Another thing many of the fire safety/flame retardants club members have in common is that they support children’s charities. This is how Mike Hagen opens his written submission to the Environmental Audit Committee:
 
“My name is Michael John Hagen. My CV is attached at the end of this submission. I served as a professional firefighter for over 33 years from 1978. Since leaving the Fire Service in late 2011, I have campaigned on Fire Safety on a part-time basis, mainly at a European level, until the end of 2018. Due mainly to the time pressures from my increasing (voluntary) involvement running a charity supporting education in Nepal, I recently reduced my fire safety work.”
 
And this is how he ends it:
 
“Meanwhile, it would never have crossed my mind as a young firefighter in Lancashire in 1978 that, one day, I would be named under parliamentary privilege simply for trying to save lives - I think I should be flattered!”
 
It was me who named him under parliamentary privilege – as someone who is supported by the flame retardant industry with large sums of money for what he claims is “independent” work in fire safety.
 
I find it interesting that he was the only witness who mentioned their charity work which, let’s face it, is irrelevant to the issue at hand. Unless that’s part of its function, to show that this is not the kind of person who would ever cause anyone harm, especially children. Another ex-firefighter also ran a children’s charity but suddenly shut it down when he retired from his full-time job at the time, which was promoting flame retardants. Another of them supports a children’s burns charity which is somewhat ironic since he is a firm supporter of flame retardants which he knows do nothing for the fire safety of our furniture, just get into children’s blood causing a multitude of health problems and, when they burn, shorten the time to incapacitation which means children in a furniture fire are more likely to suffer burns.
 
I believe it’s important to call out these hypocrites with psychopathic tendencies. Who know full well – because they were involved every step of the way – that we proved 5 years ago that the Furniture Regulations do not work. But instead of helping to put them right, they’ve chosen to lie to anyone who will listen that they do save lives. Why? Because they are being funded – both professionally and almost certainly personally – by the flame retardant industry.
 
If you go to my page, THE CASE AGAINST FLAME RETARDANTS, Part Two is the email I sent to Hagen on 23 October. I’m publishing it because I believe it’s a good example of how these people lie and profit from knowingly pushing fire safety measures they know do not work. It shows how, for example, the flame retardant industry controls puppets like Hagen to do their work, with in this case, the single tool of constantly expressing an opinion as fact until everyone believes them. Also, how they set up respectable-looking international fire safety conferences that inevitably attract decent people who don’t know better, whose presence is used in turn by the FR industry to further justify their products. Just like Scientology.
 
As of today, 27th October, Hagen has not replied [update: no reply by 13 January 2020; safe to assume therefore that there will not be one]. He may be wary of the extensive copy list I included. But it’s an open challenge: if he can prove me wrong, I’ll happily and publicly admit it and apologise to him. 
 
But both he and I know I’m right. Therefore, aside from more opinion-expressed-as-fact there isn’t anything he can say by way of reply. It’s most likely he’ll take the coward’s way out and not reply. This is common, in my experience. It’s utterly pathetic, of course, but at least it’s confirmation of sorts that you’ve called them out accurately for the dangerous liars that they are.

Groucho Marx famously once turned down the offer to join an exclusive gentlemens' club, informing that quite frankly, he wouldn't want to be a member of any club that would have him as a member. What makes this really funny is that he probably wasn't joking.
 
The fire safety world is full of clubs, associations and federations. None of them has ever asked me to join which is a shame since that means I can't do a Groucho on them. But it does at least tell me that I'm probably on the right track. 
 
I did manage to slip through the net towards the end of 2017 and get a speaking spot at the FIRE Congress, "Out of the flames: a fire safe future after the tragedy of Grenfell Tower". Many of the fire clubs were present: National Fire Chief's Council, Fire Sector Federation, Fire Protection Association, LFB, FBU and others. Although the event was intended to look at the lessons of Grenfell and plan a fire safe future for all, there weren't any Grenfell residents there, quite possibly because ticket prices started at just over £200 for the day. What was the main solution all these clubs came up with? You probably guessed it - to set up a new Council/Association/Academy (I forget precisely which), that would of course mean yet another club to join; new expenses to claim and dinners to attend. 
 
There is an unoffical club of clubs within the fire sector, and most of its members were present that day, for example Dave Sibert then of the FBU (before he got sacked for colluding with the flame retardant industry) and another great lover of flame retardants, Paul Fuller, who had to leave early because he had another charity dinner to attend. I'd been invited to dinner the night before by the congress organiser. Sibert and Fuller were there too (although they went through convolutions to make sure they weren't sitting next to me) but while they could wave their union paid for credit cards at the waiter, I had to pay for my own dinner. Staying Groucho clearly costs.
 
And so the same names crop up again and again in these fire clubs. Why is that a problem? Well, they do of course all know each other; go to the same conferences; stay at the same hotels; buy each other drinks, etc. Bottom line? Five years ago, the government proved that the Furniture Regulations are not fit for purpose; that they aren't fire-safe. Yet not one of these club members has done a single thing about that, even though they're meant to be dedicated to fire safety. Not a single one of them has ever denied it's true, either.