Church and State blog: Idea Store Whitechapel library and the booking of computers

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Idea Store Whitechapel library and the booking of computers

Last night Declan and I were visited for the third time by our St Mungo's CAT – the first time was on 7 November and the second the following night. They only stayed for a few minutes. They wanted to inform us that they didn't have a night shelter to refer us to, but that they would drop in on us again when they have something. We have been sleeping rough since we arrived in London on 3 November. We are carrying everything we own, including documentation. And we still have another 11 days to go to our High Court hearing on 11 December.

So after speaking to the PA to the CEO of St Mungo's, the Private Secretary to the Leader of Tower Hamlets Council, the Assistant Private Secretary to the Minister for Housing and Planning (having emailed the Minister for Housing and Planning), and having emailed Prime Minister Tony Blair – all in relation to the dereliction of duty of care on the part of St Mungo's – what you get is ... nothing. It seems to me that St Mungo's, despite its turnover of £37.2m in 2005, is a pawn in a game of chess being played by the Metropolitan Police – the end-game being to stop us running a network of those abused by church.

Yesterday was women's clothes day in the Whitechapel Mission. At 7.30am I asked a member of staff for some items of clothing. I actually passed him a written list, which included a small description of each item since they don't allow me to see the clothes. By 9.00am they hadn't given me anything and because we had to leave for the Dellow Centre, Declan told the member of staff that we would collect the clothes this morning. The clothes I need are all necessities for rough sleeping, such as a thick jumper, woollen stocks and hat, thermal long john pants and long-sleeved vest, etc. The last two nights have been particularly cold.

I wasn't really expecting much, especially since I had been trying to get a pair of jeans off them for over two weeks and got nothing except two pairs that I had to return because they fit so badly. I wasn't mistaken. I asked for a hooded dark coloured jumper and got literally the opposite. The cap they gave me you would put in a bin if you saw it on top of a chair in a library; somebody must have been in stitches when it was put in the bag. I also got two pairs of woollen socks, thermal long john pants (but not the thermal long-sleeved vest), and 65p Tesco underwear. So much for the Whitechapel Mission offering "the largest clothing store in London available to the homeless". At least I have resolved the problem of my legs being cold at night!

Going to the Dellow Centre has become a bit of a nonsense for me, which is why this morning Declan went alone. I went to the library instead. We walk 20 minutes from the Whitechapel Mission to the Dellow Centre, carrying all our belongings with us. Once at the gate we have to wait for 20 minutes in the cold, and more often than not in the rain as well. Each person in the queue must speak his/her name into the intercom at the front gate, and be registered, to gain entry. At reception, you get a number which you present at the kitchen counter in exchange for a tray and what's on offer. Lately the only thing I have been getting out of it is a soup and a shower – the latter I can get at the Whitechapel Mission. Hardly worth my while.

Things in the library, Idea Store Whitechapel, are starting to heat up. For the last three weeks I have been able to book computers at will with my membership card. There is of course the odd mistake here and there – a lost hour because the member of staff forgot to save the hour I had been given, wrong computer number, etc. Yesterday I was told that the maximum time allowed on a computer is three hours a day. Declan immediately got the name of the manager, and his email address off another member of staff. Today I have booked computers for a total of 8 1/2 hours, although a member of staff had earlier told me I could only do so for a total of six hours. With the library seemingly making up policies in relation to us, Declan emailed the manager this evening.

Dear Mr. Abidin,

Further to our brief talk this evening, I reconfirm that for the past three weeks my wife has been booking access to computers in Idea Store Whitechapel without restriction save yesterday when she was told by a member of staff that she could only do so for a maximum of 3 hours a day. Today she has booked access to computers for a total of 8 1/2 hours, although a member of staff told her she could only do so for a maximum of 6 hours a day.

I would greatly appreciate if you could furnish me with a response that my wife could use in the event of further difficulty.

Yours sincerely,
Declan Heavey

Church and State

MAYOR OF LONDON RSI PROPERTY
DAY 406 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A SECTION 21 NOTICE

(SEE PARA. 3 BELOW)

1. Our 308 Honorary Associates include 20 Nobel Prize laureates. Declan and I are engaged in a project that deals with the publication of issues significant to social policy in a number of key areas, e.g., climate change, population, futurism, atheism, and free speech. Established as Network for Church Monitoring, a non-profit company limited by guarantee, our main publication, found at the website, Church and State, calls attention to subjects, not the least which have been critical of the interaction between religious and secular institutions. We have been the target of numerous threats and actions, e.g., the former resulting in threats to Declan's life, and the latter, which have led to vandalism. The various incidents are on record with the police and other official agencies.

