Defence for a court

As I explained in the last blog, it is inevitable that I am going to be arrested for begging, so I have been keeping a diary since last Monday to record the number of Big Issues (a magazine sold by homeless people) that Declan and I buy and sell, the hours we stand on our pitches (vendors have their own registered pitches), and also when we are walked off the pitches by other street traders (vendors can be de-badged if they argue with street traders over pitches).

It is going to be very clear to a judge that Declan and I are completely innocent of any wrong doing. In fact, although it rained a lot last week, Declan and I stood in our pitches for hours, which would not win us a prize considering we sleep in our coats – for example, I stood on my pitch all Friday evening, well over two hours, despite only selling one Big Issue. I now have a cold but at least we were able to do without me having to beg. Incidentally, on Thursday evening I had two drunken homeless harassing me while I was on my pitch – I have a railing to one side – one of whom urinated less than a half a metre from where I stood.

Of course, it doesn’t mean we were given a red carpet: on Thursday, The London Paper once again took over Declan’s pitch, The Times having done so Monday. And because we never know when or for how long we will be moved out of our pitches (the Sun newspaper took over my pitch during lunch for over a month and a half), we can only buy a few magazines at a time so that we are left with some money for food whenever we can’t sell The Big Issue.

There is also now a Big Issue vendor who likes to work my pitch when I am not there and I suspect he may want to stir up some trouble: on Friday evening he didn’t leave when I arrived but lit a cigarette and provocatively smoked it close to me for a few minutes. I don’t need to be reminded that in mid-April we lost a shared weekday pitch in trendy Covent Garden (which paid for our weekly bus tickets) to a vendor who had made it very clear to us that he wanted the pitch for himself.

We got wind a few days ago that the rolling winter shelter projects are opening now (you sleep on the floor in a few different locations each week), and of course Declan and I would like to get a place on one of them. For a few weeks last winter, we attended the West London Churches Homeless Concern project – we actually spent 3 hours on buses on many occasions getting to various places – but had to pull out as result of threats and intimidation: for example, on 24 January one of the homeless crossed the hall to where Declan was sleeping and came down with considerable force on Declan’s crotch with a flat hand. It seems there is no such project running in East London (our area) this year either, the nearest that we know of being run out of Camden. That said, it is going to be almost impossible for Declan and I to put together £30 a week to buy the two bus tickets we would need to get around every night. In the past, most of our money came from the pitch in Convent Garden, which Declan worked on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and two pitches in Long Acre, also in Covent Garden, which we got most weekends. All of that is history now.

Aside from the obvious question as to why I am begging – I have my diary and also Declan’s urgent request to the European Court of Human Rights for expedition of his case against the UK, made on 8 September, as an answer – I also expect the judge to ask me why we don’t get a job, apply for benefits or find ourselves a hostel.

With regard to getting a job (Declan also deals with this in his application to the European Court), the answer couldn’t be simpler: you just can’t either find or look for a job while you are sleeping in a porch, in the elements. Sometimes we only get 3 or 4 hours sleep, I have been assaulted, not to mention the deterioration of our health arising from a nutritionally inadequate diet, poor clothing, and being unable to afford transport since July. And yes, I would be telling the judge that when the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) illegally terminated our benefits, I was studying computing in Central University Birmingham – I am no bum. Sadly, neither my Spanish degree in Psychology nor my diploma in Marketing is valid here in the UK.

As for why we don’t sign for jobseekers allowance, well the answer is plainly that we believe that the DWP will find another way to see that our benefits are again terminated. Otherwise, how would any reasonable person explain that, during the year we were on benefits, Declan had to apply to the High Court for leave to apply for an urgent judicial review after our benefits were suspended not once but twice (on 10 April and 24 August 2006, the latter is part of Declan’s application to the European Court)? That our benefits were eventually terminated because Declan didn’t sign on two days before he was due to do so? That when Declan informed not only the jobcentre but also the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions of their mistake, the decision was not changed, in breach of the law? That Declan was not provided with the explanation he was entitled to within a month for an automatic right to appeal to a social security appeal tribunal? Oh, and lastly, the DWP has never provided me with a National Insurance number, despite that a person is not entitled to benefits without one, which I obviously was, and, without Declan, I would have the same rights as an illegal refugee, instead of the full rights I should have, with Irish citizenship.

