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".
And the idiocy continues!!
This Kafkaesque process reflects how the madness of errant ideologues constantly skew reality and lead to incorrect outcomes.
- Donald A. Collins, President, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC
Our Church and State website has no less than 40 Nobel Prize winners on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan
Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms formulates what is the core of free speech. "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression." In an important interpretation of this article, the European Court of Human Rights in Handyside v. UK (1976) indicated that this "freedom of expression" should be construed as follows. It "is applicable not only to 'information' or 'ideas' that are favourably received, or regarded as inoffensive, or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population." Such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no "democratic society" (see Cliteur, 2010).
St Mungo's Executive Director Dominic Williamson successfully had Declan's claim for £400 (in costs alone) dismissed by writing in a Witness Statement to the Central London County Court that St Mungo's were "keen to work with Mr Heavey to ensure that he remains securely housed and does not face homelessness again". (He also maintained and argued the point in two court hearings before two different District Court judges.) It took the scheduling of a preliminary hearing in October 2016 to have case notes from two meetings rectified by Williamson as Declan had requested all along; and that rectification only took place after a failed attempt by an international firm of solicitors, Osborne Clarke, to have Declan's claim struck out on the papers. The judge at the preliminary hearing dismissed St Mungo's application to strike out Declan's claim for compensation, and District Judge Avent's order dated 11 March 2017 does not state why he dismissed the claim.
Councillor Joy Laguda MBE
Plaistow North Ward
London Borough of Newham
Address removed for email
23 May 2018
Dear Cllr Laguda,
I write as a tenant of the Clearing House, which is run by St Mungo's on behalf of the Mayor of London. I am sorry I missed your surgery last Saturday.
Please find attached my pre-action letter to St Mungo's CEO Howard Sinclair. The Greater London Authority defended judicial review proceedings in the High Court in 2015 by clarifying that I am a Clearing House tenant "like all other Clearing House tenants".
I am in receipt of a tenancy agreement that is in contravention of Article 8 (protection of family life and home) and Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the Human Rights Act 1998. Would you be willing to take up my case with my landlord, Peabody (formerly Family Mosaic)?
My wife and I have been living under the threat of a section 21 notice to vacate our home since 17 May 2018. As I state in my pre-action letter to Mr Sinclair, this in itself constitutes discrimination, a type of harassment, and a threat to life.
Sincerely,
Declan Heavey
71 Queens Road West
Plaistow
London
E13 0PE
Last week St Mungo's made the international press for all the wrong reasons. They are accused of helping to get rough sleepers arrested and deported. When the story came through my Russia Today (RT) news feed on 14 May, it left Declan gob smacked. He has already spoken with Diane Taylor, the journalist who is covering the story for the Guardian. This is her up-date piece on the scandal:
This is Declan's threat-to-life paragraph in his recent updated complaint to the United Nations:
Re: Threat to life (The Greater London Authority)
Paragraph 38 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
38. It has been acknowledged by the GLA in judicial review papers that the Applicant and his wife can live independently – they do not have addictions or mental illness or behavioural issues. Their needs are solely related to the harassment and intimidation they routinely face. Following their unavoidable court action against St. Mungo's last year (see para. 36 above), they are extremely concerned that their tenancy will not this time be renewed on the same terms as the original tenancy agreement. (The Applicant has repeatedly asked Peabody for a new, like-for-like fixed term contract from 16 May 2018 and has contacted his local councillor to take up his case.) The Applicant may then be left with no option but to challenge this decision in the High Court (Judicial Review) as unreasonable, unlawful and incapable of legal justification. As the matter stands, therefore, there is a threat to life and well-being considering the following range of factors as applicable:
(i) The Applicant has a history of respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, bronchitis and other lung infections. Both he and his wife doubt he has the respiratory health to survive even another year or two on the streets. He is in his late fifties and during his and his wife's first period of homelessness he was twice hospitalised, once with pneumonia in December 2006 and the second time with a viral infection in October 2007. Near the end of their second period of homelessness in April 2014, the Applicant was diagnosed with asthma as well as a chest infection (see para. 31 above).
(ii) Both the Applicant and his wife have serious concerns about the health care the Applicant has or has not received over the years from National Health Service (NHS) England. Prior to his hospitalisation with pneumonia in 2006, he lost consciousness while vomiting and could have easily died had his wife not been with him. Chelsea and Westminster Hospital discharged him 42 hours after admission whilst still unwell (into the shivering cold and dense fog), placing him at risk. The Applicant most recently complained to NHS England about emergency dental treatment he received in January 2018. He complained in part that he had a nerve removed from a tooth but was only prescribed antibiotics after the eruption of the tooth days later. NHS England did not uphold any aspect of the Applicant's complaint. The tooth itself was extracted a month to the day after the emergency treatment.
