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".
We had to suspend work on our Church and State website on 15 June after 4 internet cuts in one night. 3 internet cuts last night; none since midnight today (as of 30 June at 8.28am).
For the attention of Elizabeth Fagan, Managing Director, Boots UK
Customer Care
Boots UK
Address removed for email
27 June 2017
Dear Customer Care,
Thank you for taking my call this evening.
I have experienced an issue with my reading glasses but appreciate you confirming that I have been booked into your Stratford opticians practice for a recheck on 1 July at 2.50pm.
I do hope that the issue with my glasses can be resolved.
Yours faithfully,
Declan Heavey
Managing Director
Network for Church Monitoring
"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 30 June (5.26pm): I have updated my earlier blog post with last night's 35th internet cut since 26 May 2017; the third internet cut of the night. It took a call back from Boots UK Customer Care this evening to re-establish Declan's appointment for a recheck tomorrow, which was cancelled via a voicemail from their Stratford practice this morning. Following the call back, Declan phoned the practice and then emailed Elizabeth Fagan as follows:
Elizabeth Fagan
Managing Director
Boots UK
Address removed for email
30 June 2017
Dear Ms Fagan,
This evening I telephoned your Stratford opticians practice. Please find attached an ACR recording of the call. A transcript of the relevant recheck segment is available upon request.
'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
'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
"I have updated my blog post of 16 January with this morning's 517th block on public access to our Church and State website since 26 July 2016. The blog post also not only reveals a record-breaking 52 such blocks in one week at the end of April (an unprecedented escalation that kicked off with our focus on Denmark's cartoon crisis; 94 blocks last month), but it reveals the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site which continues to this day."
For the attention of Vincent de Rivaz, Chief Executive, EDF Energy
Executive Level Complaints (Consumer)
EDF Energy
Address removed for email
24 June 2017
Dear Executive Level Complaints,
Yesterday I dealt with Customer Services for EDF.
I was told that there was a difficulty putting through a bill based on my latest meter reading. I was promised a call back, which I did not receive. I note that your record of my smart meter readings stopped on 19 June (please see attachment).
Thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter.
Yours faithfully,
Declan Heavey
Managing Director
Network for Church Monitoring
"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 26 June (2.32pm): I have updated my previous blog post with yesterday's 26th internet cut since 26 May 2017; the fourth internet cut of the day. The response from EDF's Executive Liaison Team this morning assures Declan that the appropriate actions have been taken to put things right. An accurate bill will be produced overnight and visible on our MyAccount service within 48 hours. Our MyAccount service should also update with our meter reading history within the next five days. Should Declan wish to refer to his complaint in future, his complaint reference number is 282884655.
'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
The tyranny of threatened powerful ideologies is exactly what you live to combat.
- Donald A. Collins, President, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC
UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)
It's not just Facebook blocks, blocks on public access to our Church and State website and the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site that Declan and I are dealing with these days; see my previous blog post, Facebook's 21st block against our Church and State website since 1 December 2015 (WITH UPDATE 21/6/2017). We are now dealing with Internet cuts as well. Presented below is this morning's 20th recorded internet cut since 26 May. Our concern since the second internet cut on 27 May has been whether we will have the internet to increase our connections across northern Europe, particularly in Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands (see our distinguished list of 121 Honorary Associates from around the world, including two Nobel Prize winners). British Telecom is one of the world's leading communications services companies. We pay BT £65.53 per month (£786.36 per year) for BT Infinity 2 fibre optic broadband. It is noteworthy that the internet cuts we had been experiencing increased dramatically after a BT engineer attended on 12 June; and this despite the fact that he not only provided us with a brand new phone socket but that he also could not find a problem with our line. On 16 June we had a record-equalling 4 internet cuts in one night. The night before that, we had to suspend work on our Church and State website after exactly the same treatment. After this morning's internet cut, we feel we are in a race against time to stay online. So I am double-focused on Denmark.
1st 26 May 2017, 1.39pm
2nd 27 May 2017, 12.32pm
3rd 3 June 2017, 8.45pm
4th 4 June 2017, 11.49am
5th 4 June 2017, 1.32pm (2)
6th 9 June 2017, 10.50pm 7th 13 June 2017, 9.48am
