Open Letter to the Irish Prime Minister

This evening Declan received confirmation from the Irish Embassy in London that his application for a passport "will be processed in approximately 3 weeks". Nothing unusual in that, except that in Declan's case it has taken a complaint to the British Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), two letters to the Irish Ambassador to Britain and this Open Letter to the Irish Prime Minister (the letter Declan refers to from the Papal Nuncio concerning the Irish Sisters of Mercy is archived here):

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This afternoon Declan had to send this email to Ambassador McDonagh's PA via the Embassy's website:

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Never before has an Irish Prime Minister attacked the Vatican so virulently as Taoiseach Enda Kenny did last July, when he said: "The Cloyne report excavates the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism, the narcissism that dominate the culture of the Vatican to this day." As Ireland is a 90 per cent Catholic country, you might assume that there could be some political risk in so eviscerating the Holy See. Yet, says the Catholic Herald, Kenny was in fact playing to the gallery: his speech merely reflected the ferocious public anger at the Catholic Church.

I am prevented from sharing new articles on Facebook

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In the last three weeks our website has had 28,841 absolute unique visitors, but it raises the question: how many unique visitors would we have had given half a shot? The Department for Work and Pensions are all out on the termination of our benefits (see the previous blog Mr Justice Mitting rules that Declan's claim is not "Totally without Merit"); our live-in landlady has given us backdated notice to vacate our flat by the end of January; our local housing authority, Haringey Council, has left us every month since July with a £77 shortfall in rent to pay (now a High Court case); and Facebook has restricted me since last August to my own wall and sharing my articles with private groups, the latter only because I have been added to these groups by Facebook friends. Not even a letter from Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone last August has elicited a response from Facebook regarding the last time they barred my account.

Now a very strange thing is happening: since yesterday afternoon the photo and text of my new articles are not showing when I share them in Facebook:

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This anomaly also applies to our "About" page and Declan's petition to the UN in support of embryonic stem cell research which has been signed by no less than 28 Nobel laureates, 13 US National Medal of Science winners and seven UK Royal Medal winners, as well as hundreds of other scholars from around the world. It is an uphill struggle but both Declan and I believe that we are encountering nothing that money cannot solve: living and fighting on half our squalid benefits, we are no more than an easy target. With two months to go to vacate this property (that MI5 whistleblower David Shayler aka Delores Kane once lived in), we are left with no choice now but to focus on the development of our N4CM Survival Appeal Pledge Scheme to raise $35,000. Even this is a serious challenge: to get one email through to somebody in America, Declan regularly has to make one or two phone calls, and this despite his application last month to the European Court of Human Rights concerning the interception of his communications and directed surveillance.

Perhaps I should also add that I am prevented from submitting articles to Reddit. I have only ever submitted seven links, but every time I try to submit a new link I am told: "You've submitted too many links recently. Please try again in an hour." Just like Facebook, Reddit does not reply to my emails. I actually have some snags because frankly it is difficult to believe: from 16 November, 17 November, 20 November and 30 November. My articles are so good, I can't even submit them for other people to vote! Here is an article that has been shared 1,951 times on Facebook and was given 166 votes by Reddit users after somebody submitted it. Undoubtedly our site has massive potential. If only we had half a shot ...

Mr Justice Mitting rules that Declan's claim is "not totally without merit"

As I wrote in the previous blog Will we get the internet back?, Declan had an oral hearing in the High Court last Tuesday of his claim in person against our jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus, for discrimination and harassment - formally through A4E and currently through Reed in Partnership. Highgate Jobcentre Plus is part of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). Mr Justice Mitting refused permission to apply for Judicial Review, but ruled that the claim was "not totally without merit" as soon as Counsel representing the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions raised the issue of costs. The first thing I did when Declan obtained a copy of Counsel's note of hearing last week was to check that this ruling was there. It was.

This afternoon Declan filed his claim with the Court of Appeal. This is his Skeleton Argument (the Grounds of Appeal can be found here) - MI5 whistleblower David Shayler, who lived in one of the rooms below us for a couple of years, is mentioned in paragraph 25 (there is a stunning photograph of Shayler aka Delores Kane in the previous blog):

This appeal will apparently be quite a challenge. The "Judgment", which sets out the reasons the Judge gave for his decision, was recorded but when Declan asked the Judge for the transcript at public expense, he was told that if he wanted it he would have to pay for it himself (an impossibility). Last week DWP Legal Services refused to provide Declan with a note of judgment approved by the Judge because the hearing was recorded. This afternoon Declan sought to reapply for the transcript but was refused a receipt for the application by the Civil Appeals Office.

This raises the question: If the person appealing a High Court ruling is on state benefits and cannot afford the cost of the transcript of judgment, does this mean he loses his case because the Lord Justice cannot read and therefore cannot understand the reasons why the Judge reached his decision?

Declan was told by the Civil Appeals Office that if he didn't want to apply for the transcript of judgment without a receipt, he should deal with his case manager, as soon as he is allocated one. Surely he will not be told by this case manager that his claim can go no further because he cannot afford to pay for the transcript. It would certainly make for a very strange application to the European Court of Human Rights - from a High Court judge ruling that the claim is not "Totally without Merit" to the end of the domestic line with a case manager in the Civil Appeals Office!

Will we get the internet back?

Declan has an oral hearing in the High Court next Tuesday of his claim against our jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus, and as I showed in the previous blog We are removed from the internet ... this time no bandwidth, since 3 November our bandwidths have been frequently 'squeezed' to death. Declan started an IT course on 31 October and had to pull out last week because he couldn't use the online courseware. The last time we lost our home internet connection, we did so for six weeks commencing on 4 July, as Declan states in paragraph 9 of his skeleton argument for a High Court judge next Tuesday, which I published in the previous blog. This has now gone on for two weeks and is just one of the forms of harassment we deal with, as Declan makes clear in his application last month to the European Court of Human Rights regarding the interception of our communications and directed surveillance.