With regard to why we are not in shelter, well, we did find the West London Churches Homeless Concern and had to quit. We also tried the Missionaries of Charity – the only ones that do self-referral in London – and after spending money we didn’t have on phone calls, it turned out that one moment they had a place for me in one hostel and a place for Declan in another, but when Declan phoned back the women’s hostel, he was told there was no vacancy for me. Eventually we gave up. As for other hostels accessed by homeless, on 22 November 2006 the Dellow Centre recorded on my registration form that St Mungo’s, London’s largest homelessness organisation, had informed the centre that we couldn’t be referred to a hostel “due to not being on any benefits”.

So we are very much in a catch-22 situation: if we go on benefits we lose our European Court case, only to find ourselves back on the streets; and if we stay on the streets, well, we face either starvation or a criminal record for begging. Surely any reasonable person would come to the conclusion that we really don’t have much choice but to keep going on the streets, hoping that somebody in the European Court will take our case off the shelf for expedition. As I have already stated in this blog, the case of Papon v France was expedited by the Court under rule 41 of the Convention because of the advance age and ill-health of the applicant in prison: the case was lodged on 12 January 2001 and on 23 January the Court asked the respondent Government to submit information and comments about the applicant’s conditions and regime.

Today in the Sunday Telegraph there was a front page news item on former Prime Minister Tony Blair complaining that “he had been unable to follow the example of US politicians, such as President George W Bush, in being open about his faith because people in Britain regarded religion with suspicion”. His comments, of course, have been welcomed by the Archbishop of York, Rev John Sentamu, who said: "Mr Blair's comments highlight the need for greater recognition to be given to the role faith has played in shaping our country. Those secularists who would dismiss faith as nothing more than a private affair are profoundly mistaken in their understanding of faith." Declan and I very much wish that “faith” would be regarded as a private affair or we might end up like many homeless, pushing a trolley along and talking to ourselves after decades on the streets.

Anyway, for the record, this is the email that Declan sent on Thursday evening to the executive chairman of Rupert Murdoch’s London-based News International, which owns several newspapers, including The London Paper and The Times:

Subject: The London Paper

Dear Mr Hinton,

I refer further to my letter and enclosure to you of 31 July 2007, a copy of which I sent by fax and registered post to the Chairman & CEO of News Corporation, Mr Rupert Murdoch, and wish to confirm the takeover once again this afternoon of my Big Issue pitch outside McDonald's on Liverpool Street by The London Paper.

As I reconfirm in my email to you of 20 November about the takeover of the same pitch by The Times on 19 November, I am in receipt of a letter of 10 September from Dr John Bird, Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Big Issue, stating:

I have employed many people over the years to do jobs related to the running of The Big Issue. I have never employed them to do my job; likewise I do not do their job. Please bear this in mind when you are composing your letters. You do not need to address your letters to me, as it is not my job. I would only get involved if you were utterly and totally let down by those whose job it is in The Big Issue. I hope this assists in your deliberations in pursuit of your claims.

Yours sincerely,
Declan Heavey
Big Issue badge no. 1163

cc  Mr Nick Hallett, Distribution Manager, The London Paper
      Mr Paul Joseph, Outreach Manager, The Big Issue

Arrest is inevitable

Yesterday morning at 7.00am I had to beg in Liverpool Street Station (see previous blog), so that Declan and I could buy a few Big Issue magazines – sold by homeless people throughout the UK. I wasn’t stopped by police (begging is illegal in England) and by 8.15am I had been given enough money to be able to afford several Big Issues. Nevertheless, I had to go back to the station early in the afternoon after neither Declan nor I sold anything during lunch – those who pass by our pitches are mostly city workers from the finance and banking industry.

