We are cut off from the internet
In the previous blog “Problems with internet access”, I reported that on Sunday I couldn’t connect with either my laptop or Declan’s notebook to the access point which our live-in landlady Belinda McKenzie gave me back in July to access her broadband network – see an article in the New Statesman stating that Belinda’s house “doubles as the hub of the British and Irish 9/11 Truth Campaign” here.
It turns out that Belinda's two other access points (McKenzie-1 and moj) are working fine, and Belinda concurs that only forces from outside the house could have disconnected ours (Guest). Moreover, our bandwidths continue to be squeezed almost to death in public libraries, whether we are on a library computer, my laptop or Declan's notebook (see, for example, blog of 26 October “Internet access at the British Library”). It seems little consolation that only two weeks ago Google finally removed the “Attack Site” warnings that on 13 November they posted on every single page of the NAC website (see blog of 2 December “NAC website is back”).
On Thursday we have our sixth interview in six weeks at our local Highgate Jobcentre Plus – the jobcentre notified us on 5 November that Declan and I had been selected to be interviewed on six consecutive Thursdays about the jobs we are applying for. Every week it is something. Two weeks ago, the jobcentre actually insisted that Declan apply for two jobs that they selected for him, neither of which he would have entertained the thought of applying for (see blog of 2 December “NAC website is back”). Last week the interviewer wanted to know the names of the employers we were going to contact the following week! This request is quite amazing because it defies the logic of the jobcentre's policy that “each time you attend, we will talk with you about what you have been doing to find work” (emphasis added).
We have some history with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), of which this jobcentre is a part: We came to England in 2003 and for two years attempted to get NAC up and running; we went on benefits in July 2005; the DWP terminated Declan's joint claim for Jobseeker's Allowance on 27 September 2006 because he did not “sign on” two days before he was due to do so on 29 September. Declan exhausted the appeals process from the street, having been denied the internal appeal process by procedural impropriety on the part of the enforcement authority (the DWP). His case was dismissed by the High Court (Judicial Review), Court of Appeal and European Court of Human Rights (see blog of 21 October 2008 “European Court of Human Rights declares application inadmissible”).
Goodness knows what this Thursday will throw up! Perhaps the forces that have cut us off from the internet are connected to those forces that put us to the street for more than 2 1/2 years (from 3 November 2006 to 13 July 2009)!