Yesterday Declan had almost no internet connection at all ('Guest' is our network, the others are from neighbouring houses):

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And last night I was taken out as well (we used to have access to another network, "moj", but we can't access it any more):

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Our live-in landlady is human rights activist Belinda McKenzie. Belinda is not your usual landlord: apart from being involved in a variety of causes – from anti-war and abuse in the church to involvement with the Iranian community for more than 20 years – she had MI5 whistleblower David Shayler living in one of the rooms below us for a couple of years, until 2007 more or less. According to the BBC, Shayler "caused the biggest crisis of official secrecy since the spy catcher affair". By around 2007, he had been successfully neutralised: he changed his name to Delores Kane, declared himself to be Jesus, and became a squatter. A New Statesman article dated 11 September 2006 featuring Belinda and Shayler gives no indication that he believed he was the Messiah at that time; whilst a Daily Mail interview with Shayler explicitly shows that he believed himself to be Jesus by June 2007. This photograph comes from the Daily Mail (Shayler is the one sitting on the chair):

Belinda has served us with backdated notice to vacate our flat by the end of January, so maybe those keeping us off the internet have a squat in mind for us too!

We are removed from the internet ... this time no bandwidth

Tomorrow Declan will lodge with the High Court his skeleton argument for his oral hearing on 22 November. He is looking for permission to apply for judicial review against our jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus. He argues an important point of principle or practice, namely, that he is provided with no remedy under welfare law for discriminatory practice by private sector providers of the Department for Work and Pensions' Work Programme. He will have just seven days to appeal to the Court of Appeal following the hearing but, given 132 breaches of contract by Action for Employment (A4E), we believe we are left with no option but to appeal.

You would think that the application Declan lodged last month with the European Court of Human Rights regarding the interception of our communications and directed surveillance might cut some ice, but not at all! The blogs I have written since have been designed to show that there has been no let up on any front, and now I can add no internet access to the mix. Since last Thursday, our bandwidth has been 'squeezed' to death. Yesterday it went the entire day. It seems we could well be back to the British Library, the no.1 library in the UK, to be 'squeezed' some more. Just as well we have plenty of work to do offline!

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This was yesterday:

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I would expect a better connection at the bottom of the ocean!

Highgate Jobcentre Plus will go for anything!

If we had any doubt that Highgate Jobcentre Plus is gunning to terminate our benefits, we need look no further than this afternoon. Declan's new IT course, which takes place on Mondays and Thursdays, was clashing with our 'sign on' at the Jobcentre this coming Thursday - we sign for Jobseeker's Allowance every second Thursday. It should have been pretty straightforward to have our sign times changed from 12.10pm to 4.00pm. But nothing is ever straightforward with the Jobcentre.

Senior Operations Manager Tia Ahmed doesn't change my time, but in changing Declan's from 12.10pm to 4.00pm, insisted on writing that his original appointment had been scheduled for 9.15am, meaning now I don't know whether I am supposed to turn up this Thursday at 9.15am or 12.10pm. Declan even went so far as to tear Ahmed's note up, but she still refused to rectify the error and told Declan to take the torn up paper with him. So tomorrow Declan will dispatch his first tier complaint to the manager of the Jobcentre, just in case I run into any problems when I turn up to sign at 12.10pm, as scheduled.

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It never rains but it pours! When Declan got back to the flat on his own this evening, he opened the bathroom door and it came off its hinges! It was awkward for him because within two weeks of the dispatch last August of his application to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) regarding the interception of our communications and directed surveillance, our live-in landlady, human rights activist Belinda McKenzie, served us with backdated notice to vacate our flat by the end of January.

Anyway, he says it was nothing on discovering in September 2010 that the four TV blow-outs we had had within the first ten months of our tenancy were due to make-shift and damaged wiring on the roof of the house, which although live could end up lying in pools of water in heavy rain.





Belinda's builder, a Polish guy who has been working on an underground extension in the garden for months now, came up and took the bathroom door away. Great!

Declan's first interview with Reed in Partnership

We hate coincidences! Within two weeks of Declan's dispatch last August of his application to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) concerning the interception of our communications and directed surveillance, our live-in landlady, human rights activist Belinda McKenzie, served us with backdated notice to vacate our flat by the end of January and Haringey Council left us with our first £77 shortfall in rent to pay, among other things. This time, the day after Declan sent his application to the European Court of Human Rights (following the IPT's dismissal of his complaint), our jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus, issued letters notifying us that we were being placed with Reed in Partnership, a private-sector provider of the Department for Work and Pensions' Work Programme.

This is a letter that Declan wrote to the chief operating officer for DWP prior to his first meeting with Reed in Partnership this afternoon:

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This afternoon Declan's adviser kept mentioning the "mandatory activities" Declan could expect from him in the weeks to come, without being specific about what he had in mind. All Declan could do is keep reminding the adviser and the manager who sat in on the interview that his first tier complaint would not be directed at Reed in Partnership but at Highgate Jobcentre Plus for sending us to an unsuitable provider, if and when a case can be made.

Suffice to say that we both remain deeply concerned that Highgate Jobcentre Plus has selected Reed in Partnership to use us as cheap labour for dead-end jobs. Declan will be raising this concern with a High Court judge next month in the matter of Heavey v Highgate Jobcentre Plus referred to in paragraph 17 of his application to the European Court of Human Rights. My interview with Reed in Partnership is on Friday.

