Church and State blog: Greater London Authority: The Mayor of London's Rough Sleeping Team at City Hall breach Declan's rights by contacting St Mungo's on his behalf without his authority or consent (WITH UPDATE 20/6/2019)

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Greater London Authority: The Mayor of London's Rough Sleeping Team at City Hall breach Declan's rights by contacting St Mungo's on his behalf without his authority or consent (WITH UPDATE 20/6/2019)

From the update below:

"This obscene disregard for your rights seems to continue unresolved!"
-Don Collins, President of ISAF, an NGO dedicated to helping women

Our Church and State website has no less than 57 Nobel Laureates on it; for details, see this blog's sidebar under "Church and State" (updated today).

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).

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan

Declan and I are housed in a flat that is part of the Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative. Alongside our tenancy is access to the Mayor's Tenancy Sustainment Team (TST) at St Mungo's. It has been acknowledged by the Greater London Authority in court papers that both Declan and I can live independently – we do not have addictions or mental illness or behavioural issues. Our needs are solely related to the harassment, discrimination and intimidation we routinely face; see my post of 8 April, Threat to Life: Declan writes to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan about the blockade across London on his volunteer applications notwithstanding his support from the Mayor-commissioned St Mungo's (WITH UPDATE 20/5/2019). The post contains Declan's email to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan. Declan received a reply on behalf of the Mayor from David, who described himself as "part of the Rough Sleeping Team at City Hall with responsibilities for the Mayor's rough sleeping services". This David did not provide his surname and his only contact detail is the Mayor's at mayor@london.gov.uk. He basically ignored everything Declan had to say about the blockade across London on his volunteer applications and without authority or consent attempted to involve our landlord, Peabody Housing Association, in a serious legal dispute between Declan and St Mungo's (see update). This is Declan's stage 1 complaint to the GLA:

Housing and Land
Greater London Authority

Address removed for email

19 June 2019

Dear Housing and Land,

Please treat this email as my stage 1 complaint to the GLA.

Last month David (surname not provided below) of the Rough Sleeping Team at City Hall asked St Mungo's to contact me with a view to liaising with my landlord, Peabody. This could have, and in fact may have, created problems for both me and my wife. I was engaged in a serious legal dispute with St Mungo's at the time.

David breached my rights by contacting St Mungo's like this without my authority or consent.

I request that you uphold my complaint. I further seek assurance that the GLA will make no further contact with St Mungo's on my behalf without my consent.

Yours faithfully,

Declan Heavey
Managing Director
Network for Church Monitoring

Last year 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, it left Declan gob smacked. He subsequently spoke with Diane Taylor, the journalist covering the story for the Guardian.

EU freedom for rough sleepers infringed - shock horror. https://t.co/RuJKrSEiTm
— Andrew Martin (@devonprof) May 14, 2018

UPDATE 20 June (10.35am): The GLA aims to respond to a complaint within 20 working days. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman service has informed Declan that the Authority has three months to respond before they will look into anything. On 5 June I posted St Mungo's: Declan's email to CEO Howard Sinclair of this Mayor of London-commissioned charity further to pre-action letter dated 26 April 2019 (WITH UPDATE 20/6/2019). The update to the post reveals that five days after Declan's pre-action letter, on 1 May, St Mungo's once again inputted outrageous notes into their electronic case management system without his knowledge or consent. It also quotes Don Collins, President of the Washington DC-based International Services Assistance Fund, who observed: "This obscene disregard for your rights seems to continue unresolved!" The notes were only removed by this Mayor of London-commissioned charity last Friday, and the notes below that were agreed upon last April updated on their system.

Declan taught PE in Glenstal Abbey, one of Ireland's top schools.

Declan fought for almost four months for agreed-upon notes to be inputted into the St Mungo's electronic case management system. Among a whole host of other problems, the last two action notes were missing from a barely legible image attachment of notes that Declan received on 1 May (see para. 9 of Particulars of Claim here).

18 February 2019[1]
Met with Declan at his home today at 3pm on 18 February. On 1 February Declan and TST North came to an agreement regarding support going forward. Marc: Send supporting email to Sense.

6 March 2019[2]
Marc: Supporting email sent to Sense.

15 March 2019[3]
Met with Declan at his home today at 3.30pm on 15 March. Meeting following Declan's interview with Sense on 7 March. Marc: Enhanced supporting email sent to KEEN London containing up-front reference to Declan's former homelessness.

22 March 2019[4]
Marc: Contacted KEEN London. Volunteer coordinator is due to return next week and shall contact regarding supporting email.

2 April 2019[5]
Marc: Contacted KEEN London. Spoke with volunteer coordinator and waiting for application to be forwarded.

____________________________
1-3 These three notes were agreed upon during said meeting of 15 March 2019.
4-5 The wording of these latter two action notes was agreed upon by email on 17 April 2019.

Don Collins is also Declan's professional referee. Below is Don's reference dated 8 September 2018. It is somewhat understated, in that our Church and State website now has 57 Nobel Laureates on it, as well as a distinguished list of 233 Honorary Associates that includes 15 Nobel Laureates and eight knighted professors. (These figures were lower last September when, for example, we had two Nobel Laureates listed as associates.)

Donald A. Collins, President
International Services Assistance Fund
5620 Oregon Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20015
[information withheld]
FAX [number withheld]
eMail [address withheld]

September 8, 2018

To Whom It May Concern:

I have become aware that my colleague, Declan Heavey, a highly educated professional, has come to need a reference for Newham Council (Active Newham) to find him voluntary work within Newham with children and adults with learning disabilities in a sport setting.

Declan's credentials for this sort of voluntary work are impressive. He is an accredited UK Athletics assistant coach with a DBS certificate for such a voluntary position. He is also a former physical education teacher, who has taught in one of Ireland's top schools (Glenstal Abbey) and set up and ran an unprecedented national network of 26 summer schools called Adventure Ireland that catered for over 4,000 children aged 6-14.

I have read with interest a Republic of Ireland newspaper article about Adventure Ireland that speaks of an admirable 'reconciliation scheme' for the involvement of a large number of children from Northern Ireland. Under this scheme, southern locations catered for children from Northern Ireland accompanied by experienced youth workers known by the children themselves. I understand and have no doubt that this scheme attracted considerable local media coverage both sides of the border between the two countries.

Declan manages an extensive website to which many contribute significant articles that bear on the general welfare of people everywhere. The site gets hundreds of thousands of hits and is a favorite of mine and many Nobelists. In fact, the site has no less than 40 Nobelists on it, as well as a distinguished list of 183 Honorary Associates to date that includes 2 Nobelists and 7 academics with knighthoods under the British royal honors system.

I have met Declan and known him for more than 7 years and I can attest to his strength of character. He is an outstanding and active citizen with a great commitment to community. He is highly responsible, loyal and trustworthy, and has exceptional organisational and management skills. I am pleased to report that my association with him has convinced me that he would provide a worthy addition to serving children and adults with learning disabilities in a sport setting.

Should you wish for more information from me, kindly email me at this address.

Sincerely,　

Donald A. Collins

From My Picks:

22 April: Email interception: Immediately after this complaint to our local MP a test email to two close colleagues has been blocked. A 2010 parliamentary letter to now Prime Minister Theresa May revealed in this post (WITH UPDATE 20/6/2019)

UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)

'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

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

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

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

Greater London Authority: The Mayor of London's Rough Sleeping Team at City Hall breach Declan's rights by contacting St Mungo's on his behalf without his authority or consent (WITH UPDATE 20/6/2019)

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