(iii) Back on the streets the Applicant and his wife will be restricted to sleeping on night buses, notwithstanding the Applicant's asthma and now increased susceptibility to respiratory disease. They were forced into this predicament prior to coming off the streets the second time because of an excessive use of force by police officers to move them out of where they had been sleeping. This included the Applicant's wife being threatened with arrest on the trumped-up charge of assaulting a police officer (see para. 31 above). Since the subsequent escalation of the migration crisis in Europe, the police have been given more powers to crack down on rough sleeping and need less to resort to excessive force (such as arrest without lawful authority).
Endless bad treatment.
- Donald A. Collins, President, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC
Our Church and State website has no less than 40 Nobel Prize winners on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan
Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms formulates what is the core of free speech. "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression." In an important interpretation of this article, the European Court of Human Rights in Handyside v. UK (1976) indicated that this "freedom of expression" should be construed as follows. It "is applicable not only to 'information' or 'ideas' that are favourably received, or regarded as inoffensive, or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population." Such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no "democratic society" (see Cliteur, 2010).
St Mungo's Executive Director Dominic Williamson successfully had Declan's claim for £400 (in costs alone) dismissed by writing in a Witness Statement to the Central London County Court that St Mungo's were "keen to work with Mr Heavey to ensure that he remains securely housed and does not face homelessness again". (He also maintained and argued the point in two court hearings before two different District Court judges.) It took the scheduling of a preliminary hearing in October 2016 to have case notes from two meetings rectified by Williamson as Declan had requested all along; and that rectification only took place after a failed attempt by an international firm of solicitors, Osborne Clarke, to have Declan's claim struck out on the papers. The judge at the preliminary hearing dismissed St Mungo's application to strike out Declan's claim for compensation, and District Judge Avent's order dated 11 March 2017 does not state why he dismissed the claim.
Howard Sinclair
Chief Executive
St Mungo's
3 Thomas More Square
London
E1W 1YW
22 May 2018
Pre-Action Letter
Dear Mr Sinclair,
Re: Non-compliance with the Human Rights Act 1998
I write as a tenant of the Clearing House, which is run by St Mungo's on behalf of the Mayor of London. I am concerned that I have been issued a tenancy agreement that is in contravention of Article 8 (protection of family life and home) and Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA).
I first requested in writing a new (like-for-like) fixed term contract on 27 April 2018. I wrote to you on 10 May 2018 to challenge St Mungo's decision to rule out renewing my and my wife's fixed term tenancy. On 16 May 2018, St Mungo's Tenancy Sustainment Team Manager Gemma Goacher agreed during a meeting at my home that a renewed, like-for-like tenancy agreement would be issued to me. However, on 18 May 2018, I received a tenancy agreement that is not a renewed assured shorthold tenancy.
The new tenancy agreement contains conditions in relation to rent (payment and increases) and support that breach the HRA. On 18 May 2018, I wrote to Ms Goacher requesting written assurance that Section A, part 6 would be amended to read as follows, as agreed on 16 May 2018:
The tenancy starts on 17/05/18 and is a renewed assured shorthold tenancy for a fixed term of 2 years. (Emphasis added.)
This, I had hoped, would bring the entire contract into line with the HRA. However, Ms Goacher has been unable to provide me with this written assurance. Please could you provide me with a clear written explanation of why the decision has been made not to provide me with a renewed, like-for-like fixed term contract as agreed on 16 May 2018.
Time is of the essence, as my wife and I have been effectively living in limbo since 17 May 2018, subject to the section 21 procedure – whereby a landlord can evict a tenant without having to give any valid reason, so long as the proper procedure of providing a tenant with a notice giving them, usually, at least 2 months' notice to vacate has been followed.
This limbo state in itself constitutes discrimination, a type of harassment, and a threat to life. Therefore, if I do not receive a full response from you within 14 days of the date of this letter, I intend to issue court proceedings without further notice.
Yours sincerely,
Declan Heavey
Managing Director
Network for Church Monitoring
Last week St Mungo's made the international press for all the wrong reasons. They are accused of helping to get rough sleepers arrested and deported. When the story came through my Russia Today (RT) news feed on 14 May, it left Declan gob smacked. He has already spoken with Diane Taylor, the journalist who is covering the story for the Guardian. This is her up-date piece on the scandal:
Some progress but seemingly endless dickering!!
- Donald A. Collins, President, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC
The County Court at Central London and High Court of Justice (Judicial Review) are both located in the Royal Courts of Justice.