Application to the European Court of Human Rights

Yesterday Declan sent his application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding the interception of our communications and directed surveillance, having introduced the case to the Court on 5 September. As Declan writes in paragraph 20, within two weeks of the dispatch of his complaint to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), dated 10 August, I had my Facebook account disabled; our IP address was twice blocked by our web host; our live-in landlady, human rights activist Belinda McKenzie, served us with backdated notice to vacate what has been our home since July 2009; and our local housing authority, Haringey Council, left us with our first £77 shortfall in rent to pay. Nonetheless, the IPT came back to us on 1 September, stating that Declan's complaint was “obviously unsustainable”.

There is no appeal from a decision of the IPT, leaving us with the ECHR and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. This is Declan's application to the ECHR:

This morning our jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus, came at us again, despite that Declan has them before a High Court judge next month. First an officer was keen for us to agree to let the jobcentre send our CVs to any employer of their choosing! Then we were issued letters staing that we are now being placed with Reed in Partnership, a private-sector provider of the Department for Work and Pensions' Work Programme. Declan wrote in paragraph 17 of the application above that we are deeply concerned about what lies in wait for us with the next provider.

No sooner will we have completed our first interviews with Reed in Partnership than we will turn on our skeleton argument for the High Court hearing, given the nightmare we were put through for a year with Action for Employment (A4E) and the blasé attitude Highgate Jobcentre Plus had towards all four of the formal complaints Declan lodged with the jobcentre alleging serious breaches of contract by A4E.

Declan's claim for Judicial Review against Haringey Council

Within two weeks of Declan's dispatch last August of his application to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) concerning the interception of our communications and directed surveillance, human rights activist Belinda McKenzie served us with notice to vacate our flat by the end of January and Haringey Council left us with our first £77 shortfall in rent to pay, among other things. This afternoon Declan lodged his case against the Council with the High Court of Justice Administrative Court, an independent tribunal having ruled how local authorities pay housing benefit outside its jurisdiction:

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In October 2007 Declan wrote a petition to the United Nations regarding therapeutic cloning, known technically as 'somatic cell nuclear transfer' (or SCNT). We were living rough on the streets of London at that time - we were forced to live rough in central London for more than 2 1/2 years (see our About statement in the N4CM website) - but nonetheless 28 Nobel laureates and hundreds of scientists and scholars have signed the petition. It would have been signed by thousands if our emails were not getting lost in cyberspace or delivered to spam boxes (see paragraph 8 of Declan's application to the IPT). We believe the petition is more important than ever following the announcement last week that scientists in New York have used SCNT to create personalised embryonic stem cells in humans for the first time.

Prof Robin Lovell-Badge from the UK National Institute for Medical Research, who signed Declan's petition, said of the research published in the journal Nature: "This paper will be seen as significant both by those who are trying to use somatic cell nuclear transfer to produce human patient-specific embryonic stem cell lines and by those who oppose human 'cloning' experiments."

Our live-in landlady threatens illegal moves against us

This morning our live-in landlady, human rights activist Belinda McKenzie, put under our door a receipt for the rent I paid on 26 August for the previous month together with a note stating that next Thursday she was going to deal with Declan’s claim for housing benefit, without his authorization. (On 17 August Belinda served us with 6 months notice backdated almost a month, and last month Haringey Council left us with an unprecedented £77 shortfall in rent to pay out of the £211 we receive every two weeks in jobseeker’s allowance). Perhaps Belinda is just not aware, but this of course is an illegal practice which, if it were deemed acceptable by housing authorities, would leave recipients of housing benefit at the mercy of landlords. A landlord doesn’t like a tenant? No problem – all he has to do is ask the local housing authority to stop that tenant’s housing benefit! Declan wasted no time getting back to Belinda on this:

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Belinda is not your usual landlord: apart from being involved with the Iranian community for more than 20 years, she is also active in the Stop the War Coalition, Hollie Demands Justice, and abuse in the Church, among other causes. She also had MI5 whistleblower David Shayler living in one of the rooms below us for a couple of years, until 2007 more or less. According to the BBC, Shayler "caused the biggest crisis of official secrecy since the spy catcher affair"; in 2002, he went to jail for seven weeks for breaking the Official Secrets Act. By around 2007, he was successfully neutralised: he changed his name to Delores Kane, declared himself to be Jesus, and became a squatter. A New Statesman article dated 11 September 2006 featuring Belinda and Shayler gives no indication that he believed he was the Messiah at that time; whilst a Daily Mail interview with Shayler explicitly shows that he believed himself to be Jesus by June 2007.

Human rights activist Belinda McKenzie speaking at the UK Rally against child abuse, 4 June 2011, Trafalgar Square

We would love to know how Belinda does it.

My IP is blocked by the web host for the third time

Within less than two weeks of Declan’s dispatch on 10 August of his application above to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) regarding the interception of our communications and unlawful directed surveillance, our web host SiteGround twice blocked my IP address (see blog here) – in addition, within the same period, Facebook disabled my account (see blog here); our live-in landlady, human rights activist Belinda McKenzie, served us with five months notice to vacate what has been our home since 2009 (see blog here); and Haringey Council left us with an unprecedented £77 shortfall in rent to pay (see blog here). This afternoon SiteGround blocked my IP for the third time, meaning my browser wasn’t able to access the site at all.