2. There are no less than 63 Nobel Prize laureates on the Church and State website from 20 Honorary Associates, eight articles, nine book excerpts and 33 petition signatories. (For example, one Nobel laureate signed our Nobel petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research and gave us permission to excerpt from one of his books.) Our list of associates also includes 18 US National Medal laureates, and six Turing Award laureates (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science). We have published one article and excerpted from the books of seven members of the British House of Lords. And there are 31 knighted professors on the site from 13 Honorary Associates, one book excerpt and 21 petition signatories. These figures are despite the never-ending assault on our email (this link reveals the targeting of our emails to, among others, a close colleague in Washington, DC as well as space advocates and Nobel laureates).

3. This is Day 406 for us living under the threat to life of a 'no fault' eviction by Peabody Trust.[1] We live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property. Peabody's appalling new terms of tenancy have forced us into an unstable weekly periodic tenancy that poses a threat to Declan's life and inhibits our ability to exercise our rights. Declan accumulated quite a history with the Housing Ombudsman Service before he received the Ombudsman's decision not to investigate a referral from Lyn Brown MP on jurisdictional grounds. The Ombudsman was asked to consider whether or not our tenancy has been renewed like for like; and whether, if not, it should be in light of the landlord having accused us of not signing a like-for-like agreement. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will not accept a referral of discrimination from Ms Brown, the Commission's helpline (EASS) having grossly distorted the complaint against Peabody. We no longer have pro se access to the courts (see next paragraph).

4. This eviction matter came before District Judge Ruth Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June 2020, when both counsel for St Mungo's (the charity in effective control of our tenancy) and Declan presented their positions. Declan lost the case and was ordered to pay £1,850 in costs. A publishing colleague in America cleared these costs within 24 hours of my blog post about this hearing for strike out on a related issue that was the essence of the claim, i.e., that St Mungo's would take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of the Mayor of London's RSI programme. Within a week of the hearing, St Mungo's had agreed to take this phone call for us both, the Court having ruled that they were not obliged to do so despite our circumstances. This time we escaped bankruptcy (counsel for St Mungo's asked for £3,407.50 in costs), but consider that to seek pro se access to justice in the courts has become far too dangerous for us. Declan currently has before the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman the decision of the Information Commissioner that allows St Mungo's to continue processing coercive support plans without our knowledge or consent and that also poses a threat to his life.

5. When it comes to traffic, we have had 10.7 million hits in the past three years on Facebook; however, I left the platform on 13 March 2021 for one year rather than risk being banned for life. It is indisputable that with any sort of level playing field Church and State would have far exceeded 2.5 million hits last year. In addition to a large variety of blocks without explanation, Facebook had so severely restricted our Page's distribution by October 2020 that it was almost as good as an unpublished page.[2] Currently, we are up to their 85th block since 1 December 2015, and as usual without an explanation. This block records as one half of their 3rd double block in the first five weeks of this year that lasted 60 days. Our traffic has also been curtailed by over 2.5K blocks on access to Church and State since 26 July 2016, including 29 full distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks since 17 May 2019 that have lasted for as long as 54 hours at a time.[3] About 70% of our hits are from Americans.

"This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way Facebook is treating your highly reputable site." Don Collins, Founder, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC

Last updated: 26/06/21

_________________________

[1] Once a fixed term has elapsed, the landlord has the option to seek eviction even if the tenant has upheld their obligations in full (though of course the landlord must still apply for and obtain a county court order).

[2] 17/10/20: We have permission to publish this ISAF letter of 30 September to Facebook COO Sheryl Samberg. Facebook has so severely restricted our Page's distribution since 4 September that it's almost as good as an unpublished page

[3] Since October 2019, we have been defining a full DDoS attack as having such a high volume of up to 4-minute blocks on access to Church and State that we don't bother recording them all.

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Thursday, November 30, 2006

Idea Store Whitechapel library and the booking of computers

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