It's far from inconceivable that Declan and I could be fighting for the roof over our heads in two courts in the Royal Courts of Justice in less than a month. Declan has already issued the Greater London Authority (GLA) his Letter Before Claim prior to Judicial Review proceedings (see below). Yesterday we received a shocking tenancy agreement that no one in their right mind would accept (see further below). This means that Declan is now also faced with issuing St Mungo's CEO Howard Sinclair a pre-action letter for the Central London County Court under the Human Rights Act 1998, citing discrimination and harassment. This is the Letter Before Claim the GLA received last week:
Authority Solicitor
Public and Regulatory Law
TFL Legal, on behalf of:
The Greater London Authority
55 Broadway
London
SW1H 0BD
15 May 2018
Dear Sir or Madam,
Letter Before Claim
I write as a tenant of Clearing House. The Greater London Authority (GLA) commissions St. Mungo's to provide Clearing House services. Please find enclosed my Letter Before Claim in compliance with the Pre-Action Protocol for Judicial Review. For the purpose of my claim no distinction is sought to be drawn between the GLA and the Mayor of London.
My wife and I have been effectively informed by the Clearing House that we will be living in limbo as from 16 May 2018 and can be served with a Section 21 Notice to vacate our home at any time and without any stated reason (a threat to life).
The Clearing House's decision on 10 May 2018 to rule out the re-issue of another tenancy (the "decision") for two former entrenched rough sleepers who have ongoing high support needs amounts to a type of harassment. No reason has been provided for the decision, notwithstanding my repeated requests for same.
I am seeking a review by the GLA of the decision as an exercise of public function. I would argue in judicial review proceedings that a decision by the GLA to deny me this review does not provide me with sufficient procedural protection of my rights, in violation of Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998 (Connors v. UK [2004] HLR 52).
I look forward to receiving a response in due course and, in any event, by no later than Tuesday, 29 May 2018.
On Wednesday, 16 May, the day after Declan sent his Letter Before Claim to the GLA, St Mungo's and our landlord, Peabody Trust, agreed to a renewed 2 year fixed term tenancy for us. However, what we received yesterday from Peabody is far from renewed. It's a shocking document that puts us the other end of a section 21 eviction notice (damned if we sign and damned if we don't), and it seems to have been drawn up very much with eviction in mind. I have put together some screenshots in preparation for court action(s).
Our previous tenancy agreement stated "renewed":
The new tenancy agreement does not state "renewed":
Our previous tenancy agreement is specific on time and amount of rent increase:
The new tenancy agreement is not specific on time and amount of rent increase:
Our previous tenancy agreement specifies "weekly rent":
The new tenancy agreement specifies "monthly rent":
Our previous tenancy agreement makes no mention of "visiting support":
The new tenancy agreement specifies "visiting support":
Our previous tenancy agreement specifies "8 weeks" in arrears for possession:
The new tenancy agreement specifies "14 days" in arrears for possession:
This week St Mungo's made the international press for all the wrong reasons. They are accused of helping to get rough sleepers arrested and deported. When the story came through my Russia Today (RT) news feed last Monday, it left Declan gob smacked. He has already spoken with Diane Taylor, the journalist who is covering the story for the Guardian. This is her up-to-date piece on the scandal:
DAY 35 UPDATE 20 June (10.06am): This is DAY 35 for us living in a limbo state, subject to a section 21 eviction notice being served (a threat to life). GLA Legal replied to Declan's Letter Before Claim, stating that the original decision of St Mungo's to rule out the re-issue of another tenancy "is not a decision of the GLA or the Mayor". Declan has issued St Mungo's CEO Howard Sinclair a pre-action letter for the Central London County Court and received a reply. The letter is published in my blog post of 18 June, Will a District Court Judge tell us we are not tenants of the Mayor of London's Clearing House service? (WITH UPDATE – DAY 35 20/6/2018). This is Declan's threat-to-life paragraph in his recent updated complaint to the United Nations:
Re: Threat to life (The Greater London Authority)
Paragraph 38 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
38. It has been acknowledged by the GLA in judicial review papers that the Applicant and his wife can live independently – they do not have addictions or mental illness or behavioural issues. Their needs are solely related to the harassment and intimidation they routinely face. Following their unavoidable court action against St. Mungo's last year (see para. 36 above), they are extremely concerned that their tenancy will not this time be renewed on the same terms as the original tenancy agreement. (The Applicant has repeatedly asked Peabody for a new, like-for-like fixed term contract from 16 May 2018 and has contacted his local councillor to take up his case.) The Applicant may then be left with no option but to challenge this decision in the High Court (Judicial Review) as unreasonable, unlawful and incapable of legal justification. As the matter stands, therefore, there is a threat to life and well-being considering the following range of factors as applicable:
(i) The Applicant has a history of respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, bronchitis and other lung infections. Both he and his wife doubt he has the respiratory health to survive even another year or two on the streets. He is in his late fifties and during his and his wife's first period of homelessness he was twice hospitalised, once with pneumonia in December 2006 and the second time with a viral infection in October 2007. Near the end of their second period of homelessness in April 2014, the Applicant was diagnosed with asthma as well as a chest infection (see para. 31 above).
