Befriending blockade
Excerpt from Declan's formal complaint of discrimination against Newham Council.
On 2 September 2016, in reply to my appeal request, Newham Council's Pauline Jones, Interim Head of Complaints and Member Enquiries, was satisfied that my stage one complaint was "assessed correctly" by Bernie Lynch, Complaints and Member Enquiries Manager, who determined that I may not be informed of Active Newham's next befriending training session, or asked for personal information to facilitate a befriending match up, because the session will be "bespoke to the person who needs befriending".
This irrational and illogical determination from senior management in Newham Council not only denies me the opportunity to befriend an older or isolated resident in my community, but seriously affects my educational and vocational prospects. It is at variance with the rational information provided in an Active Newham newsletter: 'After attending the Newham's Volunteers befriending Induction and training, Sajid was introduced to an older person - Mr Porter, based on the information he provided at the session.' And it is discriminatory in its application and impact.
Declan cannot even voluntarily befriend an older or isolated resident in the London Borough of Newham,
the second poorest and most deprived borough in the United Kingdom. This "befriending blockade" is being maintained by senior management in Newham Council right under the nose of
Kim Bromley-Derry, the Council's CEO. It is serious because it has effectively removed the two of us from the labour market - who could reasonably and rationally argue that either one of us could hold down a second job when Declan cannot even befriend an older or isolated resident in our local community? On 27 September 2016, in the absence of a referral to the
Equality and Human Rights Commission by our
local Labour MP and Shadow Communities Minister Lyn Brown, Declan applied to the Commission himself for an investigation into the Council and its actions. This is his subsequent desperate plea this afternoon to
Newham Labour Councillor James Beckles to keep the roof over our heads:
29 September 2016
Dear Councillor Beckles,
Thank you for your email.
In answer to your question, I would welcome any move you think you could make to break this "befriending blockade" that is being maintained by senior management in Newham Council right under the nose of Kim Bromley-Derry, the Council's CEO; and that has effectively removed both my wife and myself from the labour market.
To quote from my formal complaint of discrimination against the Council further below:
"This irrational and illogical determination from senior management in Newham Council not only denies me the opportunity to befriend an older or isolated resident in my community, but seriously affects my educational and vocational prospects. It is at variance with the rational information provided in an Active Newham newsletter: 'After attending the Newham's Volunteers befriending Induction and training, Sajid was introduced to an older person - Mr Porter, based on the information he provided at the session.' And it is discriminatory in its application and impact."
Who could reasonably and rationally argue that either one of us could hold down a second job when I cannot even voluntarily befriend an older or isolated resident in the London Borough of Newham, the second poorest and most deprived borough in the United Kingdom?
At the moment we are left with no option but to try and protect the jobs that we've got whilst looking for a second friend and benefactor in the United States who may be willing to double our salaries. This would still only give us a combined salary of £12,000!
I would respectfully call upon any power you have got in the circumstances.
Sincerely,
Declan Heavey
Managing Director
Network for Church Monitoring
This is Declan's formal complaint of discrimination against Newham Council addressed to Communities Secretary Sajid Javid:
Click to enlarge
Meanwhile, the unprecedented double-barrelled attack on our
Church and State website continues unabated (
SiteGround is paid $1,000 per year to host our site and manage the server):
1. Our Facebook likes/shares plugin has been showing zeros to fluctuating degrees on category pages throughout the site since 19 August.
2. I've been blogging data relating to non-access to the site since 26 July. This graphic on American time (6 hours behind us) comes from this afternoon:
1st 26 July 2016, 9.34pm
2nd 27 July 2016, 12.10pm
3rd 27 July 2016, 5.55pm
4th 28 July 2016, 11.44pm
5th 29 July 2016, 12.29pm
6th 30 July 2016, 3.58pm
7th 31 July 2016, 7.03pm
8th 2 August 2016, 10.23pm
9th 3 August 2016, 1.05pm
10th 7 August 2016, 10.49am
11th 8 August 2016, 11.38am
12th 14 August 2016, 2.02pm
13th 16 August 2016, 8.56pm
14th 18 August 2016, 10.48pm
15th 18 August 2016, 11.14pm
16th 20 August 2016, 6.04pm
17th 21 August 2016, 2.35pm
18th 25 August 2016, 3.07pm
19th 30 August 2016, 8.10pm
20th 31 August 2016, 1.10am
21st 2 September 2016, 8.44pm
22nd 10 September 2016, 11.51pm
23rd 11 September 2016, 3.46am
24th 15 September 2016, 3.47pm
25th 16 September 2016, 3.45pm
26th 19 September 2016, 4.50am
27th 19 September 2016, 12.15pm
28th 20 September 2016, 4.39pm
29th 22 September 2016, 10.43pm
30th 23 September 2016, 10.32am
31st 23 September 2016, 8.53pm
32nd 25 September 2016, 5.54pm
33rd 29 September 2016, 3.09pm
UPDATES
34th 3 October 2016, 11.32pm
35th 5 October 2016, 11.56pm
36th 6 October 2016, 2.06pm
37th 7 October 2016, 12.57pm
38th 7 October 2016, 10.31pm
39th 8 October 2016, 12.05am
40th 9 October 2016, 12.02am
41st 10 October 2016, 10.39am
42nd 10 October 2016, 11.18am
43rd 13 October 2016, 8.32pm
44th 14 October 2016, 5.10pm
45th 14 October 2016, 6.51pm
46th 16 October 2016, 2.14am
47th 18 October 2016, 6.09pm
48th 19 October 2016, 7.39pm
49th 23 October 2016, 8.55pm
RE: Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)
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, GCHQ's Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) specialises in the "4 D's": deny, disrupt, degrade, deceive. It has been branded by the press as the spy agency's "deception unit". Though its existence was secret until 2014, JTRIG has 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 GCHQ 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. Simon Davies, president of the London-based Privacy International: "If spying on human rights NGOs isn't off limits for GCHQ, then what is?"
'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
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