In the evening Declan’s pitch was again taken over, this time by a street distributor of a free edition of The Times newspaper. A Times distributor also did his best to put me out of business when he began passing his papers almost beside me. At 6.30pm I left him by my pitch and again went to the train station to beg – after standing in my pitch, in the rain, for well over two hours, all I sold were two Big Issues.

It really is inevitable that I am going to be arrested, having been issued two tickets last week for begging. Declan and I are in fact resigned to it. We are already living in extreme poverty – I am actually lucky I didn’t fall ill last night sleeping in a wet coat – and it now only takes a rainy day or a street distributor to send me to the train station to beg. (As result of the problems last week with street distributors of London Lite and ShortList, over the weekend we didn’t have the money to buy food, nor the fare to take a bus to the West End where we might have availed of a soup run, resulting in both of us starving and feeling overall very weak.)

We also have little doubt that eventually I will have to do prison time, perhaps sooner than later. Still, I prefer being the one that is doing the begging because I believe Declan is better equipped to survive the street alone – although for how long it will prove possible for him to do so is anyone’s guess.

For the record, this is the email that Declan sent this afternoon to the executive chairman of Rupert Murdoch’s London-based News International, which owns several newspapers, including The Times:

Subject: The Times

Dear Mr Hinton,

I refer further to my letter and enclosure to you of 31 July 2007, a copy of which I sent by fax and registered post to the Chairman & CEO of News Corporation, Mr Rupert Murdoch, and wish to confirm the takeover yesterday afternoon of my Big Issue pitch outside McDonald's on Liverpool Street by The Times.

I can also reconfirm in respect of my numerous complaints to you on this issue that I am in receipt of a letter of 10 September from Dr John Bird, Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Big Issue, stating:

I have employed many people over the years to do jobs related to the running of The Big Issue. I have never employed them to do my job; likewise I do not do their job. Please bear this in mind when you are composing your letters. You do not need to address your letters to me, as it is not my job. I would only get involved if you were utterly and totally let down by those whose job it is in The Big Issue. I hope this assists in your deliberations in pursuit of your claims.

Yours sincerely,
Declan Heavey
BI badge no. 1163

cc  Trevor Jones, Circulation Manager, The Times
      Paul Joseph, Outreach Manager, The Big Issue

Extreme poverty

Yet another round of extreme poverty. Having been starved on Thursday (see previous blog on the latest takeover of my Big Issue pitch by the free ShortList magazine), on Friday morning I was forced to go back into Liverpool Street Station to beg so Declan and I could buy some food over the weekend, as no homeless centre opens around our area on Saturday or Sunday (except the Methodist Church-run Whitechapel Mission, but we were barred on 18 June by the minister’s wife due to concerns about our safety).

On Wednesday morning, in the station, I was informed as two police officers were ticketing me for the second time in two days for begging – I have been begging in the train station since mid-September without difficulty, but then, of course, Declan didn’t have what is now a well-endorsed petition up on the internet to the UN for a declaration in respect of research cloning of embryos and stem cells – that the next time I am caught begging I will be arrested or given a fine of £80, which, if I don’t pay, will land me in prison. Anyway, I went back in carrying my own bags, having said good-bye to Declan and not knowing when I would meet him next.

As soon as a kind person is passing me some change, who comes from behind me but the (Polish, I think) policeman who on Tuesday gave me my first ticket, as his partner was calling me “scum of the earth”, and forcibly removed me from the station, which I am confident was improper behaviour. This time he doesn’t ticket, arrest or fine me. Instead, he menacingly informs me that he has already told me begging is illegal and that he doesn’t want me in the station and to get out of it.

So we didn’t have the money to buy food for the weekend, nor the fare to take a bus to the West End where we might avail of a soup run. It meant I had to take my chances and go and beg on Friday evening around the Liverpool Street area, where people like to drink outside a few pubs. There were police standing around the pubs, so I just roamed the streets looking for somebody sitting or standing about. I was of course carrying my bags, so that if I was arrested Declan would not be stuck with them, and had arranged a time to meet Declan outside McDonald’s on Liverpool Street.

