Church and State blog: June 2015

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

BROKEN LINKS: No access to our website and in an unprecedented attack this N4CM blog is vandalized for the umpteenth time

We still don't know what is going on but our Church and State website cannot be accessed this morning:

According to Google Analytics, so far this month we have had 152,000 visitors to our site. Our three most popular articles since 1 June:

We exceeded 1/4 million hits between 13 May and 12 June:

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Apart from not having access to our site, this blog has been vandalized. Broken links go back at least three months. This is the first post I picked up on:

And this is the link that had been targeted:

It went to this non-existent page:

We have no way of knowing the full extent of the damage, and it would be an impossible task to go through every single post. All I can do is flag this post as my latest disclaimer on the entire blog. I have, of course, updated the disclaimer in the top right hand column dozens of times over the years, but this latest attack is unprecedented and seemingly pervasive.

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Is Edward Snowden a Hero or Criminal? This is a solid documentary called #Citizenfour that may influence your thinking either way:

JOIN THE CONVERSATION #CITIZENFOUR

'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

http://churchandstate.org.uk/about/

Friday, June 26, 2015

Housing Ombudsman Case ID: 201502822 - Family Mosaic Housing Association

From Greater London Authority High Court pre-action letter dated 6 May 2015

Re: Housing Ombudsman

On 27 March 2015 our landlord Family Mosaic Housing Association awarded me the capital sum of £225 by way of statutory compensation for six months of delays with repair work following a significant ceiling leak in our bedroom. On 2 April our local councillor, Cllr James Beckles, referred my case to the Housing Ombudsman following the insistence of Family Mosaic to pay this compensation into our rent account notwithstanding that our rent is paid in full by Housing Benefit. The Ombudsman has claimed that Cllr Beckles' referral was never received, and a second email from him dated 15 April 2015 has not been actioned as yet.

Related link (23 April 2015): Housing Ombudsman: Complaint to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government

CASE CLOSED:

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Compensation paid to cover for the delay in completing this repair:

£50.00 Right to Repair
£175.00 Distress and Inconveniences (covering from the period this repair was raised on 25 September 2014 to when it was completed on 27 March 2015 at £25.00 each month)
Total £225.00

Church and State website

Church and State Press

'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.

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Just before Declan is off to the High Court to file his claim against the Greater London Authority, we lose the internet at home (British Telecom) and on our smartphone (Vodafone)

Mayor of London Boris Johnson

Just before Declan left for the High Court this morning to file his claim against the Greater London Authority for our unlawful removal from the Mayor of London's Housing First Programme, we lost our internet connection at home (British Telecom) and on our smartphone (Vodafone). Declan had no sooner left the flat than our home access was restored, but he didn't get an internet connection on the smartphone until late this afternoon, and only after a technician in a Vodafone store restored a data access function on the phone that had been disabled.

According to the Administrative Court Office, it could take them up to two days to process Declan's claim against the Greater London Authority.

SECTION 5 Detailed statement of grounds

The Claimant challenges the decision of the Defendant to uphold his and his wife’s referral from the Mayor of London’s Housing First Programme to Clearing House/TST as unacceptable and unlawful because it contravenes the "secure exit plan" stipulated in the 2014/15 Pilot Funding Agreement between GLA and SHP at Schedule 2. Unlike Housing First, Clearing House/TST is "time-limited" in that eligibility for flats, issued on two-year renewable Assured Shorthold Tenancies, terminates when individuals are assessed as being able to live independently. By reason of upholding this referral, the Defendant is accountable and responsible for it. The Defendant has also failed to comply with its discovery obligations by not providing the Claimant with evidence that GLA Housing First has ended and will not be continued. The Defendant does not consider this matter suitable for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), and therefore the Claimant seeks permission to proceed with a claim for judicial review as a remedy of last resort on the said ground of illegality.

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Church and State website

Church and State Press

'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 (14 August 2015): Unbelievable! Latest telecommunications attack (HIGH COURT ORDER PUBLISHED)

Monday, June 01, 2015

Threat to life: This is what the Greater London Authority writes when they have no evidence or arguments to uphold our unlawful removal from the Mayor of London's Housing First Programme

Mayor of London Boris Johnson

Part 1 (6 May 2015): High Court Pre-Action Letter: Principal Solicitor for the Mayor of London's Greater London Authority threatens us with eviction by falsely accusing us of refusing support

We have just received the scanned letter below in an email from Greater London Authority (GLA) Principal Solicitor Anna Condliffe. She writes that she will not be responding to Declan's pre-action letter dated 6 May, and that if we pursue our claim further, she will seek costs against us. So we are left with no choice but to file a judicial review claim against the GLA, challenging in the High Court the lawfulness of the Authority's decision of 23 March to uphold our removal from the Mayor of London's GLA Housing First Programme without a "secure exit plan"; we will also be seeking punitive damages for this solicitor's failure to comply with her discovery obligations by not providing us with any evidence whatsoever to indicate that GLA Housing First has ended and will not be continued. The only alternative for us would be to face possible eviction from our home (a threat to life), as Declan explains in his pre-action letter but the GLA seems to dismiss here as totally inconsequential:

Heavey v Greater London Authority by Lola Heavey

Related Post (5 November 2014): High Court rules that the Mayor of London bears no responsibility for his Greater London Authority (GLA) Housing First Programme

