and
with all the slogans and all the chance
I was like this is where I need to be I
need to be doing something actively that
you did have a job at this stage yeah I
had two jobs at the stage so I was
working hard on longside that
and then I kind of we got back to London
and I’ve never felt so empowered and
like okay there’s a change that can be
made here so I kind of sent an email to
justice foreground for that we have to
mean please and yeah kind of history ya
know when I when I first met you you
were multitasking you’re on the phone
you were watching the inquiry you know
sending messages back and forth emails
and whatnot
and I met your two colleagues and I
thought with no disrespect to them
whatsoever they’ve got a young gun for
hire here who maybe has a slightly
different approach are you getting
involved on the social media side are
you how are you engaging young people
that’s kind of my thing my thing is
social media so I set up an Instagram
account a Twitter account they already
had but try to up those followers reach
out on Facebook kind of the things that
I would do in my daily life anyway to
reach out to people but just use them as
platforms to kind of try to reach a lot
more people in a quicker amount of time
so those are kind of the things that I’m
good at I’m good at Instagram I’m happy
to be doing those kind of things and
it’s really interesting I’m engaging
with people who want to help over those
kind of platforms when I was I mean I’ve
been to cog growing up same place as you
I’ve been to kind of all from a fetus
i-i’ve seen photos of me in my mom’s
belly at Carnival which is you know it
always brings a brings a smile but last
year as much fun as I had it was so
overwhelming I mean the just those
moments of remembrance
I found overpowering and I mean the
world knows how many people we get kind
of always a lot of people and to feel
that emotion all in one place was it was
a profound moment for me what is it do
you think is uniting us not just
Londoners but across the UK I mean you
saw how the first few days went in terms
of the attention
that came from everywhere in the UK all
over the world what is it about this
that is striking a chord well I think
with grandfa it’s so different I mean
there were people hundreds of people
standing outside the table that night
thousands of people can see the tower
from their windows and millions of
people were watching from home and as
the story progresses as we find out all
of these safety floors appear that the
council and the government knew about I
think that angers people and that unites
people in a way this is the biggest
social injustice of my lifetime in my
home it’s a good point in time you know
72 people minimum died and this is the
biggest loss of life since world war two
on British soil
and it’s not being treated like that and
I think that says something about the
way that the government and local
national II and locally are dealing with
it but also the support that we have
nationwide worldwide is incredible so
people do recognize that this should
never have happened and it could have
been prevented at so many stages so we
think in a way that unites everyone
everyone knows that this is just it’s an
awful thing and it didn’t have to happen
and those children and those women and
those men did not have to lose their
lives yeah I’ve got a good 10 years of
age on you and I think my disaster if
you like as a child was was Hillsborough
in 89 and it blows my mind there’s only
a couple of years ago they were really
getting into finding justice for the 96
people that lost their lives at
Hillsborough what fascinates me about
grenfell is that our access to
information is so much more complete now
that there’s no hiding place and the
inquiries already started what hopes do
you have the those responsible will be
found to be responsible I think at the
moment or you can have really its hope
and faith that it will happen and I
think that I mean our government is very
good at hiding things and covering
things up but
with this access to information that we
all have that we can all share the split
second I think we’re kind of a we’re in
a different circumstance – Hillsboro as
it were because of the fact that we can
reach out we can do stuff like this we
can talk to people we can say get
involved talk to each other about what
happened to Grandpa and I also think
that with what I think I really believe
that what will keep this fight for
justice going and what is really
important is I really believe they
messed with the wrong community from the
bottom of my heart I know that the
laboratoire last mirage community its
history is incredible and we’re not
going to let this go this has happened
most of us saw it happen and we’ve been
following the story ever since and we
are angry and we’re not going to stop I
mean listen only a fool would mess with
West London ladies and gentlemen the
future of justice for Grenfell Tasha brain
yeah my name is Ben Bailey Smith I’m an
artist born and bred in West London but
you know before I got into show business
I spent 10 years as a youth worker
working in youth clubs in Edgware Road
in Paddington in Queens Park made a veil
set up my own youth center for the
children of refugees and asylum seekers
in in Queen’s Park so I had quite a
profound shift from working in my
community working with local people and
working with people from overseas living
beneath the poverty line it turn into
show business quite a quite a big shift
to be honest I’ve always kept one eye on
the community that I came from and last
year there was a huge tragedy and I have
to say a travesty that occurred right in
the centre of that my old stomping
grounds essentially in the fire that
engulfed the Grenfell tower causing
fascinatingly out of that fire a phoenix
arose in the shape of justice for
Grenfell which is a community layer
non-profit organisation fighting for
justice in an area where no one else was
willing to go it’s a tough fight it’s an
incredible fight it’s one I’ve been
privileged enough to see up close and
tonight I want to share with you some of
the stories from white right within that
organisation so yeah and what we have
for you is is something unique a real
piece of insight I would say and please
now welcome to the stage
the youngest member of the justice for
Grenfell team with a whole new approach
to fighting for justice it’s Tasha braid
Tasha hi hi doing good good
now you born and bred labradors
West London ah fascinating