8th 13 June 2017, 12.48pm (2) 9th 15 June 2017, 6.50am
10th 15 June 2017, 8.01pm
11th 15 June 2017, 9.48pm
12th 15 June 2017, 10.18pm
13th 15 June 2017, 11.06pm (5) 14th 16 June 2017, 12.19am
15th 16 June 2017, 7.16pm
16th 16 June 2017, 8.02pm
17th 16 June 2017, 10.49pm
18th 16 June 2017, 11.32pm (5) (12)*
19th 20 June 2017, 11.32pm
20th 21 June 2017, 1.00am
UPDATES
21st 24 June 2017, 10.01am
22nd 24 June 2017, 5.33pm (2)
23rd 25 June 2017, 12.01pm
24th 25 June 2017, 2.11pm
25th 25 June 2017, 3.31pm
26th 25 June 2017, 5.53pm (4)
27th 26 June 2017, 5.02pm
28th 26 June 2017, 9.50pm (2)
29th 27 June 2017, 6.48pm
30th 28 June 2017, 1.32pm
31st 28 June 2017, 3.17pm
32nd 28 June 2017, 5.02pm (3)
33rd 29 June 2017, 6.49pm
34th 29 June 2017, 8.18pm
35th 29 June 2017, 10.18pm (3)
36th 1 July 2017, 7.48pm
37th 2 July 2017, 10.16am
38th 2 July 2017, 12.33pm (2)
39th 3 July 2017, 2.35pm
40th 3 July 2017, 6.45pm (2)
41st 4 July 2017, 2.35pm
42nd 5 July 2017, 4.04pm
43rd 5 July 2017, 6.33pm
44th 5 July 2017, 7.37pm (3)
45th 6 July 2017, 1.17pm
46th 6 July 2017, 2.50pm
47th 6 July 2017, 4.18pm
48th 6 July 2017, 5.02pm
49th 6 July 2017, 7.31pm
50th 6 July 2017, 9.32pm (6)
51st 8 July 2017, 9.46am
52nd 8 July 2017, 10.46am
53rd 8 July 2017, 8.03pm (3)
54th 9 July 2017, 9.34am
55th 9 July 2017, 8.35pm
56th 9 July 2017, 10.49pm (3)
57th 10 July 2017, 1.33pm
58th 12 July 2017, 8.35am
59th 12 July 2017, 12.48pm
60th 12 July 2017, 3.02pm
61st 12 July 2017, 6.17pm (4)
62nd 16 July 2017, 12.15am
63rd 16 July 2017, 5.46pm (2)
64th 17 July 2017, 7.56pm
65th 18 July 2017, 8.38am
66th 18 July 2017, 9.46am
67th 18 July 2017, 7.38pm
68th 18 July 2017, 9.52pm
69th 18 July 2017, 10.36pm (5)
70th 19 July 2017, 3.18pm
71st 19 July 2017, 4.46pm
72nd 19 July 2017, 6.11pm (3)
73rd 20 July 2017, 6.02pm
74th 21 July 2017, 8.05am
75th 21 July 2017, 9.16am
76th 21 July 2017, 11.31am (3)
77th 22 July 2017, 12.18am
78th 22 July 2017, 1.21pm
79th 22 July 2017, 4.03pm
80th 22 July 2017, 5.48pm
81st 22 July 2017, 8.05pm
82nd 22 July 2017, 10.17pm (6)
83rd 23 July 2017, 10.36pm
84th 26 July 2017, 9.07am
85th 26 July 2017, 1.47pm
86th 26 July 2017, 10.03pm (3)
87th 27 July 2017, 11.08am
88th 27 July 2017, 3.36pm
89th 27 July 2017, 7.17pm (3)
90th 29 July 2017, 9.02pm
91st 30 July 2017, 4.46pm
92nd 1 August 2017, 10.32am
93rd 1 August 2017, 3.47pm
94th 1 August 2017, 4.46pm
95th 1 August 2017, 8.19pm
96th 1 August 2017, 9.31pm (5)
97th 2 August 2017, 12.47pm
98th 2 August 2017, 1.04pm (2)
99th 3 August 2017, 6.33pm
100th 3 August 2017, 8.17pm
101st 3 August 2017, 10.48pm (3)
102nd 4 August 2017, 10.19am
103rd 4 August 2017, 12.02pm
104th 4 August 2017, 2.03pm
105th 4 August 2017, 5.32pm
106th 4 August 2017, 8.58pm
107th 4 August 2017, 11.47pm (6)
108th 5 August 2017, 9.16am
109th 5 August 2017, 10.32am
110th 5 August 2017, 10.56am
111th 5 August 2017, 12.06pm
112th 5 August 2017, 10.22pm (5)
113th 6 August 2017, 12.46pm
114th 6 August 2017, 2.35pm
115th 6 August 2017, 3.50pm
116th 6 August 2017, 5.02pm (4)
117th 7 August 2017, 8.51pm
118th 7 August 2017, 10.02pm
119th 7 August 2017, 11.05pm
120th 7 August 2017, 11.49pm (4)
121st 8 August 2017, 2.02pm
122nd 8 August 2017, 3.24pm
123rd 8 August 2017, 10.45pm (3)
124th 9 August 2017, 12.49pm
125th 9 August 2017, 3.14pm (2)
126th 16 August 2017, 10.46am
127th 16 August 2017, 11.01am
128th 16 August 2017, 7.02pm
129th 16 August 2017, 8.16pm
130th 16 August 2017, 9.12pm (5)
131st 18 August 2017, 2.02pm
132nd 22 August 2017, 2.53pm
133rd 22 August 2017, 3.28pm
134th 22 August 2017, 6.38pm
135th 22 August 2017, 9.49pm (4)
136th 26 August 2017, 6.01pm
137th 26 August 2017, 8.28pm
138th 26 August 2017, 9.17pm (3)
139th 27 August 2017, 3.24pm
140th 28 August 2017, 11.38am
141st 28 August 2017, 3.46pm
142nd 28 August 2017, 7.55pm (3) 143rd 29 August 2017, 8.42am
144th 29 August 2017, 9.54am
145th 29 August 2017, 10.52am
146th 29 August 2017, 11.38am
147th 29 August 2017, 12.02pm
148th 29 August 2017, 12.47pm
149th 29 August 2017, 3.10pm (7)
150th 4 September 2017, 12.14pm
151st 4 September 2017, 4.38pm (2)
152nd 5 September 2017, 11.53am
153rd 5 September 2017, 1.48pm
154th 5 September 2017, 4.35pm
155th 5 September 2017, 9.32pm (4)
156th 6 September 2017, 2.38pm
157th 6 September 2017, 5.19pm
158th 6 September 2017, 6.35pm (3)
159th 7 September 2017, 1.22pm
160th 7 September 2017, 11.06pm (2)
161st 8 September 2017, 6.35pm
162nd 8 September 2017, 7.47pm (2)
163rd 28 September 2017, 10.19pm
164th 9 October 2017, 11.12pm
165th 13 October 2017, 8.50am
166th 19 October 2017, 11.02pm
167th 30 October 2017, 8.36am
168th 31 October 2017, 3.48pm
169th 31 October 2017, 6.57pm (2)
170th 15 November 2017, 9.41pm
171st 22 November 2017, 6.31pm
172nd 22 November 2017, 8.32pm
173rd 22 December 2017, 2.31pm (3)
174th 6 January 2018, 1.21pm
175th 10 January 2018, 9.42am
176th 11 January 2018, 8.14pm
177th 21 January 2018, 8.02pm
178th 5 February 2018, 6.20pm
179th 15 February 2018, 8.42am
180th 20 February 2018, 11.14pm
181st 28 February 2018, 8.10pm
182nd 8 March 2018, 6.54am
183rd 10 March 2018, 10.41am
184th 8 May 2018, 2.13pm
Update Summation 8 May 2018
184 internet cuts since 26 May 2017 (173 cuts 2017; 11 cuts 2018). With an all-time record breaking 7 cuts in one day by 4pm on 29 August 2017 (in bold); 1 cut today i.e. a 1/2 hour cut on the same day as Declan's updated complaint to the UN (as of 8 May at 11.58pm).