(ii) Both the Applicant and his wife have serious concerns about the health care the Applicant has or has not received over the years from National Health Service (NHS) England. Prior to his hospitalisation with pneumonia in 2006, he lost consciousness while vomiting and could have easily died had his wife not been with him. Chelsea and Westminster Hospital discharged him 42 hours after admission whilst still unwell (into the shivering cold and dense fog), placing him at risk. The Applicant most recently complained to NHS England about emergency dental treatment he received in January 2018. He complained in part that he had a nerve removed from a tooth but was only prescribed antibiotics after the eruption of the tooth days later. NHS England did not uphold any aspect of the Applicant's complaint. The tooth itself was extracted a month to the day after the emergency treatment.
(iii) Back on the streets the Applicant and his wife will be restricted to sleeping on night buses, notwithstanding the Applicant's asthma and now increased susceptibility to respiratory disease. They were forced into this predicament prior to coming off the streets the second time because of an excessive use of force by police officers to move them out of where they had been sleeping. This included the Applicant's wife being threatened with arrest on the trumped-up charge of assaulting a police officer (see para. 31 above). Since the subsequent escalation of the migration crisis in Europe, the police have been given more powers to crack down on rough sleeping and need less to resort to excessive force (such as arrest without lawful authority).
Just incredible how these folks are behaving.
- Donald A. Collins, President, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC
Our Church and State website has no less than 40 Nobel Prize winners on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan
Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms formulates what is the core of free speech. "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression." In an important interpretation of this article, the European Court of Human Rights in Handyside v. UK (1976) indicated that this "freedom of expression" should be construed as follows. It "is applicable not only to 'information' or 'ideas' that are favourably received, or regarded as inoffensive, or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population." Such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no "democratic society" (see Cliteur, 2010).
St Mungo's Executive Director Dominic Williamson successfully had Declan's claim for £400 (in costs alone) dismissed by writing in a Witness Statement to the Central London County Court that St Mungo's were "keen to work with Mr Heavey to ensure that he remains securely housed and does not face homelessness again". (He also maintained and argued the point in two court hearings before two different District Court judges.) It took the scheduling of a preliminary hearing in October 2016 to have case notes from two meetings rectified by Williamson as Declan had requested all along; and that rectification only took place after a failed attempt by an international firm of solicitors, Osborne Clarke, to have Declan's claim struck out on the papers. The judge at the preliminary hearing dismissed St Mungo's application to strike out Declan's claim for compensation, and District Judge Avent's order dated 11 March 2017 does not state why he dismissed the claim.
We are tenants of St Mungo's (or their Clearing House to be exact). In 2017 the Mayor of London made the decision to give St Mungo's over £7 million in taxpayers' money every year to run his rough sleeper services. Nonetheless, today we are living in limbo, subject now to a section 21 eviction notice any day of the week. And this notwithstanding Declan's Letter Before Claim addressed to the Greater London Authority (GLA) prior to High Court judicial review proceedings (see the PDF below for details). He's off to the post office now with this complaint against St Mungo's:
For the attention of the Rt Hon Theresa May, Prime Minister*
Rt Hon James Brokenshire MP
Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government
Address removed for email
BY EMAIL AND RECORDED POST
17 May 2018
Dear Secretary of State,
I write as a tenant of the Clearing House, which is run by St Mungo's on behalf of the Mayor of London. Please find attached my Letter Before Claim dated 15 May 2018 to the Greater London Authority prior to judicial review proceedings.
My wife and I are two former entrenched rough sleepers with high support needs. Nonetheless, as of today, we are effectively living in limbo and can be served with a Section 21 Notice to vacate our home at any time and without any stated reason (a threat to life).
This morning I complained to the Charity Commission that St Mungo's is not doing what the charity claims to do.
Yours sincerely,
Declan Heavey
Managing Director
Network for Church Monitoring
On 17 May 2018 at 14:12, [email withheld] wrote:
5/17/18
Wayne
I write for www.churchandstate.org.uk which is a gold mine of articles on the subjects you cover. Most of my pieces are listed under authors as I am one of their regulars. The site gets hundreds of thousands of hits and is a favorite of Edd Doerr and many Nobelists.