The begging didn’t go well at all, and all we have had for food for the weekend has been less than £3: Declan wanted me to eat and I wanted him to eat, resulting in both of us starving and feeling overall very weak, which is in all probability what the agenda actually entails. It doesn’t help either that we are ill-equipped for the bitterly cold nights: the nun in charge of clothes in the Sisters of Mercy-run Dellow Centre told me the week before last that she has no winter clothes – you would be forgiven for thinking spring just arrived – and gave me a teddy bear pyjamas bottom and a small old cardigan.

As I was walking the street on Friday night, I took comfort in the thought that Declan and I are humbly following in the footsteps of Galileo. Where has all my willingness to leave the train station landed us? For the first time since we started selling the Big Issue back in December, we can’t even afford to buy a magazine (70p) to sell. When Declan goes to the Big Issue head office early tomorrow morning to register our pitches – in the past there were so many problems with the weekly registration of our pitches that for months now, and by arrangement, Declan has been supervising the registration himself – I will be in the train station begging until I can put together the money we need to buy Big Issues and lunch (all I am eating today is bread).

If the police throw me out of the station, I am going right back in. If I am forcibly removed, like on Tuesday, it will be without my cooperation. The only way I will stay out is if I am forced either because I am arrested or injured as police seek to remove me (one of my shoulders has been dislocated several times).

On 8 September Declan lodged his case against the UK, together with an urgent request for expedition, with the European Court of Human Rights. The last time Declan wrote to the Registrar was on 6 October, enclosing, among other things, his latest hospital discharge summary report of 4 October, this time from the Royal London Hospital where he was hospitalised for two days with a viral infection, and my police statement of 22 September, having been woken by a guy who repeatedly kicked me in the chest and shoulders while shouting “f*****g tramp” – all to no avail. (As I have already stated in this blog, the case of Papon v France was expedited by the Court under rule 41 of the Convention because of the advance age and ill-health of the applicant in prison: the case was lodged on 12 January 2001 and on 23 January the Court asked the respondent Government to submit information and comments about the applicant’s conditions and regime.)

Tomorrow I may be arrested

This morning my Big Issue pitch (from which I sell The Big Issue, a magazine sold by homeless throughout the UK) was taken over by a street distributor of the free ShortList magazine. When I informed this guy that he is standing in my pitch of one year – he was one of the two ShortList distributors that put me out of business last Thursday – he looks at me like he wants me to define the word "pitch". Eventually he moves away, but no more than a metre and a half, pinning me up against a railing, and yes, the whole road free for him to go. (As a Big Issue vendor, I have a registered pitch and cannot move freely.)

Unsurprisingly, I sold nothing. Declan also sold nothing and we were faced with the daunting choice of me going back into the train station to beg or starve for the day, albeit the meagre breakfast the Sisters of Mercy-run Dellow Centre provides Monday to Friday: a bowl of cereal and up to a maximum of three toast (for which you have to queue outside the front gate for anything up to 40 minutes). The train station was a bit tricky, since yesterday morning two police officers ticketed me for the second time in two days for begging. This time I wasn't called "scum of the earth", but was told that the next time I am caught begging, I will be arrested or given a fine of £80, which, if I refuse to pay, will land me in prison.

I am under no illusion whatsoever that this morning I avoided being arrested. So Declan and I are braced for another day of hunger, but tomorrow morning if we don't sell Big Issues – and it sure looks like we won't – I will have no choice but to go into the train station and beg because unfortunately there is no homeless centre open during the weekend and we have no money whatsoever to buy food. We could of course go to the Methodist Church-run Whitechapel Mission for a breakfast for 50p, but we were barred by the minister’s wife on 18 June due to concerns about our safety. Last weekend we faced a similar situation but had enough for the bus and spent part of the weekend in the West End (where there can be a free food drop on the Strand on a Friday night 8.30-10.00pm, and at Lincoln's In Fields on a Saturday night 6.00-7.00pm).

The only reasonable explanation for the police executing a perfect U-turn at full speed (I have been begging in the train station since 11 September without difficulty), is clearly that Declan's petition to the UN in support of research cloning of embryos and stem cells could very well take us and NAC off the street.

