Want justice for the victims of Grenfell? It’s now clearer than ever that public inquiries are not the answer | Simon Jenkins

After seven years of public inquiry we have a 1,700 -page report and a cost of more than 200 m.

Yet so far we have no closure, no prosecutions and no convictions.

Those principally to blame for the Grenfell disaster have long been identified, primarily the makers and the regulators of the tower’s cladding.

It is no wonder victims’ families and others are demanding they be thrown in jail.

In the cases of Grenfell , the Post Office and infected blood, this should surely mean heavy fines, dismissals and restrictions on office-holding. In most non-violent crimes, this should be coupled with various forms of restorative justice. Reform is not to be found in interminable lawyer-led inquiries, nor in the primitivism of the jail cell. Reform can lie only in an intelligent and sensitive government. As lawyers wander back to the Grenfell trough, what hope is there of that?.