As Declan wrote in paragraph 12 of his application to the IPT, our chairman, Dr Stephen Mumford, has been funding the N4CM website since December 2010, after the site was removed from the internet without explanation by Just Host, a web hosting provider we had paid for hosting until 2015. According to SiteGround this evening, there have been “a large number of simultaneous connections towards the server”, when in fact, as I informed them this afternoon, they have had me restricted to one tab for over two weeks:

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It’s not just SiteGround. Facebook now threatens to permanently disable my account the next time I post on a Facebook page with similar interests (see blog here). Because of this threat, I have not been posting on Facebook pages with similar interests. Nonetheless, “Exposing religious fundamentalism in the US”, which I uploaded two days ago, has been shared around Facebook 102 times, but according to the Facebook widget they recommend to webmasters to let people know what postings are currently popular, it has been shared 70 times. “Goodbye to All That: Reflections of a GOP Operative Who Left the Cult” has been shared 115 times, but according to the Facebook widget, it has only been shared 85 times. And “Inside the Christian Right Dominionist Movement That’s Undermining Democracy”, which has been shared in Facebook 198 times, Facebook says has only been shared 43 times. (Here is an article that has been shared over 1,000 times.)

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So my work on N4CM has been decimated, Facebook is effectively barring me from posting on Facebook pages with similar interests, and now there would appear to be an attempt to make N4CM seem less popular than it is. What's next?

Introductory letter to the European Court of Human Rights

It was only on 10 August that Declan dispatched the application above to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) regarding the interception of our communications and unlawful directed surveillance. However, on Saturday we received a letter from the Tribunal dismissing Declan's claim; and, for good measure, gratuitously insulting us too - by calling Declan's application "obviously unsustainable". The insult is particularly offensive because within two weeks of the dispatch of the application, Facebook disabled my account (see blog here); our web host, SiteGround, twice blocked my IP address (see blog here); our live-in landlady, human rights activist Belinda McKenzie, served us with five months notice to vacate what has been our home since 2009 (see blog here); and Haringey Council left us with an unprecedented £77 shortfall in rent to pay (see blog here). Now Facebook threatens to permanently disable my account the next time I post on a Facebook page with similar interests (see previous blog).

Perhaps this is just the IPT's way of going about their business - after all, as Declan points out in his introductory letter to the European Court of Human Rights below, the Tribunal has only ever upheld ten complaints since its inception in 2000. Declan also mentions a 2009 report from the New Internationalist headlined, with good evidence, "Police surveillance and intimidation of political activists in the UK is hitting new heights". The Guardian recently exposed that an 85-year-old peace campaigner has been classified by police as a "domestic extremist".

Anyway, Declan has wasted no time kicking off his case under Articles 8 (right to respect for private and family life and correspondence) and 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention on Human Rights:

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We have yet to get a receipt from Belinda for the full rent we paid on 26 August. MI5 whistleblower David Shayler lived for a couple of years in one of the rooms below us, until 2007 more or less. According to the BBC, Shayler "caused the biggest crisis of official secrecy since the spy catcher affair". By around 2007, he had been successfully neutralised: he changed his name to Delores Kane, declared himself to be Jesus, and became a squatter. A New Statesman article dated 11 September 2006 featuring Belinda and Shayler gives no indication that he believed he was the Messiah at that time, nor that he had changed his name to Delores Kane.

Facebook threatens to permanently disable my account the next time I post on a FB page with similar interests

Within two weeks of Declan's dispatch on 10 August of the application above to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) regarding the interception of our communications and unlawful directed surveillance, Facebook disabled my account (see blog here); our web host, SiteGround, twice blocked my IP address (see blog here); our live-in landlady, human rights activist Belinda McKenzie, served us with five months notice to vacate what has been our home since 2009 (see blog here); and Haringey Council left us with an unprecedented £77 shortfall in rent to pay (see previous blog). Now Facebook threatens to permanently disable my account the next time I post on a Facebook page with similar interests.

Last week Declan forwarded to Facebook a letter from our local political representative, Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone, in which she offers her “direct assistance” (archived here), but to absolutely no effect:

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Belinda has yet to give us a receipt for the full rent we paid on 26 August. She is not your usual landlord: apart from being involved in a variety of causes – from anti-war and abuse in the church to involvement with the Iranian community for more than 20 years – she had MI5 whistleblower David Shayler living in one of the rooms below us for a couple of years, until 2007 more or less. According to the BBC, Shayler "caused the biggest crisis of official secrecy since the spy catcher affair". By around 2007, he had been successfully neutralised: he changed his name to Delores Kane, declared himself to be Jesus, and became a squatter. A New Statesman article dated 11 September 2006 featuring Belinda and Shayler gives no indication that he believed he was the Messiah at that time, nor that he had changed his name to Delores Kane. This photograph comes from the Independent:

Haringey Council leaves us with an unprecedented £77 shortfall in rent to pay

Since Declan's dispatch on 10 August of the application above to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) regarding the interception of our communications and unlawful directed surveillance, it hasn't stopped: Facebook has disabled my account (see blog here); our web host SiteGround has twice blocked my IP address (see blog here); our landlady, human rights activist Belinda McKenzie, has served us with five months notice to vacate what has been our home since 2009 (see blog here); and this morning Declan went to the bank to discover that Haringey Council has left us with an unprecedented £76.92 shortfall in rent to pay.

