Church and State blog: Letter to the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Big Issue

Friday, July 25, 2008

Letter to the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Big Issue

The Big Issue is a magazine sold by Declan and other homeless people on registered street pitches (bought by the vendor for 70p and sold for £1.50). So, for the record, below is the email letter Declan sent yesterday to The Big Issue outreach manager, Paul Joseph, a copy of which he then sent by registered post to the founder and editor-in-chief of The Big Issue, John Bird. I also sell this magazine, but for some time now I mostly sell it early in the morning so as to do as little walking as possible: I seem to be the only homeless in London that can’t get a pair of runners either in the Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre or in the Catholic Manna Centre; and my daily food after 9.00am is two grated cheese sandwiches, one of which is Declan’s, which the nuns at the Dellow give the homeless “for later”.

Declan walks a round trip of two hours to the Manna every weekday to be guaranteed a bite to eat for lunch, although frequently he gets more than just food: for example, on 19 June he was assaulted (see blog “Declan assaulted in the Manna Centre”) – the assault came the day after he was robbed in the Dellow of all our money and documents (see blog of 18 June “Declan robbed in the Sisters of Mercy Dellow Centre”); and only a few days before a City of London Police 'No sleeping' sign went up on the back wall of the porch we have been sleeping in at night since 3 November 2006 (see blog of 25 June “Police ‘No sleeping’ sign in the porch”).

Subject: The Big Issue

Dear Paul

Please find below a copy of my email to you yesterday. In order to protect my badge from any false allegation(s) by Big Issue vendor 1739, I wish to put forward the following account of my encounters with the vendor this afternoon from 1.00pm to 1.10pm at my pitch outside McDonald’s on Liverpool Street:

Vendor 1739 commences to sell The Big Issue outside Pret a Manger on Liverpool Street at 12.40pm approx, not only to customers sitting at tables outside the establishment, but to other Pret a Manger customers coming and going, and to passers-by. I sell to many customers of this Pret a Manger as they are going to or coming from the establishment, particularly at lunch time. At 1.00pm I cross the road to inquire of vendor 1739 if this Pret a Manger has been designated a new pitch by The Big Issue. "The co-ordinator told me to sell across the road from you," he replies. I say nothing more and, having noted this vendor's number, return to the co-ordinator to buy two more Big Issues and to inquire as to the position with this particular source of my business. I am informed that the co-ordinator has gone, and return to my pitch with the two Big Issues I bought. I am no more than 30 seconds back on my pitch when vendor 1739 approaches me extremely agitated. "Are you a co-ordinator," he shouts. "If you have a problem, you need to speak with the co-ordinator around the corner," I tell him. "What's your f**king number," he shouts. I look away for customers, without replying further. He reads my number (1163) from the badge I am wearing, and shouts that he is going to put in a complaint against me. In order to avoid any further confrontation (for which my badge can be suspended or terminated), I pack up and return to the co-ordinator's point to buy another two Big Issues for my evening pitch. I leave a message for the co-ordinator that, in order to protect my badge from any false allegation(s) by Big Issue vendor 1739, I would bring this matter to the attention of John Bird.

Please would you acknowledge receipt.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey

cc Mr John Bird, Founder and Editor-In-Chief of The Big Issue (by registered post)
-----------------------------------------

Subject: The Big Issue

Dear Paul

I wish to confirm that this afternoon at 2.00pm I lodged a complaint with your co-ordinator at Liverpool Street (name unknown) against a Big Issue vendor who at 1.55pm attempted to sell a Big Issue to two pedestrians that were standing on my pitch outside McDonald’s on Liverpool Street, and only a few feet away from me. I informed your co-ordinator that as soon as I have this woman's badge number I will lodge a formal complaint in writing with you. This same woman has in the past verbally abused both my wife and myself on our respective pitches - in the case of myself, on more than one occasion.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey
Badge no. 1163

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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Friday, July 25, 2008

Letter to the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Big Issue

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