You can use anything there with attribution but check with the chief web master Lola at dheavey@gmail.com
This week St Mungo's made the international press for all the wrong reasons. They are accused of helping to get rough sleepers arrested and deported. When the story came through my Russia Today (RT) news feed on Monday, it left Declan gob smacked. He has already spoken with Diane Taylor, the journalist who is covering the story for the Guardian. This is her update article on the scandal:
Paragraph 38 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
38. It has been acknowledged by the GLA in judicial review papers that the Applicant and his wife can live independently – they do not have addictions or mental illness or behavioural issues. Their needs are solely related to the harassment and intimidation they routinely face. Following their unavoidable court action against St. Mungo's last year (see para. 36 above), they are extremely concerned that their tenancy will not this time be renewed on the same terms as the original tenancy agreement. (The Applicant has repeatedly asked Peabody for a new, like-for-like fixed term contract from 16 May 2018 and has contacted his local councillor to take up his case.) The Applicant may then be left with no option but to challenge this decision in the High Court (Judicial Review) as unreasonable, unlawful and incapable of legal justification. As the matter stands, therefore, there is a threat to life and well-being considering the following range of factors as applicable:
(i) The Applicant has a history of respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, bronchitis and other lung infections. Both he and his wife doubt he has the respiratory health to survive even another year or two on the streets. He is in his late fifties and during his and his wife's first period of homelessness he was twice hospitalised, once with pneumonia in December 2006 and the second time with a viral infection in October 2007. Near the end of their second period of homelessness in April 2014, the Applicant was diagnosed with asthma as well as a chest infection (see para. 31 above).
(ii) Both the Applicant and his wife have serious concerns about the health care the Applicant has or has not received over the years from National Health Service (NHS) England. Prior to his hospitalisation with pneumonia in 2006, he lost consciousness while vomiting and could have easily died had his wife not been with him. Chelsea and Westminster Hospital discharged him 42 hours after admission whilst still unwell (into the shivering cold and dense fog), placing him at risk. The Applicant most recently complained to NHS England about emergency dental treatment he received in January 2018. He complained in part that he had a nerve removed from a tooth but was only prescribed antibiotics after the eruption of the tooth days later. NHS England did not uphold any aspect of the Applicant's complaint. The tooth itself was extracted a month to the day after the emergency treatment.
(iii) Back on the streets the Applicant and his wife will be restricted to sleeping on night buses, notwithstanding the Applicant's asthma and now increased susceptibility to respiratory disease. They were forced into this predicament prior to coming off the streets the second time because of an excessive use of force by police officers to move them out of where they had been sleeping. This included the Applicant's wife being threatened with arrest on the trumped-up charge of assaulting a police officer (see para. 31 above). Since the subsequent escalation of the migration crisis in Europe, the police have been given more powers to crack down on rough sleeping and need less to resort to excessive force (such as arrest without lawful authority).
The tyranny of threatened powerful ideologies is exactly what you live to combat.
- Donald A. Collins, President of ISAF, an NGO dedicated to helping women
Our Church and State website has no less than 40 Nobel Prize winners on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).
UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)
Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms formulates what is the core of free speech. "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression." In an important interpretation of this article, the European Court of Human Rights in Handyside v. UK (1976) indicated that this "freedom of expression" should be construed as follows. It "is applicable not only to 'information' or 'ideas' that are favourably received, or regarded as inoffensive, or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population." Such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no "democratic society" (see Cliteur, 2010).
This morning Declan phoned British Telecom (BT) Customer Service about our third ever half an hour removal from the internet yesterday - on the same day as his updated complaint to the United Nations - and our first cut this morning as soon as we started work. BT could not identify a problem. They ran a check on our phone line and Declan was told it was working fine. He was also told there were no problems detected with the broadband in our area.
Re: Broadband (British Telecom)
Paragraph 41 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
41. In October 2017, SiteGround's solicitors told the Applicant to remove a popular article from the Church and State website for alleged copyright infringement or the site would be disabled by SiteGround pending his legal challenge by counter notice. The Applicant removed the article even though it had a Creative Commons licence applied to it, as do all Addicting Info articles. The Applicant's wife's Church and State blog has been attacked in various ways over the years: links have been broken and images exchanged, deleted or temporarily removed. So too have the Applicant and his wife's computers. In December 2015, the Applicant's wife's laptop was rendered incapable of publishing material on the Church and State website. She could not create a WordPress post, add images, or click on most of the platform's buttons. She had posted a video of the attack on her blog before the laptop was returned to normal functioning the following afternoon. Since September 2017, the internet connection speed on any one of their four laptops has been reduced from anything between 70-74Mbps to 0Mbps, usually disabling the targeted laptop, and for up to three weeks to date. The laptop most targeted for this form of attack is the Applicant's main laptop that cost him £600 in January 2017. Their internet connection has been cut 184 times since 26 May 2017, most recently today on 8 May 2018 for a half an hour (the third cut of this duration). The Applicant pays British Telecom £850 per year for broadband. He has documented communication with BT Executive Level Complaints showing there has been no problem with his phone line [emphasis added].
