Check out our news website Church and State to find out about our writers and read some amazing stories: http://churchandstate.org.uk. There are no less than 63 Nobel Prize laureates on the site; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State".
County Court at Central London, Royal Courts of Justice
On 11 September 2015 the Central London County Court issued Declan's claim against the Greater London Authority (GLA) for terminating our eligibility for our flat without the right of review or appeal. A month later Declan was informed by the Court's telephone service that he wouldn't receive a copy of GLA's application to contest the court's jurisdiction from the Court until a hearing date has been given. In the off chance his case is dismissed on paper only without a hearing, it was agreed that he would need to submit a subject access request (SAR) to the Court if he wanted to be sure of having a sealed copy of GLA's application for an appeal. This morning the Information Commissioner's Office upheld Declan's complaint against the Ministry of Justice for mishandling his SAR. However, we remain aggrieved in regard to the Central London County Court's failure to send us a copy of GLA's application without a SAR, and it is Declan's intention to ask our local MP, Shadow Communities Minister Lyn Brown, to refer our complaint to the Parliamentary Ombudsman should Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service Complaint Handling and Enquiries Team not provide us with a satisfactory explanation. This is Declan's latest to the Ministry of Justice on the matter:
Last night we experienced the most significant attack on a laptop to date. Basically with my laptop I cannot publish material on our Church and State website. Whatever damage has been done, I can't make a WordPress post, add images, or click on most of the platform's buttons. It happens with both of the browsers I use, Firefox and Chrome, and also in my WordPress local installation. This can only be an attack on my laptop, because the platform works fine on Declan's laptop and on an old one we use as back up. I made this video of the attack:
We feel like we have been dealing with a storm in a teacup this past week, but at least now we have a case against Facebook UK to show for it. All we need to kick this case off in the Central London County Court is 1 paragraph for ground (breach of contract) and 4-5 paragraphs for particulars of claim. These are the first two paragraphs in an exhibit to facilitate the court, which will also help us in our writing up of 4-5 particulars of claim in a couple of weeks time:
Timeline
1. On 1 December 2015 Facebook blocked the Claimant's wife from joining and posting to groups until 8 December without any stated reason. Facebook also removed every posting she had ever made to groups since she joined Facebook in 2010, including to a group where she is one of the administrators. The Claimant's wife appealed both of these decisions that same day. On 2 December Facebook extended the Claimant's wife's block until 9 December without any stated reason. On 3 December the Claimant wrote a letter of complaint to Facebook UK Managing Director Steve Hatch. On 4 December Facebook set the Claimant's wife's contract to correct.
2. On 5 December the Claimant sent a recorded letter before claim to Facebook UK Complaints for breach of contract. He asked to be provided with the grounds to back up Facebook's actions since 1 December and assurance in writing or durable form that Facebook would not repeat such actions in the future. He also asked to be provided with Terms and Conditions, citing duty of candour. At 12.11pm, Mr Hatch acknowledged receiving the Claimant's pre-action letter by email; however, a few hours later Facebook again blocked the Claimant's wife from joining and posting to groups without any stated reason, this time until 12 December. Facebook also again removed every posting she had ever made to groups since she joined Facebook in 2010. The Claimant's wife appealed both of these decisions that same day.
With two weeks of a timeline written up, all we will have to do is write up 4-5 particulars of claim, add our ground to the claim form, and file the case in the county court. Declan already has the rest of the claim form filled in and ready to go!! This is his pre-action letter that Facebook UK Managing Director Steve Hatch acknowledged receiving yesterday just hours before I was blocked again and all my posts to Facebook groups were removed for the second time in five days:
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These are the first two paragraphs of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that he is currently working on.
HEAVEY v. THE UNITED KINGDOM
COMMUNICATION SUBMITTED FOR CONSIDERATION UNDER
THE FIRST OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE
INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS
Paragraphs 1-2 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations
1. The Applicant in this Communication is Declan Heavey, a citizen of the Republic of Ireland who lives in London in the United Kingdom. He was born on 4 September 1960 and is a former teacher. His wife is a naturalized Irish citizen born on 26 March 1965 in Madrid in Spain. She is a former psychologist and lives with the Applicant in London. They have no children. After moving to the United Kingdom in August 2003, the Applicant founded the Network for Church Monitoring (N4CM), a non-profit he registered as a company limited by guarantee in January 2011. He is currently employed as the Managing Director of N4CM, and his wife as the Webmaster of N4CM's website called "Church and State". Edd Doerr, President of Americans for Religious Liberty: "Let me recommend an important website churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting website covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out."
