In the news

Did the driver know your name?

He didn't know his own name. Genuinely dazed

He also knocked over an electricity hub for the nearby estate knocking out all power on the estate

electricity hub

All powered by a dynamo?

Since I started working in Clerkenwell, living in Pimlico, involved at Palace of Westminster. i have avoided the super highway along the Embankment (where there are loads of Thames Tideway Construction sites) and Parliament Sq for my commute it’s too stressful, preferring Lambeth Bridge and back roads to Blackfriars.

We are away this week and I always check the news first thing, this wasn’t one of the items.. but this has really f*cked me off..

Heal up everyone who was injured or affected by what happened today
Al x

Strange coincidence that your incident also involved a silver Fiesta.

Indeed.

And on the same day as the other incident which i missed by 10 minutes on my morning commute.

Was diverted from parliament Square to go over Lambeth bridge.

Did make London edgier than usual today

I know. I don't like the one about barcoding people either.
My family knows a bit about tattoos on arms.

My assumption was that @davidual finds both the idea of tattooing or barcoding people repellent, hence the comparison. Did I miss something?

That’s how I read it.

Yes Bruce that is exactly it.
Reducing a person to a barcode instead of someone who needs help.

Surely the point of moving to barcode based electronic payments is to create a record of income, which can then be taxed. A simple tattoo won’t achieve this.

That's how i read it also, and hence why I also mocked the very idea of bar coding or numbering a person.

Me too. But y’know. Internet

Apologies, removed my comment

I shouldn't have assumed that everybody would spot my sarcasm. Internetz innit.

Why would we want to tax the income homeless people get from donations?!

The original idea was about making it easier to give using mobiles, no?

Oh you were being sarcastic weren't you, sorry...

Yep, plus I'd spent most of the day trying to persuade a local authority to part with a measly few thousand pounds so I can continue to run a service that feeds around 80 rough sleepers a week, provides HIV tests, mental health support, access to hostels, benefits advice, etc., so my sense of humour wasn't at its best...

is there anything we can do to help?

Not a huge amount, unless you have deep pockets?

We run a pretty good service, which is fairly unique. We provide rough sleepers with a two-course meal, seated, served to them, actual plates and cutlery. In contrast to traditional soup runs, it's very humanising, avoids pissing off residents and businesses, reduces grooming, links to other basic but vital services and, most importantly, doesn't sustain people living on the streets, where they die.

We have wonderful volunteers, plus a chef and coordinator who are paid a few hours a week, all food is donated and delivered to us, and I need around £20K a year to run it, which our local authority is struggling to find. Homeless people aren't "residents", they don't vote, they're often from outside the UK...

More people have died in our area on the streets during the hot weather from respiratory problems than did during the cold weather.

Sorry, thread derail.

it's bleak how much good work goes unremarked upon and unfunded. if there's one of those internet funding pages kicking about i'm sure many of us would happily throw you some cash, but somehow i doubt that's going to make a dent. Ordinarily you'd think the least you could do is write a letter to your local MP / council member but if as you say, they don't give two hoots because there's no political cachet in helping non residents, well then things are fucking worse than i thought.

offer stands. thanks for your service, you really shouldn't need to do this in what is allegedly the 5th richest economy on the planet.

I could not find that all, but I could find a monthly donation - which, if we got enough, would deliver that figure through the year, if that is any use?

Donations would be great, really helpful and I know how generous this forum can be. But maybe that should go to those we know who need that support? There are notable recent examples of this.

I'm determined to get this money from the institutions who should be paying - the local authority, the GLA, the local BIDs, central government. They all claim to prioritise eliminating homelessness, so I want them to pay for a service that is proven to work. The crazy thing is that we have the whole thing written up as a best practice guide - the training, the safeguarding, the DBS checks, the model - and have the partnerships in place with other services and agencies and know where to get the food from. So, with a bit of seed funding, could roll it out to other parts of London that need it.

Its a shame you can't just divide the 20k by the all the institutions listed then send them an invoice (and a public version of it to the local/national papers too).

I need around £20K a year to run it

This is sad, because local authorities albeit strapped for cash can easily piss this up a wall in a day without blinking. But like you said homeless people don't/can't vote :(

What area of London is this based?

At risk communities in PHE should be all over this.
TV, hep B, drug, alcohol and tobacco.
Bonkers.

Have you tried Southwark public health?