UPDATE 7 July (11.31am): On 10 May Declan phoned BT Customer Service for the umpteenth time. He sought an explanation for why we were cut from the internet the night before, and that morning for 25 minutes (recorded as the fourth time we were cut for a 1/2 hour since May 2017, and the second time in 36 hours). Once again, there was no explanation. Since then we have been cut off the internet 66 times with two more 1/2 hour cuts, 25 1/4 hour cuts, and our first ever 3/4 hour cut last night. We were cut off the internet on 19 June a record-equalling seven times. Up until 8 May, I had been recording internet cuts on my blog post of 21 June 2017, INTERNET CUTS: We pay £65 per month for BT Infinity but feel we are in a race against time to stay online (WITH UPDATE 8/5/2018: re: 184th Internet cut since 26 May 2017). (We now pay BT £70 per month!) These are the internet cuts so far this year:
As from 1 January 2018
1. 174th 6 January 2018, 1.21pm
2. 175th 10 January 2018, 9.42am
3. 176th 11 January 2018, 8.14pm
4. 177th 21 January 2018, 8.02pm
---------------------------------------------------------
5. 178th 5 February 2018, 6.20pm
6. 179th 15 February 2018, 8.42am
7. 180th 20 February 2018, 11.14pm
8. 181st 28 February 2018, 8.10pm
---------------------------------------------------------
9. 182nd 8 March 2018, 6.54am
10. 183rd 10 March 2018, 10.41am
---------------------------------------------------------
No cuts in April
---------------------------------------------------------
11. 184th 8 May 2018, 2.13pm (3rd 1/2 hour)
12. 185th 9 May 2018, 6.31am
13. 186th 9 May 2018, 9.51pm
14. 187th 10 May 2018, 1.05am (4th 1/2 hour)
15. 188th 10 May 2018 12.37pm
16. 189th 10 May 2018 5.18pm
17. 190th 12 May 2018 12.53pm
18. 191st 12 May 2018 11.44pm
19. 192nd 14 May 2018 7.25pm (5th 1/2 hour)
20. 193rd 15 May 2018 11.33am (1st 1/4 hour)
21. 194th 15 May 2018 7.34pm
22. 195th 19 May 2018 8.31am
23. 196th 21 May 2018 5.59pm (6th 1/2 hour)
24. 197th 23 May 2018 1.22pm (2nd 1/4 hour)
25. 198th 27 May 2018 2.01pm (3rd 1/4 hour)
26. 199th 27 May 2018 8.32pm (4th 1/4 hour)
27. 200th 27 May 2018 11.19pm
28. 201st 29 May 2018 9.46am (5th 1/4 hour)
29. 202nd 29 May 2018 11.48am (6th 1/4 hour)
30. 203rd 29 May 2018 8.11pm
31. 204th 29 May 2018 9.37pm
32. 205th 30 May 2018 9.33pm
---------------------------------------------------------
33. 206th 1 June 2018 6.02pm
34. 207th 1 June 2018 7.18pm (7th 1/4 hour)
35. 208th 2 June 2018 5.03pm (8th 1/4 hour)
36. 209th 3 June 2018 2.32pm (9th 1/4 hour)
37. 210th 5 June 2018 11.43pm
38. 211th 12 June 2018 9.15pm (10th 1/4 hour)
39. 212th 12 June 2018 11.30pm
40. 213th 13 June 2018 3.35pm
41. 214th 13 June 2018 7.51pm
42. 215th 14 June 2018 11.22am
43. 216th 14 June 2018 4.31pm
44. 217th 15 June 2018 10.05am (11th 1/4 hour)
45. 218th 16 June 2018 6.02pm (12th 1/4 hour)
46. 219th 16 June 2018 9.47pm
47. 220th 18 June 2018 2.00pm
48. 221st 18 June 2018 4.50pm
49. 222nd 18 June 2018 8.38pm 50. 223rd 19 June 2018 8.36am 51. 224th 19 June 2018 10.35am (13th 1/4 hour) 52. 225th 19 June 2018 12.36pm
53. 226th 19 June 2018 5.33pm 54. 227th 19 June 2018 7.32pm (14th 1/4 hour) 55. 228th 19 June 2018 9.33pm (15th 1/4 hour) 56. 229th 19 June 2018 10.01pm (7)
57. 230th 21 June 2018 8.47am
58. 231st 21 June 2018 1.32pm (16th 1/4 hour)
59. 232nd 21 June 2018 2.03pm (17th 1/4 hour)
60. 233rd 21 June 2018 7.37pm
61. 234th 22 June 2018 10.16am
62. 235th 23 June 2018 11.32am
63. 236th 24 June 2018 11.35am
64. 237th 25 June 2018 11.36pm
65. 238th 27 June 2018 1.17pm (18th 1/4 hour)
66. 239th 27 June 2018 7.21pm (19th 1/4 hour)
67. 240th 28 June 2018 12.49pm
68. 241st 28 June 2018 9.16pm (20th 1/4 hour)
69. 242nd 28 June 2018 9.47pm (21st 1/4 hour)
70. 243rd 29 June 2018 9.02am
71. 244th 29 June 2018 8.47pm (22nd 1/4 hour)
72. 245th 30 June 2018 10.02am (23rd 1/4 hour)
---------------------------------------------------------
73. 246th 1 July 2018 4.48pm
74. 247th 2 July 2018 7.34pm (24th 1/4 hour)
75. 248th 2 July 2018 11.37pm
76. 249th 3 July 2018 2.02pm (25th 1/4 hour)
77. 250th 4 July 2018 12.16am
78. 251st 4 July 2018 10.06pm
79. 252nd 4 July 2018 10.49pm
80. 253rd 6 July 2018 11.46pm (1st 3/4 hour)