2. The Applicant and his wife were forced to sleep rough on the streets of London for almost four years in total – from 4 November 2006 to 13 July 2009 (see paragraphs 20-22 below), and from 14 April 2013 to 15 May 2014 (see paragraphs 23-26 below) – and they are currently fighting the Mayor of London's Greater London Authority in the courts to stave off eviction from their home (see paragraphs 36-40 below). This notwithstanding that participants in Church and State include 40 Nobel Laureates (two are N4CM Honorary Associates), 13 US National Medal of Science winners, seven prominent members of the UK's House of Lords, and hundreds of other distinguished scholars from around the world. Prior to being made street homeless for the second time in April 2013, having been evicted from the same political 'safe house' former MI5 whistleblower David Shayler lived in until he was made homeless in 2007 (see paragraph 8 below), the Applicant and his wife were nominated for the US-based Population Institute's Global Media Award 2013 for a website described by one of the nominators as "the most important cutting edge population website ever created" (see Annex 1, Declan and Lola Heavey: PI Global Media Award Nominees 2013, p. 18).
Perhaps Facebook UK intends telling the county court that they are Facebook and they can take any action they want, at any time, against anyone; and without having to provide the court with sufficient reason, cause or explanation. And perhaps such a defence will go viral... on Facebook!!
'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty
This afternoon Facebook UK Managing Director Steve Hatch acknowledged receiving Declan's letter before court claim (the letter is presented further below). Nonetheless, Facebook has blocked me again tonight from joining and posting to groups until 12 December, without any stated reason. Not only that, every single posting I have made to groups since I joined Facebook in 2010 has been removed for the second time in five days, including those to an atheist group where I am one of the administrators. I have appealed both of these decisions very much with court proceedings in mind. There is a duty of candour that dictates that Facebook UK must back up any claims they make about my activities online with evidence. We certainly have no intention of letting them away with simply making out that I am liar without anything to show for it. This is my latest appeal tonight:
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This is Declan's pre-action letter that Hatch acknowledged receiving this morning:
Facebook has also removed every posting I have ever made to groups since I joined Facebook in 2010, for the second time in 5 days. This is Delan's pre-action letter that Facebook UK Managing Director Steve Hatch has acknowledged receiving by email this morning:
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This is Declan's complaint to Hatch a couple of days ago, which he has also acknowledged receiving:
Facebook blocked me from posting to groups until 8 December, removed every posting I have ever made to groups since I joined Facebook in 2010, and then extended their block until 9 December after I appealed the first two decisions; and all three decisions without any stated reason. None of three complaints we have made to Facebook, the third to Facebook UK Managing Director Steve Hatch, has been responded to. Declan has contacted our local Member of Parliament (MP), Shadow Communities Minister Lyn Brown, whose personal assistant has assured us will write to Facebook on our behalf. He has also spoken with what sounded like a contract lawyer in the Citizens Advice Consumer Service. It turns out that we are protected under UK legislation because Facebook has an office here in London, and they need to set my contract to correct on 9 December or Declan will commence proceedings against them for breach of contract. This afternoon I went to the Facebook page and asked them for their complaints address here in the UK for Declan's pre-action letter. I didn't get a response there either so Declan will address his letter to the complaints department (whether it exists or not) in the London office. We believe it could be a David v Goliath litigation that will appeal to many Facebook users, for a start.
Yesterday when Declan telephoned the Citizens Advice Consumer Service he got through to what sounded like a contract lawyer straight away. Today it has taken over two hours to receive a message from them asking him to phone back. Yesterday this sort of thing took up half Declan's morning:
"This past hour on his Vodafone smartphone Declan has received three missed calls from a private number and two messages from [Shadow Communities Minister] Lyn Brown's office asking him to phone back. Not once have we heard the phone ring and it has been sitting (switched on) on Declan's desk all morning!! Declan has left three messages for the caller but has yet to get to speak with him."
