The High Court (Judicial Review): Letter before claim

Jobcentre Plus (JCP) is an executive agency of the Department for Work and Pensions. It was JCP that put us to the street in 2006 and kept us there for more than 2 1/2 years because Declan didn't "sign on" TWO DAYS BEFORE he was due to do so on 29 September 2006 (see blog of 21 June 2010 Department for Work and Pensions double breaches the Data Protection Act: Letter to the Information Commissioner). Their unaccountability then went all the way - Declan exhausted the appeals process from the street, where his case was dismissed by Mr Justice Walker of the High Court (Judicial Review), Lord Justice Scott Baker of the Court of Appeal and the European Court of Human Rights despite that he was denied the internal appeals process by procedural impropriety on the part of the enforcement authority.

Last month Declan appealed the decision of our jobcentre, Highgate JCP, not to refer proposed variations of his jobseekers agreement to the decision maker (the Secretary of State) in accordance with Section 9(6) of the Jobseekers Act 1995. Just as we expected they would, the Jobcentre has simply ignored the appeal (archived here). It is a loophole in the Jobseekers Act that although a jobcentre must forward proposed variations of a jobseekers agreement to the decision maker if asked to do so by the claimant, there is no way for the claimant to force compliance. This time around, with a roof still over our heads, Declan is wasting no time with the pre-action protocol for judicial review (click to enlarge):



With the advent of the “War on Terror”, the role of religion in political conflicts has become paramount and NAC, responding to the challenge, has broadened its scope to question the premises upon which the “war” is based. Last week WikiLeaks released the largest classified military leak in history. The 391,832 reports ('The Iraq War Logs'), document the war and occupation in Iraq from 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. According to the BBC, the leaking of the documents is likely to increase pressure on governments to release details of civilian casualties in future conflicts.


PROMO from TBIJ on Vimeo.

Also last week, the UK Government published the post-mortem report on British weapons inspector Dr David Kelly. Kelly's body was found in woodlands close to his Oxfordshire home in 2003, after it emerged that he had given information for a BBC news story questioning the government's claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. In their article Did MI5 kill Dr David Kelly?, Global Research reported that Kelly was planning to write a book that could have violated the Official Secrets Act.


The Man Who Knew Too Much? from Field Agent C on Vimeo.

Mary Ward Centre, reply from Ceri Williams

The Mary Ward Centre is one of London's premier adult education colleges. This morning its Principal Ceri Williams requested that I update my blog to include copies of her replies to my complaint against the college for threatening me with expulsion (see blog of 2 October Mary Ward Centre threatens me with expulsion). As I stated in the previous blog, it turns out that I have been the victim of an "administrative error", but I had been concerned that our jobcentre could have taken our benefits because I am not turning up for courses (see blog of 4 October Mary Ward Centre: Letter to Principal Ceri Williams)!

Declan already has the jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus, on appeal for not referring proposed variations of his jobseeker’s agreement to the decision maker (the Secretary of State) in accordance with section 9(6) of the Jobseeker’s Act 1995 (see an extract from the appeal in blog of 21 September Two allegations against Declan within a week!). If they don't respond within the next two weeks, he will be applying for a judicial review. The Mary Ward Legal Centre specialises in Welfare Benefit Law. The last thing we needed this week was an uncontested allegation from the Mary Ward Centre that I am one of their "non-attenders".

This, then, is my correspondence with Williams this morning that includes copies of her replies to my complaint (click to enlarge):

Mary Ward Centre: Letter to Principal Ceri Williams

Ceri Williams, third from the left, standing next to her Chair Diana Good (click to enlarge)

The Mary Ward Centre is one of London's premier adult education colleges. In Saturday's blog Mary Ward Centre threatens me with expulsion, I published a letter I received that morning from the college's Head of Computing, IT and Business Clive Allum informing me that I didn't notify them I wouldn't be attending their two-day course "Excel Introductory" on 23 and 30 September, adding, "As a result we have to cancel any future computing enrolments you may have on our system." Well, it turns out that I have been "the victim of an administrative error", according to Vice Principal Suzanna Jackson this afternoon.

I had been concerned that if the college did not rectify this situation, our jobcentre could have taken our benefits since I am not turning up for courses! For the record, this is the email I sent this morning to the college's Principal Ceri Williams, copied to her Chair Diana Good (a former litigation partner at Linklaters, one of the UK's highest ranking law firms, who has a part time judicial appointment):



Stephen Fry and Christopher Hitchens would have made few friends in the Catholic community after they triumphed in opposing the motion in the Intelligence Squared debate (2009) "The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world". It has been said that here Stephen Fry is much more like Goebbels' prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials.

Mary Ward Centre threatens me with expulsion

Today I received a letter from the Mary Ward Centre, one of London's premier adult education colleges, whose aim it is “to promote public education and social service for the benefit of the community”. They say that I didn't notify them I wouldn't be attending their two-day course "Excel Introductory" on 23 and 30 September, adding, "As a result we have to cancel any future computing enrolments you may have on our system."

In fact, not only did I go to the trouble of turning up in person at the college on 21 September to explain why I may be up to two hours late for the first lesson on 23 September, but Declan turned up with me. And the valid reason I had for having to be late was that on the morning of 23 September we had to sign on at our local jobcentre; and although a claimant can arrange to sign on another day if he has a good reason, things were way too rough for us with the jobcentre to even consider doing so (see blog of 21 September Two allegations against Declan within a week!). The person who the enrolment officer put me through to on the telephone to explain all this was the Head of Computing, IT and Business, Clive Allum. This is the letter I received this morning from Allum:



Allum was adamant when we spoke over the telephone that students couldn't be more than 30 minutes late for a class no matter what the excuse and that they had to cancel my enrolment for the course in question. As a result I also had to cancel my enrolment for the follow-up course "Excel Advanced" and was lucky to get a place on a six-week Microsoft Office course, which I have attended the last two Fridays. It is not clear from the letter above if my enrolment on this course has now been cancelled too.



First thing on Monday morning, Declan and I are back to the college to hand-deliver a letter addressed to the Principal, Ceri Williams, which will also be dispatched by registered post. This is not the first time I have had to deal with this college. Last June they informed me via email that the follow-up course I had booked, "Access Advanced", had been cancelled due to a lack of interest, and they then sent my refund cheque to the wrong address (see blog of 22 June The Mary Ward Centre).

The Mary Ward Centre is a registered charity. According to their website, "The Mary Ward is the friendly place to learn"; and even better, "All Centre staff know about the importance of customer care and are proud of the reputation the Centre has for treating people right." What is going to happen on Monday? Am I going to be told that in effect I am expelled from the college for the rest of the academic year?