January 2018: 4 cuts
February 2018: 4 cuts
March 2018: 2 cuts
April 2018: 0 cuts
May 2018: 1 cut (ongoing)
* 12 (in bold) out of the first 18 internet cuts were within the first four days of the BT engineer's visit on 12 June 2017. It is a matter of written record that this engineer "securely fitted a brand new master socket to another location on the same wall. He also carried out a comprehensive line test and could not find a problem with [our] line".
Re: Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)
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.
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, founder of the London-based Privacy International, asks: "If spying on human rights NGOs isn't off limits for GCHQ, then what is?"
Is Edward Snowden a Hero or Criminal? This is a solid documentary called #Citizenfour that may influence your thinking either way:
'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
Yesterday public access to our Church and State website was denied five times. I have updated my blog post of 16 January with yesterday evening's 505th block on access to the site since 26 July 2016. This afternoon I have been stopped by Facebook from posting to groups without first passing through a time-consuming security check for every post I wish to make. This, as revealed below, is Facebook's 21st block against our Church and State website since 1 December 2015; they themselves call it a block in the video above. Don Collins, President of the Washington, DC-based International Services Assistance Fund, writes: "Glad you compiled this odious record of mistaken blockage. What possesses the site? Surely after multiple postings they must know your content is neither lewd nor extreme." My appeal reads:
For the attention of Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman, Chief Executive and Co-Founder of Facebook
19 June 2017
Dear Facebook,
I wish to appeal your decision this afternoon to stop me from posting to groups without first passing through a time-consuming security check for every post I wish to make (called by Facebook a "block"), and this for an undisclosed period of time and without any stated reason.
Before this block, I had not posted to groups at all today; and yesterday, as always, I only posted to groups that are specific to an article's subject and that I am well familiar with. I have made a video of the security check I must pass through to post to groups; it can be viewed at https://youtu.be/smmDAM8M0-w. In this video I am trying to post Prof. Paul Cliteur's New York Times article "Terror Has Already Led to Self-Restraint" to the closed group Sam Harris & The Future of Reason, of which I am a member. Prof. Cliteur is Professor of Jurisprudence, Leiden University (the Netherlands) and is one of our listed Authors.
This is Facebook's 21st block since 1 December 2015.
1st 1-4 December 2015 (4 days)
2nd 5-7 December 2015 (3 days)
3rd 6-9 January 2016 (4 days)
4th 12-15 January 2016 (4 days)
5th 20-22 January 2016 (3 days)
6th 13-16 February 2016 (4 days)
7th 23-26 March 2016 (4 days)
8th 20-23 May 2016 (4 days)
9th 25-30 May 2016 (6 days)
10th 1-3 July 2016 (3 days)
11th 7-8 September 2016 (2 days)
12th 21-22 September 2016 (3 days)
13th 27-28 September 2016 (2 days)
14th 29 September - 3 October 2016 (5 days)
15th 4-5 October 2016 (2 days)
16th 18-23 October 2016 (6 days)
17th 9-14 December 2016 (6 days)
18th 4-6 January 2017 (3 days)
19th 20-23 January 2017 (4 days)
20th 17 May 2017 (1 day)
Facebook has responded to only three of the 20 appeals listed above, citing "technical problems" in each instance. Don Collins, President of the Washington DC-based International Services Assistance Fund (and who is another one of our authors), writes: "Surely after multiple postings [Facebook] must know your content is neither lewd nor extreme." I only post to groups articles that I have already published on our Church and State website.
Please note that we currently have an international list of 121 Honorary Associates, including two Nobel prize winners. Since Facebook's 16th block last October, 91 distinguished academics and other intellectuals have given us permission to add their names to the list.
Thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter.
Yours faithfully,
Lola Heavey
Webmaster
Network for Church Monitoring
"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
Draft paragraph 42 of Declan's next updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
42. On 13 August 2011, then Home Office Minister Lynne Featherstone wrote to Facebook on the Applicant's behalf, asking that they explain why the Applicant's wife had been barred. The bar was subsequently lifted; however, since 1 December 2015, Facebook have blocked the Applicant's wife from posting to a pages and/or groups on 21 separate occasions, and up to six days at a time (each of these blocks is well accounted for in the N4CM blog). On 22 December 2015, Labour's Lyn Brown, then Shadow Home Office Minister and now Shadow Home Secretary, made an enquiry on the Applicant's behalf to Facebook UK Managing Director Steve Hatch asking if he could offer an explanation as to the terms and conditions the Applicant's wife was alleged to have broken twice previously. To the best of the Applicant's knowledge, Mr Hatch did not respond to this letter. The Applicant's wife only ever posts to groups that are specific to an article's subject and that she is well familiar with, and she only ever posts articles that she has already published on the Church and State website. Nonetheless, Facebook have responded to only three of the Applicant's wife's 21 appeals since 1 December 2015, citing "technical problems" in each instance.
