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A merry-go-round of buckpassing, inside the four-year Grenfell inquiry by Robert Booth.

A crime had been committed. That was clear as dawn broke on the burning wreck of Grenfell Tower

in West London on 14 June 2017. As the death toll climbed, the obvious questions arose.

Who was responsible? How did a council block in the UK's richest borough,

refurbished just a year earlier, come to being golfed in flames that swept from its fourth

to 24th floor in less than 30 minutes? Why did 72 people die?

We need to have an explanation of this. We owe that to the families.

Said Prime Minister Theresa May on 15 June 2017.

She reached for an investigatory method beloved of government's keen to be seen,

to be doing something after devastating scandals, disasters and wars.

The public inquiry.

The purpose of a public inquiry is to find out what happened and why and to prevent whatever happened from happening again.

Since 1997, there have never been fewer than three public inquiries running at any one time.

They tend to be chaired by retired, dependable white male judges. Between 1990 and 2017,

there were more chairs called William or Anthony than women.

The fourth coming Covid-19 inquiry chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett is a rare exception.

For Grenfell, Theresa May chose a Martin.

So Martin Morbick, a retired appeal court judge, expert in contract law,

...