Update Summation 7 July 2018
253 internet cuts since 26 May 2017 (173 cuts 2017; 80 cuts 2018). With an all-time record-equally 7 cuts in one day on 19 June 2018 (in bold); 22 cuts in May that included on 8 May the 3rd ever 1/2 hour cut on the same day as Declan's updated complaint to the UN; 40 cuts last month; 8 cuts this month; 10 cuts last week; 8 cuts this week; no cuts so far today (as of 7 July at 11.31am).
January 2018: 4 cuts
February 2018: 4 cuts
March 2018: 2 cuts
April 2018: 0 cuts
May 2018: 22 cuts
June 2018 40 cuts
July 2018 8 cuts (ongoing)
12 out of the first 18 internet cuts in 2017 were within the first four days of a 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:
Our Church and State website has no less than 40 Nobel Prize winners on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan
Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms formulates what is the core of free speech. "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression." In an important interpretation of this article, the European Court of Human Rights in Handyside v. UK (1976) indicated that this "freedom of expression" should be construed as follows. It "is applicable not only to 'information' or 'ideas' that are favourably received, or regarded as inoffensive, or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population." Such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no "democratic society" (see Cliteur, 2010).
This afternoon our internet connection was cut for a half an hour and by the time Declan had sent his updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, access to our Church and State website had been blocked six times. We were forced to live rough on the streets of London for almost four years in total – from 3 November 2006 to 13 July 2009, and again from 14 April 2013 to 17 May 2014. We were housed by the Mayor of London's Housing First programme in 2014. Housing First is an internationally acclaimed programme for entrenched rough sleepers, the core principle of which is the provision of permanent accommodation and non-compulsory support (Johnsen and Teixeira, 2010). However, we are currently facing the prospect of a life-and-death struggle to stave off eviction from our home. Below is Declan's updated complaint to the UN. Paragraphs 49-55 outline why the Vatican and the hierarchy of the Catholic Church should be monitored by the likes of Network for Church Monitoring, BishopAccountability.org, and Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP).
Paragraph 38 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
38. It has been acknowledged by the GLA in judicial review papers that the Applicant and his wife can live independently – they do not have addictions or mental illness or behavioural issues. Their needs are solely related to the harassment and intimidation they routinely face. Following their unavoidable court action against St. Mungo's last year (see para. 36 above), they are extremely concerned that their tenancy will not this time be renewed on the same terms as the original tenancy agreement. (The Applicant has repeatedly asked Peabody for a new, like-for-like fixed term contract from 16 May 2018 and has contacted his local councillor to take up his case.) The Applicant may then be left with no option but to challenge this decision in the High Court (Judicial Review) as unreasonable, unlawful and incapable of legal justification. As the matter stands, therefore, there is a threat to life and well-being considering the following range of factors as applicable:
(i) The Applicant has a history of respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, bronchitis and other lung infections. Both he and his wife doubt he has the respiratory health to survive even another year or two on the streets. He is in his late fifties and during his and his wife's first period of homelessness he was twice hospitalised, once with pneumonia in December 2006 and the second time with a viral infection in October 2007. Near the end of their second period of homelessness in April 2014, the Applicant was diagnosed with asthma as well as a chest infection (see para. 31 above).
