Church and State blog: The trellis gate is locked

Saturday, September 06, 2008

The trellis gate is locked

As I stated in the previous blog, on Thursday night we returned to the porch we have been sleeping in since 3 November 2006 to find an unlocked trellis gate (the blog also contains Declan's letter to the Registrar of the European Court of Human Rights). Last night the gate was locked, leaving us on a Friday night with nowhere to sleep; it turned out that the local train station closes from 12.00pm to 6.00am on a Friday, so that ruled it out. Our morale was high but nonetheless by 11.00pm we were still walking, having found nothing – oh, and it was raining. In the end we got five hours sleep: we were quite happy really considering we were supposed to get none. Until we find something that is relatively safe and conveniently situated, we will just sleep here and there.

There was a main reason why my morale was high. I kept thinking about a recent commentary from Professor of philosophy AC Grayling (see previous blog): that despite appearances, the world is not seeing a resurgence of religion, only a big turning-up of the volume of religious voices; that this is itself a response to increasing secularism among people tired of the disruptions, obstructions and conflicts religion so often causes; and that the public acknowledgement of atheism by a senior politician who might soon lead Britain is just one indicator of the fact that the tide is actually running in the opposite direction: and that is a welcome and hopeful sign.

US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ ad on stem cell research

US Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s announcement that if elected president he will lift the current administration's ban on federal funding of research on embryonic stem cell lines created after 9 August 2001 through executive order (see blog of 4 September “Obama: Yes to stem cells, funding”) has received a ringing endorsement from the National Academies, advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine. Yesterday, the National Academies released amended guidelines for research involving human embryonic stem cells, revising those that were issued in 2005 and updated in 2007 (see press release here). "It is far from clear at this point which cell types will prove to be the most useful for regenerative medicine, and it is likely that each will have some utility," the panel, chaired by Richard Hynes of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (and an early signatory of Declan’s petition to the UN on research cloning of embryos and stem cells) wrote.

The report was sponsored by the Ellison Medical Foundation, the Greenwall Foundation, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies. They are private, nonprofit institutions that provide science, technology, and health policy advice under a congressional charter. The Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.

Opponents of embryo research include the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, which has released two new print ads addressing stem cell research. The ads were distributed at the Democratic Convention in Denver and at the Republican Convention in Minneapolis/St Paul by pro-life groups, reported LifeSiteNews.com. One highlights scientific advances that are making the use of human embryonic stem cells obsolete and calls attention to the development of "Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells" (iPSCs). Picturing a commuter running for a train, the ad asks: "Science is moving on. Isn't it time for public policy to get on board?" The second ad features advances already being made to treat patients with adult stem cells and directs readers to www.stemcellresearch.org for more information. Its tagline is: "Adult Stem Cell Research. Let's Find Cures We Can All Live With." Clearly, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops doesn’t agree that “it is far from clear at this point which cell types will prove to be the most useful for regenerative medicine,” nor that “it is likely that each will have some utility".

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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Saturday, September 06, 2008

The trellis gate is locked

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