Perhaps £77 doesn't sound too much, but as Declan illustrates in paragraph 10 of his application to the IPT, there is a serious attempt to keep us impoverished and so we are surviving on the £211 we get every two weeks on Declan's joint claim for Jobseeker's Allowance. Declan has Haringey Council before the Tribunals Service (not the IPT) for these shortfalls in rent, which started last March. However, the Council doesn't seem to take a blind bit of notice. So this is Declan's latest to the Tribunals Service on the issue:

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As I said in the previous blog, we are baffled that Belinda didn’t say anything to us about vacating our flat until three weeks after our one-year tenancy agreement ran out on 26 July, despite us emailing her twice for a new agreement; then she leaves an undated notice for us in the hall together with a new six-month agreement backdated to 26 July (see blog of 17 August We are given 5 months notice to vacate). Declan’s application to the IPT on 10 August includes two stunning photographs of MI5 whistleblower David Shayler, who lived for a couple of years in one of the rooms below us, until 2007 more or less. Moreover, Belinda has not just been involved with the Iranian community for more than 20 years (see previous blog). She is also active in the Stop the War Coalition, Hollie Demands Justice, and abuse in the Church. This is a video of Belinda delivering summons to the Papal Nuncio:

My IP is blocked by the web host for the second time in a week

Most certainly the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) website should warn citizens that if they decide to lodge a complaint against the Intelligence Services or a public authority they should expect things to happen. Declan sent his application to the IPT regarding the interception of our communications and unlawful directed surveillance on 10 August and since then I haven't stopped blogging: on 13 August, Facebook disabled my account without warning or cause and hasn't even bothered to reply to our emails (see previous blog Declan reports Facebook to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal); on 16 August, our web host blocked my IP address and I couldn't access our website or my files in the server (see blog here); on 17 August, our live-in landlady Belinda McKenzie, a human rights activist, served us with 5 months notice to vacate what has been our home since July 2009 (see blog here); and this afternoon SiteGround blocked my IP address for the second time in less than a week.

SiteGround has been hosting our site since December 2010 and has never blocked my IP until now so I was beginning to wonder if somebody had got a hold of my IP and established multiple connections to the server, resulting in their two blocks within days of each other. However, according to SiteGround, I should limit myself to one browser tab to do all my work in relation to the site (I previously always used two: one which contained my WordPress installation so I could publish articles, and a second to check my work), and Declan and I should no longer access the site at the same time, at least not until we have paid for an upgrade:

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It still baffles me that Belinda didn’t say anything to us about vacating our flat until three weeks after our one-year tenancy agreement ran out on 26 July, despite us emailing her twice for a new agreement; then she leaves an undated notice for us in the hall together with a new six-month agreement backdated to 26 July (see blog of 17 August We are given 5 months notice to vacate). Declan’s application to the IPT on 10 August includes two stunning photographs of MI5 whistleblower David Shayler, who lived for a couple of years in one of the rooms below us, until 2007 more or less. Moreover, among her many activities, Belinda has been involved with the Iranian community for more than 20 years. This is a video of Belinda with her Iranian husband, the poet Esmail Vafa Yaghmaei, who lives in France, speaking in solidarity with people in Iran on 24 August 2009 in Trafalgar Square, London:

Declan reports Facebook to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal

In our About page statement, I added last night that within one week of Declan’s application to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) above regarding the interception of our communications and directed surveillance, our live-in landlady, human rights activist Belinda McKenzie, served us with backdated notice to vacate our home by the end of January (see previous blog). In fact, within that week Facebook disabled my account without warning or cause and SiteGround blocked my IP address, the latter of which prevented me from accessing our website for the first time since the web host began hosting the site back in December 2010. Although my IP address is now unblocked, Facebook has yet to get back to me or restore my account. We also have no idea who or what is next in the queue; but whomever or whatever it is, this afternoon Declan opened up a fast track to the IPT with Facebook:

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Perhaps our jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus (of the Department for Work and Pensions), will be next. They have lined us up for a one-hour interview next Thursday to take a shot at our jobseekers agreements with the DWP, which we always far exceed. It is scheduled to take place prior to our 'sign on', a prerequisite to our receipt the following Tuesday of £211, the money we receive for the both of us every two weeks. We smell trouble. After all, it was the DWP that forced us to sleep rough on the streets of London for more than 2 1/2 years, from 3 November 2006 and 13 July 2009, because Declan didn’t 'sign on' TWO DAYS BEFORE he was due to do so on 29 September 2006 (see paragraph 10 of the application to the IPT above; paragraphs 2 and 3 give a bit of our background).

It still baffles me that Belinda didn’t say anything to us about vacating our flat until three weeks after our one-year tenancy agreement ran out on 26 July, despite us emailing her twice for a new agreement (we have been here since July 2009); then she leaves an undated notice for us in the hall together with a new six-month agreement backdated to 26 July. Declan’s application to the IPT on 10 August includes two stunning photographs of MI5 whistleblower David Shayler, who lived for a couple of years in one of the rooms below us, until 2007 more or less. According to the BBC, Shayler "caused the biggest crisis of official secrecy since the spy catcher affair". By around 2007, he had been successfully neutralised: he changed his name to Delores Kane, declared himself to be Jesus, and became a squatter. A New Statesman article dated 11 September 2006 featuring Belinda and Shayler gives no indication that he believed he was the Messiah at that time.


Human rights activist Belinda McKenzie speaking at the UK Rally against child abuse, 4 June 2011, Trafalgar Square

We assume Belinda knows that come the end of January it is likely to be freezing cold, if not actually snowing!

We are given 5 months notice to vacate

Within a week of Declan’s dispatch on 10 August of the complaint above to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) regarding the interception of our communications and unlawful directed surveillance, Facebook has suspended my ability to post on FB Page walls (see blog of 13 August Facebook suspends my account and threatens termination); our web host’s firewall blocked my IP address, preventing me from accessing our website for the first time since they began hosting our site in December 2010 (see previous blog); and, to top the lot, today our live-in landlady Belinda McKenzie, a human rights activist, served us with five months notice to vacate what has been our home since July 2009 (although Belinda cites six months here, it accompanies a tenancy agreement that has been backdated to 26 July, when our previous one-year agreement expired):

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This afternoon Declan emailed Belinda to establish that we were given five months notice, not six; that Haringey Council pays her rent in arrears, not in advance; and that we haven’t signed her backdated tenancy agreement but need to send it to the Tribunals Service, to which Declan recently lodged a case against the Council (see paragraph 10 of Declan’s application to the IPT above):