Church and State website

Church and State Press

'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

Church and State

MAYOR OF LONDON RSI PROPERTY
DAY 406 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A SECTION 21 NOTICE

(SEE PARA. 3 BELOW)

1. Our 308 Honorary Associates include 20 Nobel Prize laureates. Declan and I are engaged in a project that deals with the publication of issues significant to social policy in a number of key areas, e.g., climate change, population, futurism, atheism, and free speech. Established as Network for Church Monitoring, a non-profit company limited by guarantee, our main publication, found at the website, Church and State, calls attention to subjects, not the least which have been critical of the interaction between religious and secular institutions. We have been the target of numerous threats and actions, e.g., the former resulting in threats to Declan's life, and the latter, which have led to vandalism. The various incidents are on record with the police and other official agencies.

2. There are no less than 63 Nobel Prize laureates on the Church and State website from 20 Honorary Associates, eight articles, nine book excerpts and 33 petition signatories. (For example, one Nobel laureate signed our Nobel petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research and gave us permission to excerpt from one of his books.) Our list of associates also includes 18 US National Medal laureates, and six Turing Award laureates (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science). We have published one article and excerpted from the books of seven members of the British House of Lords. And there are 31 knighted professors on the site from 13 Honorary Associates, one book excerpt and 21 petition signatories. These figures are despite the never-ending assault on our email (this link reveals the targeting of our emails to, among others, a close colleague in Washington, DC as well as space advocates and Nobel laureates).

3. This is Day 406 for us living under the threat to life of a 'no fault' eviction by Peabody Trust.[1] We live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property. Peabody's appalling new terms of tenancy have forced us into an unstable weekly periodic tenancy that poses a threat to Declan's life and inhibits our ability to exercise our rights. Declan accumulated quite a history with the Housing Ombudsman Service before he received the Ombudsman's decision not to investigate a referral from Lyn Brown MP on jurisdictional grounds. The Ombudsman was asked to consider whether or not our tenancy has been renewed like for like; and whether, if not, it should be in light of the landlord having accused us of not signing a like-for-like agreement. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will not accept a referral of discrimination from Ms Brown, the Commission's helpline (EASS) having grossly distorted the complaint against Peabody. We no longer have pro se access to the courts (see next paragraph).

4. This eviction matter came before District Judge Ruth Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June 2020, when both counsel for St Mungo's (the charity in effective control of our tenancy) and Declan presented their positions. Declan lost the case and was ordered to pay £1,850 in costs. A publishing colleague in America cleared these costs within 24 hours of my blog post about this hearing for strike out on a related issue that was the essence of the claim, i.e., that St Mungo's would take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of the Mayor of London's RSI programme. Within a week of the hearing, St Mungo's had agreed to take this phone call for us both, the Court having ruled that they were not obliged to do so despite our circumstances. This time we escaped bankruptcy (counsel for St Mungo's asked for £3,407.50 in costs), but consider that to seek pro se access to justice in the courts has become far too dangerous for us. Declan currently has before the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman the decision of the Information Commissioner that allows St Mungo's to continue processing coercive support plans without our knowledge or consent and that also poses a threat to his life.

5. When it comes to traffic, we have had 10.7 million hits in the past three years on Facebook; however, I left the platform on 13 March 2021 for one year rather than risk being banned for life. It is indisputable that with any sort of level playing field Church and State would have far exceeded 2.5 million hits last year. In addition to a large variety of blocks without explanation, Facebook had so severely restricted our Page's distribution by October 2020 that it was almost as good as an unpublished page.[2] Currently, we are up to their 85th block since 1 December 2015, and as usual without an explanation. This block records as one half of their 3rd double block in the first five weeks of this year that lasted 60 days. Our traffic has also been curtailed by over 2.5K blocks on access to Church and State since 26 July 2016, including 29 full distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks since 17 May 2019 that have lasted for as long as 54 hours at a time.[3] About 70% of our hits are from Americans.

"This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way Facebook is treating your highly reputable site." Don Collins, Founder, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC

Last updated: 26/06/21

_________________________

[1] Once a fixed term has elapsed, the landlord has the option to seek eviction even if the tenant has upheld their obligations in full (though of course the landlord must still apply for and obtain a county court order).

[2] 17/10/20: We have permission to publish this ISAF letter of 30 September to Facebook COO Sheryl Samberg. Facebook has so severely restricted our Page's distribution since 4 September that it's almost as good as an unpublished page

[3] Since October 2019, we have been defining a full DDoS attack as having such a high volume of up to 4-minute blocks on access to Church and State that we don't bother recording them all.

Church and State blog

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

BROKEN LINKS: No access to our website and in an unprecedented attack this N4CM blog is vandalized for the umpteenth time

Friday, June 26, 2015

Housing Ombudsman Case ID: 201502822 - Family Mosaic Housing Association

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Just before Declan is off to the High Court to file his claim against the Greater London Authority, we lose the internet at home (British Telecom) and on our smartphone (Vodafone)

Monday, June 01, 2015

Threat to life: This is what the Greater London Authority writes when they have no evidence or arguments to uphold our unlawful removal from the Mayor of London's Housing First Programme

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