1st 1-4 December 2015 (4 days)
2nd 5-7 December 2015 (3 days)
3rd 6-9 January 2016 (4 days)
4th 12-15 January 2016 (4 days)
5th 20-22 January 2016 (3 days)
6th 13-16 February 2016 (4 days)
7th 23-26 March 2016 (4 days)
8th 20-23 May 2016 (4 days)
9th 25-30 May 2016 (6 days)
10th 1-3 July 2016 (3 days)
11th 7-8 September 2016 (2 days)
12th 21-22 September 2016 (3 days)
13th 27-28 September 2016 (2 days)
14th 29 September - 3 October 2016 (5 days)
15th 4-5 October 2016 (2 days)
16th 18-23 October 2016 (6 days)
17th 9-14 December 2016 (6 days)
18th 4-6 January 2017 (3 days)
19th 20-23 January 2017 (4 days)
20th 17 May 2017 (1 day)
21st 19 June 2017 (day 1)
Facebook UK Managing Director Steve Hatch
UPDATE 19 August (10.16am): When it comes to stopping me from posting Church and State articles directly to pages and/or groups, Facebook's 21st block since 1 December 2015 was confined to 19 June (one day). There's no telling what's next from Facebook. This is my report to them on 24 July citing five other kinds of blocks since 5 April (the block against an excerpt from a book by Prof Paul Cliteur records as an unprecedented 18-day block against a single post):
For the attention of Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman, Chief Executive and Co-Founder of Facebook
24 July 2017
Dear Facebook,
I posted the following reply to your message in my Support Inbox (please find your message attached):
Please note that the link you are treating as spam is to an excerpt from Paul Cliteur's book "The Secular Outlook". Prof. Cliteur is one of the Netherlands' leading public intellectuals. He is professor of Jurisprudence at Leiden University, the Netherlands. "The Secular Outlook" is published by Wiley-Blackwell; see https://www.amazon.co.uk/Secular-Outlook-Political-Secularism-Philosophy/dp/1444335219.
On 5 April I reported that the page listing all the groups I belong to was not working. With this rectified, I reported on 10 April that I couldn't schedule posts on my page. Then I reported on 12 April that my scheduled posts were not posting. On 6 June I reported that every time I posted to my page a link to an excerpt from a book by Pascal Bruckner, one of France's leading public intellectuals, it disappeared from the page as soon as it was posted. I was unable to post the excerpt from Dr. Bruckner's book to my page until 21 June (a 16-day block).
Thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter.
UPDATE 19 August (continued): We now have a distinguished list of 127 Honorary Associates from around the world, including two Nobel Prize winners. Since Facebook's 16th block against our Church and State website last October, 97 distinguished academics and other intellectuals (in April, 22 people) have given us permission to add their names to the list. Nonetheless, the blocks on public access to our Church and State website continue unabated. I have updated my blog post of 16 January with this morning's 669th block on public access to our Church and State website since 26 July 2016. The blog post also not only reveals a record-breaking 52 such blocks in one week at the end of April (an unprecedented escalation that kicked off with our focus on Denmark's cartoon crisis; 74 blocks last month), but it reveals the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site which continues to this day. For example, as I point out in an earlier blog post about the almost certain loss of our employment contracts to the United States by Royal Mail (as opposed to the United States Postal Service), the second article below has 1/2 million Facebook likes/shares (not zero):
'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
"I have updated my blog post of 16 January with yesterday's 505th block on public access to our Church and State website since 26 July 2016. The blog post also not only reveals a record-breaking 52 such blocks in one week at the end of April (an unprecedented escalation that kicked off with our focus on Denmark's cartoon crisis; 94 blocks last month), but it reveals the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site which continues to this day."
Last Thursday we had to suspend work on our Church and State website; see my previous blog post, Internet cuts: We have had to suspend work on our Church and State website in our current battle to stay online (WITH UPDATE 18/6/2017 RE: 18th Internet cut since 26 May 2017). For the time being, Declan is moving around the site material I have already published and I am concentrating my research on Denmark. It is not inconceivable that we may even have to suspend work on Facebook in our current battle to stay online. Declan copied British Telecom Chairman Sir Michael Rake into this complaint to BT's Executive Level Complaints (Consumer) about their account of what happened during an engineer's visit the week before last to provide us with a new, securely fitted master socket to replace a badly fitting master socket that was line tested on 25 May and found to be functioning perfectly:
For the attention of Sir Michael Rake, Chairman, British Telecom
Shirley Mackie
Executive Level Complaints (Consumer)
British Telecom
Address removed for email
16 June 2017
Dear Ms Mackie,
This evening I spoke with an advisor in the Ombudsman Services: Communications. I have been told that I must request a second deadlock letter before writing to them because your deadlock letter below has instigated a new complaint.
I refer to your comment in which you state as follows: "An engineer attended on 7 June, but was unable to complete the necessary work. The engineer explained he was unable to repair the current master socket and offered to provide a new, securely fitted master socket on the same wall as the existing socket. But you advised you did not want this."
I do not accept your version of what happened during the engineer's visit on 7 June (hereinafter referred to as the "Complaint"). Firstly, your account is at variance with the attached ACR recording from my smartphone that informs you that the engineer only stated before leaving my home that the work needed to be carried out by my landlord Family Mosaic, not BT. I previously provided your colleague Miranda Bracey with this recording on 7 June.
Secondly, your account is at variance with the attached engineer note from 7 June, which states as follows: "This is a Fibre customer and will need a Fibre trained engineer to be allocated." Thirdly, as you have conceded below, it was a third engineer who visited my home on 12 June and securely fitted a brand new master socket to another location on the same wall. He also carried out a comprehensive line test and could not find a problem with my line.
I therefore hereby request a second deadlock letter that provides me with BT's full and final position on my Complaint and refers me to the ombudsman service.
Yours sincerely,
Declan Heavey
Declan received this response on behalf of Sir Michael Rake:
Hello Mr Heavey,
Thank you for your email to Sir Michael.
I'm really sorry that you've had to come back to us regarding this matter.
I will ask our team to look at the deadlock for you and contact you no later than Tuesday.