Since in the UK police can detain somebody without charge for up to 28 days, I will be taking the opportunity to come out a size 0 and will begin a hunger strike: I am familiar with non-cooperation techniques. As for Declan, he tells me that the police are going to discover that on his own he is not such a soft target after all. If I have to beg tomorrow morning, by the way, I will have all my bags with me so Declan is not a sitting duck while I am in custody.

This is Declan's email this morning to the ShortList circulation director:

Subject: ShortList

Dear Mr Moreton,

Further to our telephone conversation this morning, I wish to reconfirm the takeover this morning of my wife's Big Issue pitch at The George Pub, Liverpool Street by a street distributor of ShortList.

I also reconfirm that I am in receipt of a letter of 10 September from Dr John Bird, Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Big Issue, stating:

I have employed many people over the years to do jobs related to the running of The Big Issue. I have never employed them to do my job; likewise I do not do their job. Please bear this in mind when you are composing your letters. You do not need to address your letters to me, as it is not my job. I would only get involved if you were utterly and totally let down by those whose job it is in The Big Issue. I hope this assists in your deliberations in pursuit of your claims.

Yours sincerely,
Declan Heavey
BI badge no. 1163

cc  Mr Mike Soutar, CEO, ShortList Media (by registered post)
Mr Paul Joseph, Outreach Manager, The Big Issue (by email)

Police ticket me for begging and forcibly remove me from Liverpool Street Station

This morning at 7.30am, while I was begging in Liverpool Street Station (where we wash daily after the Methodist Church-run Whitechapel Mission barred Declan and me on 18 June due to, er, concerns about our safety), I was stopped by two police officers just as I was about to be handed some money.

They took me aside to issue me a ticket – begging is illegal in England. And as the male officer is getting on with the business of writing down some of my details, like I am wearing a red T-shirt over a blue long-sleeved T-shirt, PC 136 was, well, insulting me – "scum of the earth" was one of the derogatory terms she used a few times to describe me. When I politely told her that I would be coming back to the station to beg because I had no choice on the matter, she menacingly told me not to talk back to a police officer or I would be arrested on the spot.

As soon as I presented the ticket to Declan, he headed off to Bishopsgate Police Station to find out how many times I would be ticketed before being subject to arrest and a mandatory court appearance. He was duly told that I was lucky I hadn’t been arrested and that I would be the next time. Declan informed this police officer that he had been run off his Big Issue pitch yesterday evening by a street distributor of the free London Lite (once again on record by email with The Big Issue, although since the founder and editor-in-chief wrote on 10 September telling Declan to more or less stop bothering him, things seem to have fallen on deaf ears) and that I was left with no choice – it was beg or starve. To this, the police officer told Declan that he would personally ensure that not only would I be arrested, but I would be given a "rough ride".

Back in the train station after Declan returned, I was again met by the same two police officers. This time they didn’t waste a second and, each taking me by the arm, forcibly removed me from the station. When I politely asked if I was being arrested, the policewoman again reminded me that I am the scum of the earth, the policeman adding why would they arrest me, to be able to get warm and be given a hot cup of coffee and some food? I won’t be that lucky he told me, as I was pushed onto the wet street.

So why this sudden rush of activity by the police when I have been begging in the train station for so long now? Clearly one reason is to stop us from being able to survive day-to-day … So, despite attempts to consign Declan and me to the trash can, we are somehow still making it, although for how long is anybody’s guess.

For the record, this is Declan’s registered letter last Saturday to the project manager of Medecins du Monde UK’s Project: London, a copy of which he also sent by registered post to Prof Paul Hunt, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health:

Dear Ms Raymond

NHS Exemption Certificate

I was assured by a member of your medical team on 5 October 2007 that Medecins du Monde UK's Project: London would be applying on behalf of my wife and I for a National Health Service (NHS) exemption certificate for the each of us as rough sleepers, having had our entitlement to jobseeker's allowance ceased by Birmingham Erdington Jobcentre Plus on 27 September 2006 (because I did not sign on two days before I was due to do so on 29 September 2006).

