Church and State blog: Is this letter from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs so outrageous that it has now put this entire N4CM blog at risk? (WITH DOUBLE UPDATE 30/8/2017)

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Is this letter from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs so outrageous that it has now put this entire N4CM blog at risk? (WITH DOUBLE UPDATE 30/8/2017)

Re: Internet cuts since 26 May 2017

From my previous blog post's Update 21 August (8.03pm):

"And 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. We have also been dealing with Internet cuts since 26 May. See my blog post of 21 June, Internet cuts: We pay £65 per month for BT Infinity but feel we are in a race against time to stay online (WITH UPDATE 21/8/2017 RE: 131st Internet cut since 26 May 2017)."

30 August (8.35am): 149 internet cuts since 26 May 2017.* We had to suspend work on our Church and State website on 15 June after 4 internet cuts in one night. With an all-time record breaking 7 cuts in one day by 4pm yesterday afternoon; 56 blocks last month; 58 blocks this month; 8 blocks last week; 10 blocks this week; none since midnight today (as of 30 August at 8.35am).

1. 140th 28 August 2017, 11.38am
2. 141st 28 August 2017, 3.46pm
3. 142nd 28 August 2017, 7.55pm
-----------------------------------------
4. 143rd 29 August 2017, 8.42am
5. 144th 29 August 2017, 9.54am
6. 145th 29 August 2017, 10.52am
7. 146th 29 August 2017, 11.38am
8. 147th 29 August 2017, 12.02pm
9. 148th 29 August 2017, 12.47pm
10. 149th 29 August 2017, 3.10pm

* 12 out of the first 18 internet cuts were within the first four days of a BT engineer's visit on 12 June. 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".

The War on Free Expression

HMRC Customer Service Manager for PAYE and Self Assessment: "We previously asked you to complete Self Assessment tax returns because you told us that you would receive self-employed income. However, your 2015-16 return only included income of £2,967 from Network for Church Monitoring and as you had told us that this was PAYE income, we have closed your Self Assessment record" [emphasis added].

It is our single indisputable narrative going forward that Declan and I are being harassed even by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC). This morning I received a letter from HMRC Pay As You Earn (PAYE) and Self Assessment dated 21 August that was no more than a second version of a letter dated 4 August that I received from them on 12 August. I complained later on 12 August to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) about serious misconduct by HMRC staff involving criminal or near criminal behaviour. I not only complained about HMRC PAYE & SA updating my address on 11 July without my permission, but also their subsequent closure of my SA account based upon fabricated hearsay evidence which no independent judiciary would accept. If HMRC Internal Governance and Civil Investigations do not write to me, or write to me to say my complaint has not been recorded, I have a right of appeal to the IPCC against the non-recording of my complaint. I still cannot publish HMRC's letter of 4 August because since I received it on 12 August, I haven't been able to upload images or videos to TinyPic. This now raises the question of how secure images and videos throughout this entire blog can be. The following is the text of this now-infamous HMRC letter of 4 August:

4 August 2017

Dear Mrs Heavey

Thank you for your telephone call of 3 August 2017.

I am sorry we closed your Self Assessment account and for the concern, we have caused you and Mr Heavey.

I spoke with Mr Heavey on 3 August 2017. I confirmed we have reopened your SA account and updated our records to show that you are not Self Employed.

We will not to (sic) update your address unless we receive written confirmation from you.

If you tell other government departments about a change to your address, our systems will automatically update your records.

If you have any further enquiries regarding the above, please write to at (sic) the above address or call me on 03000 513264. I will be happy to help.

Yours sincerely

Mr D Buchanan
Customer Service Adviser

Complaint about serious staff misconduct involving criminal or near criminal behaviour overseen by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

12 August 2017

This morning I received the attached letter dated 4 August 2017 from HMRC PAYE & Self Assessment. Please treat this complaint as a complaint about serious misconduct by HMRC staff involving criminal or near criminal behaviour.

I wish to complain about the updating of my address by HMRC PAYE & SA on 11 July 2017, which was done without my authority. By email dated 9 July 2017, I specifically informed HMRC PAYE & SA that my address had not changed and that such an update may result in the suspension of my husband's Housing Benefit. Nonetheless, HMRC PAYE & SA updated my address against my expressed wishes and with no regard for the detrimental effect this may have on myself and my husband.

I also wish to complain about the then subsequent closure of my Self Assessment account by HMRC PAYE & SA on the grounds that I told them I was self-employed. I have never told HMRC that I am self-employed. The closure of my SA account could only, therefore, have been based on fabricated hearsay evidence which no independent judiciary would accept. HMRC PAYE & SA have reopened my SA account and updated their records to show that I am not self-employed, but they have not provided any evidence to support the closure of my SA account in the first instance.

I am looking for HMRC Professional Standards to uphold this complaint about serious misconduct by HMRC staff involving criminal or near criminal behaviour.

We are well familiar with the IPCC. For example, Declan complained to the IPCC about the police investigation into the removal of our flat door in 2012. It was the IPCC's finding on that occasion that since our then landlady had subsequently signed an undertaking to the County Court promising not to harass us, there was no requirement for the Metropolitan Police Service to take further action.

Re: Removal of our flat door

Paragraph 23(ii) of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

23(ii) On 21 August 2012, Ms McKenzie signed an undertaking to the County Court promising not to harass the Applicant and his wife following her builder's removal of the door to their flat (see Annex 9, p. 31). The Independent Police Complaints Commission later upheld the Applicant's appeal against the police investigation of the incident "on information only", stating that "no further action is required by the force in this instance".

UPDATE 30 August (8.37am): HMRC Internal Governance and Civil Investigations have not responded to my complaint, which the IPCC say they forwarded to them on 12 August (i.e. 13 working days ago). I also still cannot publish HMRC's letter of 4 August that I received on 12 August; this constitutes an unprecedented 19-day block from TinyPic to date. And I have not received a response from TinyPic to this report of mine on 12 August:

12 August 2017

Dear TinyPic,

I cannot upload any images to the TinyPic website on any of four laptops. I run Windows 7 and 10.

When I try to upload an image all I get is "This image or video has been moved or deleted". Please see the attached screenshot.

Thank you in advance for your assistance in this matter.

Regards,
Lola Heavey

UPDATE 30 August (9.18am): TinyPic's 19-day block has been lifted! They have lifted this unprecedented block without responding to my report above. I have just published the now-infamous HMRC letter of 4 August; see my newer blog post this morning, TinyPic's unprecedented 19-day block has been lifted. At last I can publish the now-infamous letter of 4 August 2017 from HM Revenue and Customs.

From My Picks:

9 June: Ministry of Justice: Complaint to the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice against the County Court at Central London, Royal Courts of Justice (WITH UPDATE - Day 13 21/6/2017)

'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

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Is this letter from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs so outrageous that it has now put this entire N4CM blog at risk? (WITH DOUBLE UPDATE 30/8/2017)

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