UPDATE 19 June (11.44am): Declan has just spoken with an advisor in the Ombudsman Services: Communications. He read to the advisor the email below that he received from BT Executive Level Complaints this morning and then provided the advisor with an overview of the complaint (as above). According to the advisor, the ombudsman service could not accept the complaint because they can't tell BT "how to word their deadlock letters". Declan was told his only "next option" is to take BT to court!
Hello Mr Heavey,
We're sending you this email as you've got back in touch with us, after we've reached deadlock.
I know you're not happy and I'm truly sorry we haven't been able to agree a way forward. As we've already taken all of the steps we could to investigate your complaint, there's nothing more we can say. We'll keep adding notes to your account of anything you'd like to say to us, so as your complaint record is up to date, but we won't respond again.
How to get in touch...
find out more at www.ombudsman-services.org
Email them at osenquiries@os-communications.org
Phone them on 0330 440 1614
Fax them on 0330 440 1615
Textphone them on 0330 440 1600
Write to them at Ombudsman Services: Communications, PO Box 730, Warrington, WA4 6WU.
I'm really sorry that we can't talk about this anymore.
'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
"I have updated my blog post of 16 January with yesterday's 505th block on public access to our Church and State website since 26 July 2016. The blog post also not only reveals a record-breaking 52 such blocks in one week at the end of April (an unprecedented escalation that kicked off with our focus on Denmark's cartoon crisis; 94 blocks last month), but it reveals the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site which continues to this day."
It's not just blocks on public access to our Church and State website, the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site and Facebook blocks that Declan and I are dealing with these days. We have also been dealing with Internet cuts since 26 May. Our concern since the second internet cut on 27 May has been whether we will have the internet to increase our connections across northern Europe, particularly in Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands (see our distinguished list of 121 Honorary Associates from around the world, including two Nobel Prize winners). Since 8pm tonight we have had an unprecedented four internet cuts, with no end in sight. We have had to suspend work on our Church and State site. I will concentrate solely on Denmark over the next few days. It is not inconceivable that we will have no internet this time next week. We may also have to suspend work on our Facebook page.
14th 16 June 2017, 12.22am
15th 16 June 2017, 7.22pm
16th 16 June 2017, 8.02pm
17th 16 June 2017, 10.49pm
18th 16 June 2017, 11.32pm (2nd 5th cut)
No internet cuts for the last two days;
no cuts since midnight today (as of 8.52am).
* I have filed these first internet cuts since May 2014 in a folder I created on 27 May just past called "BT Internet Cuts", with the date and time part of the graphic for each cut.
Re: Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)
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.
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. The President of the London-based Privacy International, Simon Davies, asks: "If spying on human rights NGOs isn't off limits for GCHQ, then what is?"
Citizenfour Official Trailer 1 (2014) - Edward Snowden Documentary HD
From a fascinating excerpt from Glenn Greenwald's book "No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State":
All of the evidence highlights the implicit bargain that is offered to citizens: pose no challenge and you have nothing to worry about. Mind your own business, and support or at least tolerate what we do, and you'll be fine. Put differently, you must refrain from provoking the authority that wields surveillance powers if you wish to be deemed free of wrongdoing.
'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
Please consider donating to Network for Church Monitoring!
All proceeds from the sale of these e-books are used to keep our Church and State website up and running.
"I have updated my blog post of 16 January with last night's 510th block on public access to our Church and State website since 26 July 2016. The blog post also not only reveals a record-breaking 52 such blocks in one week at the end of April (an unprecedented escalation that kicked off with our focus on Denmark's cartoon crisis; 94 blocks last month), but it reveals the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site which continues to this day."
County Court at Central London, Royal Courts of Justice
Our experience of the Central London County Court has been so bad that this afternoon Declan complained to Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Elizabeth Truss. This email barely scratches the surface of the opposition we have encountered from this court at every turn:
For the attention of Neelam Ahuja, Customer Service Manager, Central London County Court
Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP
Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
Ministry of Justice
Address removed for email
9 June 2017
Dear Secretary of State for Justice,
Central London County Court Case No. C01CL855
I complained to you on 8 March 2017 about my non-receipt of District Judge Avent's order dismissing my claim against the Greater London Authority (GLA)-commissioned St Mungo's that alleged the falsification and fabrication of data against me. In fact, I did not receive the attached order from the Central London County Court until 15 March 2017, two days after my statutory 21 days to apply for permission to appeal had expired.
Now, according to the Court's telephone service, my application for a full refund of the £80 hearing fee was approved on 26 April 2017 but the cheque has yet to be cleared by the Court's finance section. "That's up to their working time, sir," I was told on 9 May 2017.
Please find below a finding by the Information Commissioner's Office that the Ministry of Justice breached the Data Protection Act 1998 in respect of an application to contest the court's jurisdiction that was filed by the GLA at Central London County Court on 14 October 2015 in another unrelated case.
I am copying the Court's Customer Service Manager Neelam Ahuja into this complaint. I respectfully request that someone look into the delay in my refund and inform me how much longer it is going to take to get the cheque to me. My telephone number is 0788 043 7681.
Yours sincerely,
Declan Heavey
Managing Director
Network for Church Monitoring
"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
Finding of Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) against the Ministry of Justice (MoJ)
From the ICO's email dated 16 December 2015 regarding an application to contest the court's jurisdiction that was filed by the Greater London Authority at Central London County Court on 14 October 2015:
"Section 7(8) of the DPA states that a data controller shall comply with a request under this section promptly and in any event before the end of the prescribed period beginning with the relevant day. The 'relevant day' being the first day a data controller receives the request and specifically the fee, and the 'prescribed period' meaning 40 calendar days.
"As the MoJ received your SAR on 19 October 2015, it should have provided its final disclosure in response by 28 November 2015. However, it appears that the MoJ has failed to disclose any personal data to you.
"Therefore, it seems the MoJ has not met its obligations under the sixth data protection principle. Consequently, in our view, it is unlikely that the MoJ has complied with the requirements of the DPA in this case."