Facebook has blocked me from posting to groups, removed every posting I have ever made to groups since I joined Facebook in 2010, and extended their block; all without any stated reason. To quote a friend in Washington DC: "Important that this matter be investigated as it represents an arrogance which should not be tolerated." This is Declan's email this morning to our local Member of Parliament (MP), Shadow Communities Minister Lyn Brown.
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This past hour on his Vodafone smartphone Declan has received three missed calls from a private number and two messages from Lyn Brown's office asking him to phone back. Not once have we heard the phone ring and it has been sitting (switched on) on Declan's desk all morning!! Declan has left three messages for the caller but has yet to get to speak with him.
Samsung Galaxy S3
UPDATE (12.10pm): Declan has just spoken with Lyn Brown's assistant. He assured Declan that Ms Brown would write to Facebook and get back to us in the next few days.
Let me quote a friend who read this complaint of Declan's to Facebook. "That should get someone's attention."
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DECLAN HEAVEY V. THE UNITED KINGDOM
COMMUNICATION SUBMITTED FOR CONSIDERATION UNDER
THE FIRST OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE
INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS
Paragraphs 1-2 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations
1. The Applicant in this Communication is Declan Heavey, a citizen of the Republic of Ireland who lives in London in the United Kingdom. He was born on 4 September 1960 and is a former teacher. His wife is a naturalized Irish citizen born on 26 March 1965 in Madrid in Spain. She is a former psychologist and lives with the Applicant in London. They have no children. After moving to the United Kingdom in August 2003, the Applicant founded the Network for Church Monitoring (N4CM), a non-profit he registered as a company limited by guarantee in January 2011. He is currently employed as the Managing Director of N4CM, and his wife as the Webmaster of N4CM's website called "Church and State". Edd Doerr, President of Americans for Religious Liberty: "Let me recommend an important website churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting website covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out."
2. The Applicant and his wife were forced to sleep rough on the streets of London for almost four years in total – from 4 November 2006 to 13 July 2009 (see paragraphs 20-22 below), and from 14 April 2013 to 15 May 2014 (see paragraphs 23-26 below) – and they are currently fighting the Mayor of London's Greater London Authority in the courts to stave off eviction from their home (see paragraphs 36-40 below). This notwithstanding that participants in Church and State include 40 Nobel Laureates (two are N4CM Honorary Associates), 13 US National Medal of Science winners, seven prominent members of the UK's House of Lords, and hundreds of other distinguished scholars from around the world. Prior to being made street homeless for the second time in April 2013, having been evicted from the same political 'safe house' former MI5 whistleblower David Shayler lived in until he was made homeless in 2007 (see paragraph 8 below), the Applicant and his wife were nominated for the US-based Population Institute's Global Media Award 2013 for a website described by one of the nominators as "the most important cutting edge population website ever created" (see Annex 1, Declan and Lola Heavey: PI Global Media Award Nominees 2013, p. 18).
'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty
Facebook haven't blocked me for years, but this afternoon I was blocked from joining and posting to groups until 8 December, without any stated reason. Not only that, every single posting I have made to groups since I joined Facebook in 2010 has been removed, including those to an atheist group where I am one of the administrators. I appealed both of these decisions earlier this evening.
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These are the two articles from our Church and State website that I posted to a few popular atheist groups before I was blocked:
This is a screenshot I made a few weeks ago of one of my postings to an atheist group:
Now when I search my name in that group, this is what I get:
It is the same with every group I have ever posted to. I find this sinister and really creepy. Paragraph 12 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights comes immediately to mind.