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Belinda is a human rights activist who is involved in many causes, including Stop the War Coalition, Iranian solidarity, Hollie Demands Justice, and abuse in the Church. Declan's application to the IPT carries two photographs of MI5 whistleblower David Shayler, who lived for a couple of years in one of the rooms below us, until 2007 more or less. According to the BBC, Shayler "caused the biggest crisis of official secrecy since the spy catcher affair". By around 2007, he had been successfully neutralised: he changed his name to Delores Kane, declared himself to be Jesus, and became a squatter. As a former psychologist, I find it most interesting that it seems a part of his brain is gone. Here's how the Sun dealt with the story (as they do):

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Website brought down

The Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) website should warn citizens that if they decide to lodge a complaint against the Intelligence Services or a public authority they should expect things to happen. Last Saturday, within three days of Declan's dispatch of the complaint above regarding the interception of our communications and unlawful directed surveillance, Facebook suspended my ability to post on FB Page walls, alleging without foundation that I was a spammer (see previous blog). This afternoon, our website was brought down without warning:

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I have only just learnt from our web host, SiteGround, that for the first time since they began hosting our site in December 2010, their firewall blocked my IP address. This is my email tonight asking them to investigate:

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This is not all. This morning Declan took a trip to the bank to discover that Haringey Council will be leaving us with an unprecedented £76.92 shortfall in rent to pay this month, despite that Declan has them before the Tribunals Service (the latest from the Clerk to the Tribunal is archived here). The only bit of good news in all this is that after I emailed our live-in landlady Belinda McKenzie to remind her again that she has to give us a new rental agreement (the last one ran out on 26 July), she emailed me back saying she was on it. Well, hopefully this is good news!

Facebook suspends my account and threatens termination

When I put a link in our About page to Declan’s complaint on Wednesday to the Investigative Powers Tribunal (IPT) regarding the interception of our communications and unlawful directed surveillance (see previous blog), little did I know that three days later I would be adding Facebook to the paragraph. Without cause or warning, Facebook has informed me this evening that I have been posting spam and irrelevant content on FB Pages and therefore my ability to post on Page walls has been suspended for 15 days. They add that if I continue to post 'spam' after this block has been lifted, my account could be permanently disabled.

For a start, I have hardly been on Facebook of late because we lost our home internet connection for over a month. Since 4 July through to today, whenever I have accessed Facebook, it has only been for a few minutes at a time and only to keep my wall and the N4CM wall ticking over. Moreover, I only post on Page walls articles I publish on our site – for example, on Thursday I posted Church Shaken by Sexual Abuse Allegations in Africa, which has been recommended by 393 people – and never to friends' walls but to relevant groups and organisations. Seconds before Facebook took me out, I posted The Hungry Planet: Global Food Scarcity in the 21st Century to the US organisation Population Connection. What spam and irrelevant content?

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I have just sent a quick email to our live-in landlady Belinda McKenzie to remind her again that when she gives us a new tenancy agreement for signing, she doesn’t forget to backdate it to 26 July. We wouldn’t be surprised if next in the queue is Haringey Council looking for our rental agreement to continue paying Belinda her rent. Declan's application to the IPT carries two photographs of MI5 whistleblower David Shayler, who lived for a couple of years in one of the rooms below us, until 2007 more or less. According to the BBC, Shayler “caused the biggest crisis of official secrecy since the spy catcher affair”. By around 2007, he had been successfully neutralised: he changed his name to Delores Kane, declared himself to be Jesus, and became a squatter.  Here's a more recent photograph:



It also turns out that we were right to be concerned about our 'sign on' last Thursday in our jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus. They have lined us up for a one hour interview on Thursday week to take another shot at our contractual agreements with the Department for Work and Pensions, which we have always far exceeded. Between one thing and another, we have decided that on Monday we are kicking off our fundraising campaign by sending a Letter of Inquiry to philanthropic foundations for a general support grant. We have no choice really, if we don't want to be put back on the street. It never rains but it pours.

Application to the Investigatory Powers Tribunal

In the previous blog, I published a statement that Action for Employment (A4E) faxed last week to our jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus, alleging that Declan "has constantly been uncooperative, blaming others for his reasons for not finding employment". The week previous, my A4E adviser didn’t see it that way, writing on 26 July that Declan and I intended lodging a complaint with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal regarding the interception of our communications and unlawful directed surveillance. There is not one single application to the IPT online, but this is the second of two applications Declan submitted to the Tribunal this morning (the Human Rights Claim Form, Form T1, asks much the same questions):

The IPT was established in 2000 to investigate complaints about surveillance by the Intelligence Services and public authorities. The New Internationalist pointed out in 2009 that police surveillance and intimidation of political activists in the UK had hit new heights. Nonetheless, since its inception, the IPT has only ever upheld ten complaints. We are not naive enough to think that Declan's complaint will be upheld, and this side of an application to the European Court of Human Rights we have no choice but to make ours public so concerned are we about Highgate Jobcentre Plus, and our 'sign on' in the Jobcentre tomorrow in particular. At least tomorrow we will have this application and the e-letter I published in the previous blog to our MP about A4E behind us, with Declan's renewal hearing in the High Court against the Jobcentre scheduled for 22 November (see blog of 14 April Declan's Notice of Renewal of claim for permission to apply for Judicial Review).

Declan's application to the IPT carries two pictures of MI5 whistleblower David Shayler, who lived for a couple of years in one of the rooms below us, until 2007 more or less. According to the BBC, Shayler “caused the biggest crisis of official secrecy since the spy catcher affair”. By around 2007, he had been successfully neutralised: he changed his name to Delores Kane, declared himself to be Jesus, and became a squatter.