Click to enlarge
DAY 13 UPDATE 21 June (11.30am): Elizabeth Truss was moved to the Treasury on 11 June, two days after Declan's email above (13 days ago). On 16 June Declan redirected his complaint to the new Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice David Lidington. This morning we finally received our £80 cheque from the Central London County Court in full refund of the money we paid for the court hearing that took place on 20 February. They say that the refund was approved on 26 April but it appears not to have been processed. "Please accept my sincere apologies for the oversight," writes Rubina Begum, Temporary Customer Correspondence Section Team Leader, The County Court at Central London.
'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
"I have updated my blog post of 16 January with last night's 510th block on public access to our Church and State website since 26 July 2016. The blog post also not only reveals a record-breaking 52 such blocks in one week at the end of April (an unprecedented escalation that kicked off with our focus on Denmark's cartoon crisis; 94 blocks last month), but it reveals the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site which continues to this day."
Facebook have struck again. Since last night they have unprecedentedly been preventing me from posting to our Facebook page a link to one particular piece that I have published on our Church and State website. It is an excerpt from Dr Pascal Bruckner's book "The Tyranny of Guilt" (2012). Dr Bruckner is one of France's leading public intellectuals and the author of over 20 books. Critic Clive James has called him "one of the indispensable philosophers of our time". Historian Richard Wolin said Dr Bruckner "might well be the most distinguished essay writer in France today.... Whether one agrees or disagrees with him, he does the life of the mind an invaluable service." This is my report to Facebook requesting the removal of this block:
6 June 2017
Dear Facebook,
On 5 April I reported that the page listing all the groups I belong to was not working. With this rectified, I reported on 10 April that I couldn't schedule posts on my page. Then I reported on 12 April that my scheduled posts were not posting. Now, since 8pm last night, every time I post to my page a link to an excerpt from a book by one of France's leading public intellectuals, it disappears from the page as soon as it is posted (please see my video at https://youtu.be/QPyOaQUYqUs). Please could you fix this for me.
Thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter.
DAY 17 UPDATE 21 June (8.06am): I have just tried posting the excerpt from Dr. Bruckner's book to our Facebook page. It appears to have stuck, but I don't know yet if this constitutes a permanent removal of the block. Every day since 5 June (17 days ago) it has been the same thing: the excerpt appeared but then disappeared as soon as I refreshed the page. For now, this records as a 16-day block. No reply from Facebook to my report above.
'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
"I have updated my blog post of 16 January with last night's 476th block on public access to our Church and State website since 26 July 2016. The blog post also not only reveals a record-breaking 52 such blocks in one week at the end of April (an unprecedented escalation that kicked off with our focus on Denmark's cartoon crisis; 94 blocks last month), but it reveals the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site which continues to this day."
1st 26 May 2017, 1.39pm
2nd 27 May 2017, 12.32pm (graphic above)
We have a distinguished list of 121 Honorary Associates from around the world, including two Nobel Prize winners. Nonetheless (or perhaps as a result), we are now dealing not just with blocks on public access to our Church and State website and the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site, but Internet cuts as well. British Telecom is one of the world's leading communications services companies. We pay BT £65.53 per month (£786.36 per year) for BT Infinity fibre optic broadband. At 12.22am this morning we were cut from the Internet for the third time since our contract with BT commenced on 28 May 2014. I have filed the first two internet cuts last week in a folder I created called "BT Internet Cuts", with the date and time part of the graphic for each cut. I was unable to record the third cut this morning, but I will make sure that the next internet cut is recorded. Yesterday BT Executive Level Complaints (Consumer) emailed Declan the content of an engineer's report from his visit to our property on 24 May to investigate the intermittent TV reception we had been getting of late through our BT YouView box. Declan copied BT Chairman Sir Michael Rake into this reply requesting BT's deadlock letter for the Telecommunications Ombudsman to investigate whether the home wiring relating to our TV aerial socket could have possibly been the problem:
For the attention of Sir Michael Rake, Chairman, British Telecom
Miranda Bracey
Executive Level Complaints (Consumer)
British Telecom
Address removed for email
2 June 2017
Dear Ms Bracey,
Thank you for your email. I do not accept that the intermittent TV reception I had been experiencing of late through my BT YouView box may have been the result of my home wiring (hereinafter referred to as the "Complaint"). I therefore hereby request a letter of deadlock from BT that provides me with the company's full and final position on my Complaint and refers me to the ombudsman service.
Yours sincerely,
Declan Heavey
This is my blog post of 1 June: BT Executive Level Complaints (Consumer): Declan complains to BT Chairman Sir Michael Rake to no avail? (WITH TREBLE UPDATE - Day 12 2/6/2017). The second update I posted to that blog post on 2 June reveals the content of the engineer's report from his visit to our property on 24 May. It also explains the fiction that this report is based upon, and why with reference to the two graphics below, it is not possible that the fault (viz. intermittent TV reception through our BT YouView box) may have been the result of home wiring relating to our TV aerial socket. The engineer acknowledges in his report that the fault was restricted to free view TV channels that are not dependent on an internet connection. So the fault could not have been connected to home wiring relating to our phone socket.
UPDATE 7 June (9.35am): On 4 June I filed our fifth recorded internet cut since 26 May (an unprecedented second in one day); all recorded cuts are listed below. We have yet to receive BT's deadlock letter concerning the home wiring relating to our TV aerial socket. It is not inconceivable that Declan will have to engage the services of Resolver to pursue BT Executive Level Complaints (Consumer) for this letter. In the interim, our concern is whether we will have the internet to increase our connections across northern Europe, particularly in Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands. It feels like we may be in a race for time, so I have been focusing my attention on Denmark.
3rd 3 June 2017, 8.54pm 4th 4 June 2017, 11.50am
5th 4 June 2017, 1.33pm (1st 2nd block)
Re: Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)
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.
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. The President of the London-based Privacy International, Simon Davies, asks: "If spying on human rights NGOs isn't off limits for GCHQ, then what is?"