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Paragraph 12 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations
12. It is important to underscore that the discriminatory surveillance suffered by the Applicant and his wife is not an isolated event. Rather, it is emblematic of a larger pattern of surveillance by law enforcement officials in the UK that has been well-documented by international and domestic human rights bodies. For example, the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) specialises in attempting to "discredit, disrupt, delay, deny, degrade, and deter" targets and has been branded by the press as GCHQ's "deception unit". Though its existence was secret until last year, JTRIG quickly developed a distinctive profile in the public understanding, after documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the unit had engaged in "dirty tricks" like deploying sexual "honey traps" designed to discredit targets, launching denial-of-service attacks to shut down Internet chat rooms, pushing veiled propaganda onto social networks and generally warping discourse online. Previous reporting on the spy agency established its focus on what it regards as political radicalism. Beyond JTRIG's targeting of Anonymous, other parts of GCHQ targeted political activists and groups deemed to be "radical", even monitoring human rights NGOs. The London-based Privacy International asks: "How many more problems with GCHQ's secret procedures have to be revealed for them to be brought under control?"
'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty
UPDATE (2 December, 3.35pm): Still no reply from Facebook, but they have extended their block by an extra day without any stated reason.
County Court at Central London, Royal Courts of Justice
On 11 September 2015 the Central London County Court issued Declan's claim against the Greater London Authority (GLA) for terminating our eligibility for our flat without the right of review or appeal. A month later Declan was told by the Court's telephone service that he would only have the GLA's application to dispute the Court’s jurisdiction served upon him by the court if the judge does not dismiss the case, and that he would therefore have to apply for it under the Data Protection Act 1998 before the judge's order if he wanted to be sure of getting sealed paperwork for the Court of Appeal. The Data Protection Act allows up to 40 days for the Court's response to Declan's Subject Access Request (SAR) of 15 October 2015 to be posted to him. However, we have yet to receive either the judge's order or a written response to Declan's SAR from the Court, which Royal Mail tells us was received by them on 19 October 2015 (over 40 days ago). This is Declan's initial SAR complaint to the Information Commissioner:
12. It is important to underscore that the discriminatory surveillance suffered by the Applicant and his wife is not an isolated event. Rather, it is emblematic of a larger pattern of surveillance by law enforcement officials in the UK that has been well-documented by international and domestic human rights bodies. For example, the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) specialises in attempting to "discredit, disrupt, delay, deny, degrade, and deter" targets and has been branded by the press as GCHQ's "deception unit". Though its existence was secret until last year, JTRIG quickly developed a distinctive profile in the public understanding, after documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the unit had engaged in "dirty tricks" like deploying sexual "honey traps" designed to discredit targets, launching denial-of-service attacks to shut down Internet chat rooms, pushing veiled propaganda onto social networks and generally warping discourse online. Previous reporting on the spy agency established its focus on what it regards as political radicalism. Beyond JTRIG's targeting of Anonymous, other parts of GCHQ targeted political activists and groups deemed to be "radical", even monitoring human rights NGOs. The London-based Privacy International asks: "How many more problems with GCHQ's secret procedures have to be revealed for them to be brought under control?"
10. The Applicant remains aggrieved by the decision of the IPT to dismiss his claim without calling upon information or evidence in addition to that provided by him, which he had informed the tribunal was "wide-ranging", including but not limited to papers, correspondence, contracts/agreements, and photographic records from his wife's blog/diary called "Network for Church Monitoring (N4CM) Blog". (The N4CM blog, which has been vandalised on countless occasions, even carried a screenshot of a Skype chat exposing the homophobic abuse of an American scholar by an anonymous perpetrator.) It was also made known to the tribunal that the Applicant could adduce evidence other than his own. For example, third parties could have confirmed that phone calls from the Applicant had been cut off in mid-sentence and emails sabotaged (see paragraphs 37-38 below).
11. The IPT was created in October 2000 by the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act and given the power to investigate any complaints against GCHQ, MI5 or MI6, as well as complaints about surveillance operations mounted by the police or any other public bodies. On March 5, 2014, the Guardian reported that the tribunal, which claims to be completely independent of the British government, is secretly operating from a base within the Home Office, by which it is funded. The Guardian article noted that the IPT had investigated about 1,500 complaints, and upheld only 10; five of these concerned members of one family who had all lodged complaints about surveillance by their local council. No complaint against any of the intelligence agencies had ever been upheld. The discovery that the IPT is lodged within a Whitehall department has fuelled criticisms of the court that had been levelled by rights groups, lawyers and complainants. The IPT's critics complain that the secrecy is excessive and that its procedures are stacked so heavily in favour of the government and against complainants that it is fundamentally unfair. Some senior lawyers describe the IPT as "Kafkaesque", while one eminent barrister dismisses it as "a kangaroo court". The Guardian observes: "As a consequence of the secrecy surrounding the tribunal and the perception that it is unfair, many would-be complainants spurn it."