(ii) Both the Applicant and his wife have serious concerns about the health care the Applicant has or has not received over the years from National Health Service (NHS) England. Prior to his hospitalisation with pneumonia in 2006, he lost consciousness while vomiting and could have easily died had his wife not been with him. Chelsea and Westminster Hospital discharged him 42 hours after admission whilst still unwell (into the shivering cold and dense fog), placing him at risk. The Applicant most recently complained to NHS England about emergency dental treatment he received in January 2018. He complained in part that he had a nerve removed from a tooth but was only prescribed antibiotics after the eruption of the tooth days later. NHS England did not uphold any aspect of the Applicant's complaint. The tooth itself was extracted a month to the day after the emergency treatment.
(iii) Back on the streets the Applicant and his wife will be restricted to sleeping on night buses, notwithstanding the Applicant's asthma and now increased susceptibility to respiratory disease. They were forced into this predicament prior to coming off the streets the second time because of an excessive use of force by police officers to move them out of where they had been sleeping. This included the Applicant's wife being threatened with arrest on the trumped-up charge of assaulting a police officer (see para. 31 above). Since the subsequent escalation of the migration crisis in Europe, the police have been given more powers to crack down on rough sleeping and need less to resort to excessive force (such as arrest without lawful authority).
***
We were evicted from our previous flat in March 2013 because according to our then live-in landlady's ex-husband, Dr Nigel McKenzie, a consultant psychiatrist in Highgate Mental Health Centre, our flat was needed for somebody with a mental illness. As Declan states in paragraph 8 of his updated complaint to the UN above, former MI5 whistleblower David Shayler also lived with human rights activist Belinda McKenzie in the same political 'safe house' for a couple of years until 2007. According to BBC Panorama, Shayler "caused the biggest crisis of official secrecy since the spy catcher affair"; he was jailed for seven weeks in 2002 for breaking the Official Secrets Act. It's unfortunate that Shayler declared himself the Messiah in 2007, became a squatter, and was subsequently ridiculed in the press for changing his name to Delores Kane. A New Statesman article published in September 2006 featuring Shayler and Belinda gives no indication that Shayler believed he was the Messiah at that time; whilst a Daily Mail interview with him the following year reveals he believed himself to be Jesus by June 2007. He has never regained his normal self.
The Esquire article below* is mentioned in a Guardian article dated 27 March 2012. It's an eye-opener, highlighting the monitoring and surveillance that Shayler had to live with back in 2000, and the contradictory briefings and slanders that were coming out of the British establishment and the media. The author, Dr Eamonn O'Neill, is a lecturer in journalism at Strathclyde University.
*On 2 May 2013, Issuu removed this pdf from my Issuu account following a copyright complaint by Hearst Communications. I had uploaded the article to my Issuu account in December 2012. In March 2013, when last I checked, the article had been viewed more than 15,000 times. It can be read here.
BBC PANORAMA: The David Shayler Affair (August 1998)
Former MI5 whistleblower David Shayler "caused the biggest crisis of official secrecy since the spy catcher affair", according to BBC Panorama. He was jailed for seven weeks in 2002 for breaking the Official Secrets Act.
Greatly concerned. Keep us informed.
- Donald A. Collins, President, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC
Our Church and State website has no less than 40 Nobel Prize winners on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan
Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms formulates what is the core of free speech. "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression." In an important interpretation of this article, the European Court of Human Rights in Handyside v. UK (1976) indicated that this "freedom of expression" should be construed as follows. It "is applicable not only to 'information' or 'ideas' that are favourably received, or regarded as inoffensive, or as a matter of indifference, but also to those that offend, shock or disturb the State or any sector of the population." Such are the demands of that pluralism, tolerance and broadmindedness without which there is no "democratic society" (see Cliteur, 2010).
St. Mungo's stated in their witness statement to have Declan's claim for compensation dismissed (following their rectification of data prior to a preliminary hearing as he had requested all along) that they were "keen to work with Mr Heavey to ensure that he remains securely housed and does not face homelessness again".
Councillor James Beckles
Plaistow North Ward
London Borough of Newham
Address removed for email
2 May 2018
Dear Cllr Beckles,
Renewal of tenancy agreement (like for like)
I am sorry I missed you when I called earlier. As I mentioned on your voice mail, I am extremely concerned that the next email I receive from Peabody will trigger a High Court action against the Greater London Authority. In the event it does, I will attend your next surgery to discuss what (if anything) you may be able to do by way of intervention.
Best regards,
Declan Heavey
71 Queens Road West
Plaistow
London
E13 0PE
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
_________________________
[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.
