Church and State blog: Begging for over a week

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Begging for over a week

Less than two weeks before the European Court of Human Rights “possibly” examines Declan's application of 8 September (Declan received a letter from the Registrar turning down his request for priority under Rule 41 of the Rules of the Court – see previous blog), things couldn’t be much rougher for us. Since 10 January, I have been forced to go into the local train station early in the morning and ask people for some spare change in an attempt to get £4 or £5 so Declan and I can get by for the day.

The last time I had to beg was on 20 November when, as result of all the problems we were having with street distributors while attempting to sell The Big Issue (a magazine sold by homeless people on street pitches), I also had to go into the train station to get some money to be able to buy a few Big Issues for the week. (While trying to make some money from selling this magazine, we have run into all kinds of difficulties, some of which I have reported throughout this blog, and others which I have written up in the diary I have been keeping since 19 November in the event I am prosecuted for begging – see entry titled "Defence for a court”. Among other things: we have been threatened and insulted by other Big Issue vendors; our pitches have been taken over by distributors of The London Paper, London Lite, Sport, ShortList, etc on countless occasions, and sometimes for long periods; and Declan has to travel to the Big Issue head office every Monday to ensure the proper registration of our pitches because of repeated “administrative errors” in respect of same. It doesn't seem to matter that Declan has done everything possible to amend our situation – all of his many emails to the Big Issue from 10 September to 10 January seem to have fallen on deaf ears.)

The reason why I have now been reduced to begging for food is because for the last two weeks we have sold almost no Big Issues at all due to bad weather (although I am sure that our pitches wouldn't make it into The Big Issue top 200 London pitch list): since New Year, Britain has been hit with freezing Siberian winds and the Met Office warned on 17 January that this month is on course to be the wettest on record, and that the country faces its wettest year ever. I tried to postpone the begging for as long as possible – it’s illegal in England and I already had two police tickets for begging (13 and 14 November) – and since the end of December I have almost exclusively been eating the bit of grated cheese and two white sandwich bread that the nuns from the Sisters of Mercy-run Dellow Centre give the homeless “for later”, but on 10 January I had to choose between starvation for the weekend or beg (we could get some cheap breakfast in the Methodist Church-run Whitechapel Mission on Saturday and Sunday, but we were barred back in June due to concerns about our safety).

My luck ran out on Friday at 7.52am when I was stopped by a police officer as I was about to leave the station. “Maria, isn’t?” he asks. I recognise him too. He was the officer who issued me my first ticket, as his partner proceeded to call me “the scum of the earth”, and then forcibly threw me out of the station. “You have been seen in the station this week asking for money and stuff,” he says, as he is writing my details to issue me a ticket, “and you can’t do that. Next time, you will be arrested.” Well, that is some advancement. The last time, as he and his partner were pushing me into the wet street, he told me I wouldn’t be so lucky as to be arrested – adding that why would they arrest me, to be able to get warm and be given a hot cup of coffee and some food?

Of course, tomorrow morning I have no choice but to go back into the train station, although for a shorter period, just to raise enough money to keep Declan alive for the day. The problem now is that we won’t have the money to spend Friday nights in the internet café in Leicester Square when things are hot: Friday
night appears to be the time of the week when I am at most risk back at the porch (I sleep on the outside so that Declan can sleep with our well-tied bags): I was repeatedly 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.

We won’t have the money either to go to our local internet café (£3 for seven hours) when things take another turn for the worse in the Tower Hamlets Council-run Idea Store Whitechapel (the borough’s flagship library, learning and information service), with its 3-hour limit on internet access, save computer availability. Only this afternoon Declan had to email the manager:

Subject: Internet access

Dear Mr Abidin,

I wish to confirm, as verified by your supervisor Asab Ali, that my wife (card no. D000350314) booked computer 14 on floor 1 in Idea Store Whitechapel between 2.00pm and closing time at 4.45pm today. At 3.00pm, she was unable to log in due to another card holder’s name appearing on the monitor for the hour, thereby reducing what was a booking for 2 hours 45 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes.

I reconfirm that on 10 January my wife’s 2-hour booking on computer 15 on floor 1 was reduced to 45 minutes when she again lost her booking to another card holder in similar circumstances; that on 7 January, in the middle of a 1-hour session on computer 5 on floor 1, she was unable to open any web page (while all other computers around her appeared to function as normal) for a reported 10 minutes; that on 4 January, in the middle of a 1-hour session on computer 15 on floor 1, she once again lost her booking to another card holder; and that on 14 November, in the middle of a 1-hour session on computer 15 on floor 1, she was unable to open any page from the internet or send an email.

Please would you acknowledge receipt.

Yours sincerely,
Declan Heavey
Card no. D000355837

Last Thursday the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) here in the UK offered year-long licences to two teams of scientists who want to create hybrid embryos by merging human cells with cow or rabbit eggs, in the hope that they will be able to extract valuable embryonic stem cells from them. The cells are expected to lead to revolutionary therapies for diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and even spinal cord injuries. The Department of Health initially decided their use would be banned, but changed its position after lobbying from scientists - in January 2007, 45 scientists, ethicists and politicians, including three Nobel Laureates, wrote to The Times to support the hybrid embryo work.

In this regard, the papers have been carrying quotations by Dr Robin Lovell-Badge, head of Developmental Genetics at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research in London, Sir Richard Gardner, chairman of the Royal Society's stem cell working group, and Lord Robert Winston, one of the world's most respected medical academics and researcher of the human reproductive system (all three distinguished scientists are signatories to Declan's petition to the UN in support of research cloning of embryos and stem cells).

Christian Concern for our Nation protest at Westminster

Needless to say, Christian groups – who represent a small minority albeit loud religious voice – were voicing their total opposition to it. On Tuesday, campaigners from the group Christian Concern for our Nation demonstrated outside Parliament as the peers began their consideration of the Bill. And in the papers, there were all kinds of fantasy statements from organisations like the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, the Christian Medical Fellowship, Comment on Reproductive Ethics, and Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics, the UK's Christian bioethics institute, claiming that the research would blur the boundary between humans and other species. Meanwhile, a pastoral letter sent to all 500 Catholic parishes in Scotland this week by the Bishops' Conference of Scotland describes the fusion of animal and human material as a "monstrous act against human dignity".

HFEA approval comes as innovation secretary John Denham called for greater respect for science in public policy in a speech to the Royal Society on Thursday. But in an article that appeared in the Telegraph on 26 March 2007, Professor of Philosophy AC Grayling states that “all the major religions have become more assertive, more vocal, more demanding and therefore more salient in the public domain”. NAC, of course, seeks to accord a more balanced framework for decisions on the important issues associated with cloning for reproductive and therapeutic benefits.

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.

Church and State blog

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Begging for over a week

About me

My Picks

Church and State

Blog Archive