COMMUNICATION SUBMITTED FOR CONSIDERATION UNDER
THE FIRST OPTIONAL PROTOCOL TO THE
INTERNATIONAL COVENANT ON CIVIL AND POLITICAL RIGHTS
Paragraphs 1-2 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations
1. The Applicant in this Communication is Declan Heavey, a citizen of the Republic of Ireland who lives in London in the United Kingdom. He was born on 4 September 1960 and is a former teacher. His wife is a naturalized Irish citizen born on 26 March 1965 in Madrid in Spain. She is a former psychologist and lives with the Applicant in London. They have no children. After moving to the United Kingdom in August 2003, the Applicant founded the Network for Church Monitoring (N4CM), a non-profit he registered as a company limited by guarantee in January 2011. He is currently employed as the Managing Director of N4CM, and his wife as the Webmaster of N4CM's website called "Church and State". Edd Doerr, President of Americans for Religious Liberty: "Let me recommend an important website churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting website covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out."
2. The Applicant and his wife were forced to sleep rough on the streets of London for almost four years in total – from 4 November 2006 to 13 July 2009 (see paragraphs 20-22 below), and from 14 April 2013 to 15 May 2014 (see paragraphs 23-26 below) – and they are currently fighting the Mayor of London's Greater London Authority in the courts to stave off eviction from their home (see paragraphs 36-40 below). This notwithstanding that participants in Church and State include 40 Nobel Laureates (two are N4CM Honorary Associates), 13 US National Medal of Science winners, seven prominent members of the UK's House of Lords, and hundreds of other distinguished scholars from around the world. Prior to being made street homeless for the second time in April 2013, having been evicted from the same political 'safe house' former MI5 whistleblower David Shayler lived in until he was made homeless in 2007 (see paragraph 8 below), the Applicant and his wife were nominated for the US-based Population Institute's Global Media Award 2013 for a website described by one of the nominators as "the most important cutting edge population website ever created" (see Annex 1, Declan and Lola Heavey: PI Global Media Award Nominees 2013, p. 18).
'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty
If you would like to help us personally, please feel free to pick up one of our books (shameless plug, I know, but every sale helps us to work our way out of our precarious situation). There is currently five books available in Church and State Press here, and all proceeds from the first four of these books go to us with the authors' permission. Thank you all for all the support you have given us, and I hope we can keep our Church and State website going despite the constant threats.
Declan is currently working on his updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. His paragraph 40 points out that the Mayor of London's Greater London Authority's termination of our eligibility to our flat without the right of review or appeal not only condemns us to a life on the street, but knowingly constitutes a threat to life and wellbeing.
Paragraph 40 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations
40. The GLA has knowingly referred the Applicant and his wife to a scheme that has terminated their eligibility to their flat, effectively condemning them to a life on the street in the short or medium term. Their first period as rough sleepers was from 3 November 2006 to 13 July 2009 following the Department for Work and Pensions' termination of the Applicant's joint claim for Jobseeker's Allowance without good reason, and having denied him the internal appeal process by simply ignoring his letters of complaint (see paragraphs 19-20 above). Their second period as rough sleepers was from 14 April 2013 to 15 May 2014 following their eviction from a political 'safe house' because the live-in landlady's ex-husband, a consultant psychiatrist, required their flat for somebody with a mental illness; this was the same house former MI5 whistleblower David Shayler lived in for a couple of years until 2007, before he publicly declared himself to be the Messiah that same year (see paragraph 8 above). As the Applicant has pointed out in correspondence with the GLA and repeatedly in court papers, the Authority's decision to refer him and his wife to a scheme that terminates their eligibility to their flat in fact constitutes a threat to life and wellbeing taking the following range of factors into account:
(i) In May 2014 the Applicant and his wife took the significant decision to spend on furnishings the deposit they had for a private sector flat after being informed that as GLA Housing First clients they had the possibility to extend their tenancy agreement beyond the expiry of the initial term. Their Family Mosaic Housing Association flat came without any furnishings whatsoever: they did not have a bed, a table, anything to sit on, not even a cutlery item or cooking utensil of any kind in the kitchen. In order to render the flat habitable, the Applicant even had to install shelves that had been removed from the kitchen and replace curtain rails, curtains and net curtains that had been removed from the balcony and bedroom windows.