A4E apply to have our benefits terminated

Action for Employment (A4E) is a private company founded and chaired by Emma Harrison CBE. As the interviewer in the video above points out, A4E has received £300 million of Government training contracts and controls 25% of the long-term unemployment budget for the Department for Work and Pensions. Today we finally finished with this company, but not before Declan’s highly abusive advisor Lola Olowu-Worth wrote an outrageous Action Plan on Exit designed to have our benefits terminated. The document is supposed to carry Declan’s signature but Olowu-Worth is not one who cares too much about such particulars. As usual, she writes what she wants and tough if Declan finds the content so objectionable that he refuses to sign. This is an additional comment that, according to herself, she faxed into our jobcentre this morning:

A4E advisor's additional comment on Declan's 1/8/2011 Action Plan on Exit: "Mr Heavey has failed to attend interviews set up for him by his advisor and has constantly been uncooperative, blaming others for his reasons for not finding employment." Declan advised his A4E Advisor Lola Olowu-Worth that the Action Plan on Exit she submitted to our jobcentre this morning (without his signature) is actionable for fraudulent misrepresentation.

As has been the case every two weeks for more than two months now, tomorrow we have no idea whether there will be any money in the bank for us or, if there is, whether there will be anything there for us in two weeks time. Highgate Jobcentre Plus has twice sanctioned Declan without affording him the opportunity to present evidence of good cause to the Decision Maker, so he delivered this e-letter to the manager of the Jobcentre this afternoon (the letter mentioned to the Prime Minister is archived here):

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Fortunately for us, Declan and I have plenty of evidence that points to the fact that we are not to blame for all the problems that seem to follow us everywhere we go. Well, as my own advisor wrote a few days ago in my Action Plan on Exit: “Mrs Heavey alleges unlawful directed surveillance and unlawful interception of communications by MI5 and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). She is filing tomorrow 27/7/11 a complaint to that effect with the Investigatory Powers Tribunal as advised by the Home Office and her MP Lynne Featherstone.” We haven't finished the complaint yet because we haven't found one single complaint published online. We will, however, be publishing ours online. We have no choice - after Olowu-Worth's fax to our jobcentre!

Has A4E raised a fourth 'sanction doubt' against Declan?

Action for Employment (A4E) is a private company founded and chaired by Emma Harrison CBE that controls 25% of the long-term unemployment budget for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The first time Declan's highly abusive A4E Advisor Lola Olowu-Worth raised a sanction doubt against him, our housing benefit was suspended without warning or explanation (see blog of 8 June DWP instructed Haringey Council to stop paying our rent). On that occasion it was because Declan would not agree to be trained as a warehouse operative; yesterday Olowu-Worth cancelled a “progress review” without notification, but had previously told him that if he failed to turn up to an unagreed telesales interview that she had brazenly gone ahead and re-arranged for him last week that she would raise a fourth sanction doubt against him. So this is Declan's e-letter this afternoon to our MP, Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone (the letter mentioned to the Prime Minister is archived here):

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As I keep mentioning, we lost our internet connection on 4 July and have no idea when or if we will get it back (see blog of 23 May Are we back to being 'squeezed' in public libraries?). Our live-in landlady, activist Belinda McKenzie, has two accounts with different providers and three access points. Our access point “Guest” (situated in one of the rooms below us) is not responding to our laptops and when I occasionally get connected on “moj” (situated in the basement), I am disconnected pretty quickly. Two weeks ago we even had to ask Belinda to let us use her computer to send an email! I have also mentioned that MI5 whistleblower David Shayler lived for a couple of years in one of the rooms below us, until 2007 more or less. According to the BBC, Shayler “caused the biggest crisis of official secrecy since the spy catcher affair”. By around 2007, he had been successfully neutralised: he changed his name to Delores Kane, declared himself to be Jesus, and became a squatter.

This week we also learnt by private email from a Nobel laureate that select emails of ours are still being delivered to spam boxes (see blog of 20 June 2010 Interception of communications: Our MP responds). Belinda is a human rights activist who is involved in many causes, including Stop the War Coalition, Iranian solidarity, Hollie Demands Justice, and abuse in the Church. I keep joking that I should ask Belinda for some tips on how to avoid the interest of the secretive National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) because, according to a recent Guardian article Peace campaigner, 85, classified by police as 'domestic extremist', it doesn’t take much to grab their attention! Here is a YouTube video of Belinda, in which she takes a shot at the Queen (5:20):

The High Court dismisses Declan's complaint for maladministration

In Monday’s blog A4E raises a third 'sanction doubt' against Declan, I mentioned that Declan had made a complaint against the Administrative Court Office of the High Court for their handling of his case against our jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus (see blog of 14 April Declan's Notice of Renewal of claim for permission to apply for Judicial Review). Well, little did we know that the Court Manager, David Brupbacher, would kick the dismissal of the complaint up to Her Majesty’s Courts Service (HMCS) Complaint Handling and Enquiries Team, leaving only the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman to investigate:

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It has been a rough couple of days. As I also showed in Monday’s blog, we have lost the internet connection in our flat; so even if we want to send an email, one of us has to run off to the local internet cafe or a library. Our live-in landlady Belinda McKenzie has two accounts with different providers and three access points. Our access point “Guest” (situated in one of the rooms below us) is not responding to our laptops and neither is “moj”, which I can usually use in an emergency. This evening we were so desperate that Declan had to ask Belinda to let us use her computer to send an email to our MP, Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone!