Citizenfour Official Trailer 1 (2014) - Edward Snowden Documentary HD
From a fascinating excerpt from Glenn Greenwald's book "No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State":
All of the evidence highlights the implicit bargain that is offered to citizens: pose no challenge and you have nothing to worry about. Mind your own business, and support or at least tolerate what we do, and you'll be fine. Put differently, you must refrain from provoking the authority that wields surveillance powers if you wish to be deemed free of wrongdoing.
'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
Please consider donating to Network for Church Monitoring!
All proceeds from the sale of these e-books are used to keep our Church and State website up and running.
"I have just updated my blog post of 16 January with this evening's 467th block on public access to our Church and State website since 26 July 2016. The blog post also not only reveals a record-breaking 52 such blocks in one week at the end of April (an unprecedented escalation that kicked off with our focus on Denmark's cartoon crisis; 94 blocks last month), but it reveals the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site which continues to this day."
County Court at Central London, Royal Courts of Justice
On 20 February District Judge Avent ruled in Declan's claim against the Greater London Authority-commissioned St Mungo's, a homeless charity, that data we alleged to be false, fabricated and nonsensical (and left us vulnerable to eviction for non-cooperation with the support provider) constituted no more than "a difference of opinion as to wording" and that no breach of the Data Protection Act 1998 had occurred. Although originally listed for a one-day hearing, the trial only lasted two hours, i.e. one hour short of the preliminary hearing last October. Declan says it was the most hostile atmosphere that he has ever experienced in a courtroom. It left him reeling, he says, after no more than five minutes. At the end of the judge's summation, Declan asked for leave to appeal. "What for?" the judge asked. "Because this is just 'a difference of opinion as to wording,'" Declan responded, quoting him verbatim. "No," the judge replied, and that was that.
We are in a supported tenancy because of Declan's physical health condition. We were forced to sleep rough on the streets of London for almost 4 years in total - from 4 November 2006 to 13 July 2009, and again from 14 April 2013 to 17 May 2014. Before we came off the street the second time, Declan was diagnosed with asthma and a chest infection; in fact, he became so weak that on 15 April 2014 the Royal London Hospital wrote: "If possible should try to find accommodation off the street." So when in May 2014 a supported housing tenancy came through (under a programme commissioned by the Greater London Authority for entrenched rough sleepers), we took it. Because the flat only came with a fridge and cooker, we had to sink the deposit we had for a flat into making it habitable. And that was only the beginning...
Our statutory 21 days to apply for permission to appeal DJ Avent's order below expired on 13 March. We only received his order in a late post two days later on 15 March; and this despite the fact that the Information Commissioner's Office found the Ministry of Justice in breach of the Data Protection Act in respect of an application to contest the court's jurisdiction that we did not receive in a timely manner in a previous case (see my blog post of 15 March, Complaint to the Secretary of State for Justice. We still do not have District Judge Avent's order and today is the 2nd day after the expiration of our statutory 21 days to apply for permission to appeal). Now, according to the Court's telephone service on 9 May, Declan's application for a full refund of the £80 hearing fee was approved on 26 April but the cheque has yet to be cleared by the Court's finance section. "That's up to their working time, sir," he was told. So, of late, I have been posting variants on this blog post and will continue to do so every so often until we are refunded the money we are owed.
A difference of opinion as to wording?
Paragraph 23 of Declan's Witness Statement dated 14 November 2016.
23. Still to this day, I do not know the service to which the staff action/intervention "Signposted to another service" referred. No mention was made of the action note in St Mungo's Defence, notwithstanding the extraordinary lengths I had gone before the defence was filed to highlight the seriousness of blatantly retaining data that was false, fabricated and without meaning (vague to the point of having almost any kind of interpretation).
'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
"I have just updated my blog post of 16 January with this evening's 467th block on public access to our Church and State website since 26 July 2016. The blog post also not only reveals a record-breaking 52 such blocks in one week at the end of April (an unprecedented escalation that kicked off with our focus on Denmark's cartoon crisis; 94 blocks last month), but it reveals the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site which continues to this day."
We have a distinguished list of 121 Honorary Associates from around the world, including two Nobel Prize winners. Nonetheless (or perhaps as a result), we are now dealing not just with blocks on public access to our Church and State website and the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site, but Internet cuts as well. In My Picks I have added my blog post last Saturday titled We lose our Internet connection for the second time in two days, having not previously been disconnected from the Internet since our contract with British Telecom commenced on 28 May 2014 (WITH UPDATE 1/6/2017). We are deeply concerned that there may be many more of these cuts in the weeks ahead as we try to increase our connections across northern Europe, particularly in Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands. Since 25 May, we have been battling BT Executive Level Complaints (Consumer) for a copy of their engineer's report from his visit on 24 May following Declan's request to investigate the intermittent TV reception we had been getting of late through our BT YouView box. This is Declan's email to BT Chairman Sir Michael Rake this afternoon for a copy of the report without the fee his Subject Access Request dated 25 May would likely incur:
Sir Michael Rake
Chairman
British Telecom
Address removed for email
1 June 2017
Dear Sir Michael,
I refer to my email below to BT Executive Level Complaints (Consumer), to which I have not received a reply. Please could BT provide me with a copy of your engineer Alexander Boyce's report without the fee my Subject Access Request (SAR) dated 25 May would likely incur.
I have made numerous requests for Mr Boyce's report, to no avail; the first two written requests that I made for this report were not recorded by BT Consumer Care.
On 24 May Mr Boyce confirmed in a double-signed handwritten note that there would be no charge for his visit because he could not say that I had damaged any BT equipment or that the fault (viz. intermittent TV reception through my BT YouView box) was the result of my home wiring. Please see the attached copy of his handwritten note.
I can confirm that I am currently watching TV with a signal strength that remains stable at 92% and quality that remains stable at 100%. There is, therefore, evidently no case that could have reasonably been made by Mr Boyce that the fault was the result of my home wiring.