to meet you and talk with you before
this because I guess I assumed before I
met you you were somebody who’d grown up
fighting in Justices you involved in
charities left right and center and then
Grenfell arrived and you’re like what’s
on my doorstep I’m involved but actually
your story is really different how did
you get involved um yeah my story is
quite different I have no experience in
this whatsoever
I went down in the morning with my
boyfriend and kind of saw what was going
on and then kind of kicked into action
started trying to compile a list of
names and addresses of people who could
give spare rooms CNN put my number up on
their humanity on their Twitter page so
I had loads of incoming rooms flooding
in and that was my first kind of that
was how I tried to help Ashley after
that I kind of helped in donation
centers for a little while and then all
of a sudden this darkness hit me and it
was a dark it was sadness sadness had
never felt before and an anger that I’d
never experienced before
Eva so I had this kind of Darkness for
about three to four months and it was
just PTSD and it was really bad and I
mean it’s nothing what the bereaved and
survivors have been through it was my
own experience and I knew I needed to
find a way to deal with that so I saw a
leaflet justice for grandfa were
organizing a coach to go up to
Manchester to the protest at the Tory
Party conference and I was like right
I’m gonna go with them so I jumped on
the coach we ran up to Manchester and
with all the slogans and all the chance
I was like this is where I need to be I
need to be doing something actively that
you did have a job at this stage yeah I
had two jobs at the stage so I was
working hard on longside that
and then I kind of we got back to London
and I’ve never felt so empowered and
like okay there’s a change that can be
made here so I kind of sent an email to
justice foreground for that we have to
mean please and yeah kind of history ya
know when I when I first met you you
were multitasking you’re on the phone
you were watching the inquiry you know
sending messages back and forth emails
and whatnot
and I met your two colleagues and I
thought with no disrespect to them
whatsoever they’ve got a young gun for
hire here who maybe has a slightly
different approach are you getting
involved on the social media side are
you how are you engaging young people
that’s kind of my thing my thing is
social media so I set up an Instagram
account a Twitter account they already
had but try to up those followers reach
out on Facebook kind of the things that
I would do in my daily life anyway to
reach out to people but just use them as
platforms to kind of try to reach a lot
more people in a quicker amount of time
so those are kind of the things that I’m
good at I’m good at Instagram I’m happy
to be doing those kind of things and
it’s really interesting I’m engaging
with people who want to help over those
kind of platforms when I was I mean I’ve
been to cog growing up same place as you
I’ve been to kind of all from a fetus
i-i’ve seen photos of me in my mom’s
belly at Carnival which is you know it
always brings a brings a smile but last
year as much fun as I had it was so
overwhelming I mean the just those
moments of remembrance
I found overpowering and I mean the
world knows how many people we get kind
of always a lot of people and to feel
that emotion all in one place was it was
a profound moment for me what is it do
you think is uniting us not just
Londoners but across the UK I mean you
saw how the first few days went in terms
of the attention
that came from everywhere in the UK all
over the world what is it about this
that is striking a chord well I think
with grandfa it’s so different I mean
there were people hundreds of people
standing outside the table that night
thousands of people can see the tower
from their windows and millions of
people were watching from home and as
the story progresses as we find out all
of these safety floors appear that the
council and the government knew about I
think that angers people and that unites
people in a way this is the biggest
social injustice of my lifetime in my
home it’s a good point in time you know
72 people minimum died and this is the
biggest loss of life since world war two
on British soil
and it’s not being treated like that and
I think that says something about the
way that the government and local
national II and locally are dealing with
it but also the support that we have
nationwide worldwide is incredible so
people do recognize that this should
never have happened and it could have
been prevented at so many stages so we
think in a way that unites everyone
everyone knows that this is just it’s an
awful thing and it didn’t have to happen
and those children and those women and
those men did not have to lose their
lives yeah I’ve got a good 10 years of
age on you and I think my disaster if
you like as a child was was Hillsborough
in 89 and it blows my mind there’s only
a couple of years ago they were really
getting into finding justice for the 96
people that lost their lives at
Hillsborough what fascinates me about
grenfell is that our access to
information is so much more complete now
that there’s no hiding place and the
inquiries already started what hopes do
you have the those responsible will be
found to be responsible I think at the
moment or you can have really its hope
and faith that it will happen and I
think that I mean our government is very
good at hiding things and covering
things up but
with this access to information that we
all have that we can all share the split
second I think we’re kind of a we’re in
a different circumstance – Hillsboro as
it were because of the fact that we can
reach out we can do stuff like this we
can talk to people we can say get
involved talk to each other about what
happened to Grandpa and I also think
that with what I think I really believe
that what will keep this fight for
justice going and what is really
important is I really believe they
messed with the wrong community from the
bottom of my heart I know that the
laboratoire last mirage community its
history is incredible and we’re not
going to let this go this has happened
most of us saw it happen and we’ve been
following the story ever since and we
are angry and we’re not going to stop I
mean listen only a fool would mess with
West London ladies and gentlemen the
future of justice for Grenfell Tasha brain
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