I enclose copy of my letter of 6 October 2007 (without enclosures) to the Registrar of the European Court of Human Rights, citing, among others, Medecins du Monde UK, in further reference to my urgent request for expedition of my case against the UK made on 8 September 2007 under Rule 41 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

I understand that a valid NHS exemption certificate would entitle my wife and I to the following free of charge: (1) NHS prescriptions, (2) NHS dental treatment, (3) sight tests, and (4) glasses and contact lenses.

I can confirm that neither my wife nor I is in receipt of any such certificate to date, and that we have both been in need of an exemption from charges to access healthcare since becoming rough sleepers on the streets of London on 3 November 2006.

Yours sincerely

Declan Heavey

Enc

cc  Prof Paul Hunt, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to the highest attainable standard of health, University of Essex (by registered post – with enclosure herein referred to)

Good news and bad news

First the good news. Declan’s petition to the UN has been moved to another petition website because of useful features such as anti-spam filters and the facility to delete signatures. That was on 22 October and since then we have been very busy researching and emailing prominent scientists and academics who are pro human embryonic stem cell research. Signatures are coming slow and we are starting to wonder if our emails are being dumped straight into people’s spam boxes – Declan was informed not so long ago by more than one high profile scientist that his invitation to become an honorary associate of NAC was found in their spam box, and I too have found reply emails in our spam box.

The plan is that once we have a sufficient number of prominent signatories (including a few celebrities we have in mind), we will then present the petition to patient and scientific groups. If Declan and I were off the street by then, I would have a campaign and a website around the petition, very similar to Oxfam International’s campaign ‘Make Fair Trade’, which 20 million have signed to date.

Therapies using embryonic stem cells may one day provide important new strategies for the treatment for a host of currently untreatable disorders, and since even the healthiest can be struck with, say, Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, an accessible and energetic campaign could also attract tens of thousands of signatures – why not? And then a country may be less reluctant to ask the UN to consider an international declaration that would facilitate human embryonic stem cell research.

The bad news. The catalogue of harassment against us has intensified to such an extent that I have made a quantum leap to being a beggar first and Big Issue vendor second. All Friday evening, for example, out of necessity, I spent begging in the train station, the street and as usual outside the local supermarket – I carry my passport in case the police stop me, and my pay as you go mobile phone in case I have to send a text message to Declan informing him that I am in the police station.

Also, we have spent the last two Friday nights working throughout the night in a 24-hour internet café – as I stated in my last bog, Friday night appears to be the time of the week when I am at most risk (I sleep on the outside so that Declan can sleep with our well-tied bags): I was kicked in the chest and shoulders on a Friday; dragged out of the porch by the ankles and, a few hours later, kicked in the back on a Friday; and on an additional two Fridays we have had beer thrown all over us as we slept. You would be forgiven for thinking that our porch is situated in the West End rather than in the heart of London’s business district.

The problems with our Big Issue pitches (from which we sell The Big Issue magazine – a magazine sold by homeless throughout the UK) have actually escalated. Not only does Declan continue to be run off his pitch on Liverpool Street by, among others, The London Paper and London Lite, but now I have to contend with Shortlist, another free paper – on Thursday I had two Shortlist distributors, one on either side of me. Of course, I sold nothing. Since Declan received a letter of 10 September from John Bird, the founder and editor-in-chief of The Big Issue, more or less telling Declan to stop bothering him, all his emails to The Big Issue seem to have fallen on deaf ears. He emailed head office again last Monday over The London Paper and London Lite, to no effect.

Undeniably, selling the Big Issue is very much at an end and we are literary being left with nothing unless I am able to earn £5 or £6 a day begging – it is for this reason that I am going to put in a lot of hours this week asking for money until I get better at it (as I have stated before, begging is a recordable offence and can land you in court).

Although the active constituency of all believers in Britain is about eight per cent of the population, the Government appears to be intent that an organisation like NAC will never get off the ground – in a nutshell, NAC seeks to be a network platform for non-religious and secular voices. We, on the other hand, are intent that NAC will become a reality. If we get enough prominent signatures to get our petition going, I have no doubt it will be the beginning of the end of our time on the street.