Yours sincerely,
Declan Heavey
Managing Director
Network for Church Monitoring
"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
DAY 12 UPDATE 2 June (12.08pm): Yesterday Declan contacted the Telecommunications Ombudsman for the engineer's report he has been chasing since 24 May, after receiving the following reply from BT Executive Level Complaints (Consumer) to his email to Sir Michael Rake above:
Hello Mr Heavey,
Thanks for your email, I have tried calling you with no reply.
Unfortunately I’m not able to get the report from the engineer, your next bill is due on 28/06/2017 and I will monitor and remove any engineer charges if applicable.
Best wishes
Miranda
Miranda Bracey
Executive Level Complaints
BT Consumer
UPDATE 2 June (continued): The Telecommunications Ombudsman told Declan that they would not be able to investigate for eight weeks BT's ongoing incomprehensible failure to provide him with the engineer's report, unless he could get a deadlock letter from them in the interim stating their full and final position on the matter. So yesterday evening Declan requested that Resolver pursue BT for this deadlock letter (Resolver Incident: 170601-016088). BT acknowledged receiving Resolver's submission at 7.01pm last night, but they have yet to respond to it. I will keep updating this blog post on a daily basis until we either have the engineer's report or BT have provided us with the deadlock letter we need for the Telecommunications Ombudsman to investigate their refusal to disclose this information. As I mentioned above yesterday, last Saturday this was my blog post: We lose our Internet connection for the second time in two days, having not previously been disconnected from the Internet since our contract with British Telecom commenced on 28 May 2014 (WITH UPDATE 1/6/2017). Nonetheless, I am still wondering what is apparently so special about Declan's straightforward request for a supposedly run-of-the-mill report by a regular BT engineer into intermittent TV reception through our BT YouView box that had absolutely nothing to do with our internet connection (the fault was restricted to free view TV channels that are not dependent on a connection to the internet). Perhaps we are supposed to think that there is some sort of nonsensical connection between our TV aerial socket and our phone socket when it comes to home wiring! All we do know is that the two Internet cuts below at the end of last week were the first two such cuts that have occurred since our contract with BT commenced on 28 May 2014.*
1st Internet cut: 26 May 2017
2nd Internet cut: 27 May 2017 (graphic above)
* I have filed these first two internet cuts since May 2014 in a folder I created called "BT Internet Cuts", with the date and time part of the graphic for each cut. We pay BT £65.53 per month (£786.36 per year) for BT Infinity fibre optic broadband.
DAY 12 UPDATE 2 June (4.24pm): BT Executive Level Complaints have just emailed Declan the content below, which we understand constitutes the entirety of the information contained in the engineer's report from his visit on 24 May. They say they will not provide us with a copy of the actual report without a SAR and a cheque for £10.00! Despite the engineer's handwritten note and our current 92% signal strength, he appears to be blaming the home wiring relating to our TV aerial socket as a possible cause of the intermittent TV reception we had been getting of late through our BT YouView box (the box is referred to in the report as "G4 stb" or "stb"). His report is inconclusive and entirely based on the fiction that at the time of his visit we were experiencing an intermittent signal whilst watching free view. He writes that he witnessed our signal "drop to 0%", which he most certainly did not. When he visited on 24 May, we were not experiencing any reception problems through our BT YouView box or through the property aerial. Declan not only confirmed this fact in an email earlier that afternoon to BT CEO Gavin Patterson, but we have never experienced any problem with the property aerial and the signal we get from it alone has always been better than any signal we have ever gotten through our BT YouView box. This email from BT Executive Level Complaints is more than a bit troubling on many fronts:
Hello Mr Heavey,
I’ve tried calling you with no reply, I’ve just received the information you have asked for from the engineers visit.
Visit Flags: FaultClearCode=ST02 Factory reset, EngineerFaultNotes=Customer using a G4 stb with a wired connection to working ok hh5 customer having an intimitant signal whilst watching the free view through the stb all home checks complete nff checked the signal via the stb which is leafy fluctuating & cud witness t :: Visit Information: EngineerNotes=Customer using a G4 stb with a wired connection to working ok hh5, customer having an intimitant signal whilst watching the free view, through the stb, all home checks complete nff, checked the signal via the stb which is clearly fluctuating & I did witness the signal drop to 0%, tried re terminating the rf connectors but still no change tried changing the areial cable, but again all the same, before replacing the stb tried a full factory resetting the stb then basically re installed it setting the settings re tuned the free view channels which upon checking the signal quality /strength all ok, customer agrees & happy & agrees to call back if any issues.
For Data Subject Access Requests
we need all requests in writing to
British Telecommunications PLC
Crawley TEC, Zone DSAR
Fleming Way,
Crawley,
West Sussex,
RH10 9JY
Send a cheque made payable to BT PLC for £10.00, it can take up to 40 days, please include
Account number
Phone number and address
Best wishes
Miranda
Miranda Bracey
Executive Level Complaints
BT Consumer
DAY 12 UPDATE 2 June (6.39pm): Earlier this evening Declan phoned BT Executive Level Complaints about Miranda Bracey's email above. He was unable to speak to her, and no one from BT Executive Level Complaints returned his call. So he has copied BT Chairman Sir Michael Rake into this reply under the subject title "BT Executive Level Complaints (Consumer): Request for Deadlock Letter for the Telecommunications Ombudsman":
For the attention of Sir Michael Rake, Chairman, British Telecom
Miranda Bracey
Executive Level Complaints (Consumer)
British Telecom
Address removed for email
2 June 2017
Dear Ms Bracey,
Thank you for your email. I do not accept that the intermittent TV reception I had been experiencing through my BT YouView box may have been the result of my home wiring (hereinafter referred to as the "Complaint"). I therefore hereby request a letter of deadlock from BT that provides me with the company's full and final position on my Complaint and refers me to the ombudsman service.
'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
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.