(ii) The Applicant is in his mid-fifties and while living on the street was twice hospitalised, once with pneumonia in December 2006 and the second time with a viral infection in October 2007. In April 2014, while the Applicant and his wife were living on the street for the second time, the Applicant was diagnosed with a chest infection and asthma, which is a chronic or lifelong disease that can be serious, even life threatening. Pneumonia and other respiratory illnesses are much more dangerous for asthmatics than other people.
(iii) Back on the street the Applicant and his wife will be restricted to sleeping in night buses despite the Applicant's asthma and susceptibility to pneumonia, as they had been prior to coming off the street as a result of an excessive use of force by police officers to move them on from their sleeping pitch that included threatening the Applicant's wife with arrest on the trumped-up charge of assaulting a female police officer if she did not move on. Since the escalation of the migration crisis this past summer, the police have more powers to move rough sleepers on without having to use unlawful means to do so.
Tonight I am posting on our Church and State website a New York Times article by Dr Willie Parker titled "Why I provide Abortions"; he is putting himself at real risk with an article like this!! Here are some Church and State links:
'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty
***
As Declan points out in his updated complaint to the United Nations, we were evicted from our previous flat on 14 March 2013 because according to our then live-in landlady's ex-husband, Dr Nigel McKenzie, a consultant psychiatrist in Highgate Mental Health Centre, our flat was needed for somebody with a mental illness. Former MI5 whistleblower David Shayler also lived with human rights activist Belinda McKenzie in the same political 'safe house' for a couple of years until 2007. It is unfortunate Shayler then declared that he was the Messiah, became a squatter, and was subsequently ridiculed in the press for changing his name to Delores Kane. A New Statesman article dated 11 September 2006 featuring Shayler and Belinda gives no indication that Shayler believed he was the Messiah at that time; whilst a Daily Mail interview with Shayler explicitly shows he believed himself to be Jesus by June 2007. He has never regained his normal self.
The Esquire article below* is mentioned in a Guardian article dated 27 March 2012. It is an eye-opener, highlighting the monitoring and surveillance that Shayler had to live with back in 2000, and the contradictory briefings and slanders that were coming out of the British establishment and the media. The author, Dr Eamonn O'Neill, is a lecturer in journalism at Strathclyde University.
*On 2 May 2013, Issuu removed this pdf from my Issuu account following a copyright complaint by Hearst Communications. I had uploaded the article to my Issuu account in December 2012. In March 2013, when last I checked, the article had been viewed more than 15,000 times. It can be read here.
BBC PANORAMA: The David Shayler Affair (August 1998)
According to BBC Panorama, Shayler "caused the biggest crisis of official secrecy since the spy catcher affair". In 2002, he was jailed for seven weeks for breaking the Official Secrets Act.
I am a former social psychologist from Madrid. My husband Declan, a former physical education teacher, is from Dublin. We came to England in 2003 from Ireland with the then-aim of forming a network organisation for those abused by church. We were twice forced, through no fault of our own, to live rough on the streets of London for almost 4 years in total, from November 2006 to July 2009 and from April 2013 to May 2014. Declan established Network for Church Monitoring as a nonprofit company limited by guarantee in 2011. We are currently living under the threat to life of a 'no fault' Section 21 eviction notice from our landlord, Peabody Trust housing association. This notwithstanding that our tenancy is a flat that falls under the Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (see paragraph 3 under "Church and State" below). We have no children.
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
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[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).
[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.