A4E raises a third 'sanction doubt' against Declan

Action for Employment (A4E) is a private company that has received £300 million of Government training contracts and controls 25% of the long-term unemployment budget for the Department for Work and Pensions (see the video in the previous blog A4E raises a second 'sanction doubt' against Declan). Our one-year lease is up for renewal in three weeks time and it would appear that the DWP have the A4E office we were allocated some time ago under particularly strong pressure to make it as easy as possible for our jobcentre to terminate our benefits. This includes making false statements against Declan, to such an extent that last Friday he was forced to report his highly abusive A4E Advisor Lola Olowu-Worth to the police:

My written statement for PC EK7134 of Kentish Town Police Station:

"I wish to report my Camden A4E Advisor Lola Olowu-Worth for engaging in conduct which I believe to be criminal, involving racial discrimination. This afternoon Ms Olowu-Worth has written of her intention to raise a third sanction doubt against me with my jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus, based on a document she has drawn up which, among other things, falsely reports my views. When I informed Ms Olowu-Worth that she is engaging in what I believe to be criminal conduct by falsely reporting my views (like I was an Irish Mick), she replied: 'Good luck with that!' I request that this matter be investigated by the Metropolitan Police and that I be afforded the opportunity to adduce into evidence my e-letter this evening to my MP, Ms Lynne Featherstone."

Declan Heavey 1/7/2011 5.30pm

According to PC EK7134, the only racial abuse he heard was "you describing yourself as an Irish Mick", that there had been no crime, and that there would be no report.

And this is Declan's email this afternoon to our MP, Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone:

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The fact of the matter is that we are surviving here week by week. If Declan wasn't prepared to make complaints and lodge documents in the courts, as I keep registering in this blog, we would have been back to the street a long time ago. See here, for example, his latest complaint against the Administrative Court Office of the High Court for their handling of his case against our jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus; and here for his latest recording with the Tribunals Service of the payment of our rent by Haringey Council. Declan also has Highgate Jobcentre Plus in the Central London County Court, and last Friday registered with that court a request for judgment.

To top it all, we lost our internet connection again today and have no idea when or if we will get it back (see blog of 23 May Are we back to being 'squeezed' in public libraries?). As this graphic shows (see tabs at the bottom), when we lost our internet connection in the flat, I was studying how to draft a Letter of Inquiry to funders of non-profit organisations to obtain an operating support grant (we are seeking £21,000, which will keep us and Network for Church Monitoring going for at least a year):

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A4E raises a second 'sanction doubt' against Declan

Action for Employment (A4E) is a private company founded and chaired by Emma Harrison CBE. As the interviewer in the video above points out, A4E has received £300 million of Government training contracts and controls 25% of the long-term unemployment budget for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The last time A4E raised a sanction doubt against Declan, our housing benefit was suspended without warning or explanation (see previous blog DWP instructed Haringey Council to stop paying our rent). On that occasion it was because Declan would not agree to be trained as a warehouse operative; today the sanction doubt was raised by his highly abusive A4E Advisor Lola Olowu-Worth because he did not turn up for an unagreed basic maths test she brazenly went ahead and arranged for him for job vacancies in WH Smith, the British newspapers, books and stationery retailer.

This afternoon Olowu-Worth was as outrageous as ever (breaching Declan's contract with A4E no less than 12 times within 30 minutes), but the situation now is simple. Legally our jobcentre, Highgate Jobcentre Plus, must ask Declan for his answer to this latest sanction doubt raised by Olowu-Worth, but his views were never sought the last time. So Declan has upped the ante once again with this email just now to our MP, Lynne Featherstone, who also happens to be the Minister for Equalities:

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We are still waiting to hear from the List Office in the High Court with a date for the hearing of Declan's case against Highgate Jobcentre Plus (see blog of 14 April Declan's Notice of Renewal of claim for permission to apply for Judicial Review). Declan is challenging the lack of remedy under welfare law for discriminatory practice by A4E. However, according to the Administrative Court Office, his application for expedition last December has expired, and there's no telling when a date will be set for his renewal hearing. Declan's latest to the court manager of the ACO about this earlier this week was copied to Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Kenneth Clarke.

Suffice to say we have absolutely no way of knowing whether there will be any money in our building society for Declan to withdraw next Tuesday (a first), his complaint pursuant to Stage 1 of the DWP's complaints procedure over the interruption to our housing benefit payments notwithstanding. I will, therefore, work hard this weekend on our homepage just in case, featuring in the middle column Gordon Brown's Jobs + Justice campaign, a call on the G20 leaders to launch a global green jobs and stimulus plan to lift millions out of poverty. That will leave me with Monday to work on Declan's draft of our first grant request to a foundation.


Secret Millionaire Emma Harrison goes to Dagenham, one of Britain's poorest areas and home to Europe's largest council estate. A steel worker's daughter, 43 year old Harrison is Britain's richest female entrepreneur.

DWP instructed Haringey Council to stop paying our rent

This is only a short update to yesterday's blog Haringey Council has stopped paying our rent?, which contains a stunning photograph of MI5 whistleblower David Shayler, who lived for a couple of years in one of the rooms below us. It turns out that indeed Haringey Council had stopped paying our rent. This morning Declan had no sooner mailed his latest judicial review letter before claim when he received a phone call and then an email from Haringey Council about the shenanigans. Apparently, the Department for Work and Pensions notified them that our Income Support was due to be terminated today but then that it had been reinstated (all unknown to us, and without explanation):

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This evening Declan dispatched his subject access request under the Data Protection Act 1998 requesting the DWP's notifications. And this after we were forced by the DWP to sleep rough on the streets of London for more than 2 1/2 years because Declan did not "sign on" TWO DAYS BEFORE he was due to do so on 29 September 2006 (see About us). No doubt Shayler has a story or two about Haringey Council. According to the BBC's Panorama programme, Shayler “caused the biggest crisis of official secrecy since the spy catcher affair”. Shayler, who goes by the name of Delores Kane and has declared himself to be Jesus, is the one sitting on the chair: