In the news

I don't think we should be mean to him so soon after he lost his parents in The Charge of the Light Brigade.

Not to mention the devastating loss of his Oil Engineer brother who was commissioned by the US Military to help divert an asteroid on collision course with Earth. All he asked for in return was tax-relief for some of his friends-a true blue red and white Brexiteer if ever there was one.

I remember that, when the asteroid blew up he had a flash-forward to his daughter's wedding. Later mission control said:

"Miss Nuttall? Colonel Willie Sharp, United States Airforce, ma'am.
Requesting permission to shake the hand of the daughter of the bravest
man I've ever met.!"

I was in floods.

The film adaptation was superb, especially the monologue delivered by the dying android.

"All this will be lost, like a face in a football crowd."

.http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39172314

"I want to put this in perspective... I've never been caught in a
paedophile gang or anything"

That almost suggest it's only a matter of time.

Bomb scare at London Bridge station whole area locked down and London Bridge itself closed.

And it's open again.

That de-escalated quickly

I once got caught in a bomb scare at London Bridge on my way to Sussex while on a train waiting to leave. Instead of having us all leave the train and station, the train just left (it was essentially on time). Unfortunately, the conductor wasn't on so they kicked us all off in Croydon. There wasn't another train to where we were going for an hour.

/csb

I saw York Rd station get blown up in the knowledge that my brother and sister were there catching the train home. Turned out there'd been a warning and they were running down the road when the bomb went off - no casualties.

You get more hardcore bomb /csb's in Belfast. Although, Croydon...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39194844

I used to manage the newsagents in the Europa/Great Victoria St Bus and Train Stations - much evacuation, even in the early Noughties. Not as hardcore as yours though.

I did see the mushroom cloud from the 1993 Newtownards bomb from 5 miles away. No fatalities, luckily.

Someone's been reading detective novels http://www.johnsandford.org/virgil09.html

I lost a mate in the Chelsea Barracks bomb, the irony being he was hardcore IRA... He used to wear an 'IRA all the way' t-shirt under his school shirt...

The Lords has voted for 'A Meaningful Discussion'.

Theresa May is reportedly stuffing packs of Pringles down her gob as we speak.

Wtf...!

Now they are going to have to show horn less rhinos..

https://corporatewatch.org/news/2017/mar/05/rough-sleeper-immigration-raids-charity-collaboration-st-mungos-thames-reach

Charities giving up details of rough sleepers to the home office so that they can turf them out. Nice...

:(

I think Howard Sinclair at St Mungo's makes a valid point. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/mar/07/charities-giving-home-office-details-of-rough-sleepers-says-report

“The reality is that under current UK legislation, there are vulnerable people that are not eligible for support or housing and as a result are left destitute on the streets. When returning home is the only option for a vulnerable individual sleeping rough, we have to ask ourselves what would happen if we didn’t get involved. The stark reality is that without any intervention people would simply deteriorate on our streets.”

It's never as black and white as is portrayed in a newspaper article or report by any lobbying group. No one will fund provision for this group of rough sleepers so it's stay on the streets and decline (probably die eventually) or seek an alternative. That alternative may be an assisted return home (that's what it often is rather than arrest and deportation).

It all comes down to this essentially. Unless someone will fund provision then this is the least worst option.

A bit of a generalisation but with many EU and farther afield rough sleepers you see someone that was working (sometimes in the grey economy), sending money back home and being a bit of a hero. However when that work dries up it all goes to shit. Not immediately but sometimes they are too ashamed to return home, to admit defeat as it were, or just don't have the money to get the ticket. The problem is that when you are on the streets there exists the real possibility that you fall into all the risky behaviours that other rough sleepers exhibit. It happens. You are then in a downward spiral that means that the issues you face are even more difficult to sort out.

Whether they then get help in their home country is another question. Some yes, some not. At least a lot can return to those protective factors like family. But what is clear is that over here they will not get the help as they are not eligible for it. Nipping it in the bud can benefit the person. It's not good when you have to take two doctors out with you to section someone for their own safety. Don't need to tell anyone that living on the streets is shit.

Anyone living in London doesn't need to look at the annual statistics or interrogate the CHAIN database to see the problem growing like you wouldn't believe (unless you thought for about 2 mins about the implication of funding cuts etc.).

I agree, it's not black and white and you make good points.

But if you can't trust charities anymore, there is also a risk that people will not go to them anymore when they are sick.

You can also argue that it's not the work of a charity to be chums with the Home Office.

I have to admit I don't trust the HO as far as I can throw them, of course it has good people that want to do the right thing, but the targets are to Get People Out at any cost. If the charities would talk to embassies to get people sent back, OK, maybe they can help find family etc. but the HO... hm.

But yeah homelessness is growing, the government just announced cuts to housing help for under 21s, there aren't enough council houses in London, etc. etc. etc.

Good post, that's hard to add anything to.

I'm amazed daily just how many there are on the street - reminds me of London pre '00s

Aye - a lot that. Part cold, part boredom but a lot is self medication following un-diagnosed mental health issues or childhood trauma etc - all the shit things basically. And it's more than just drink and drugs but that's a significant part of it but I didn't want to focus on one or two things to the exclusion of others.

Edit - I think risky behaviours is a bit of a rubbish way to describe it but couldn't think of a better work

What's concerning about this is not that the charities are making reasoned decisions on an individual's welfare based on their circumstances, but that they are being obliged by government to feed the deportation machine.

The likely upshot of this is homeless people refusing to engage with charities who could provide them with services to help them and to hide from the charities, (rightly) seeing them as another arm of the Home Office. The level of mistrust in the homeless community is already high, and this won't help. Homeless people are likely to move to areas where they don't have support networks, leaving them in higher risk situations.

I'm already aware of a number of 'off-grid' homeless individuals and groups, some of whom are immigrant groups, hiding where officialdom and charities can't reach. The immigrants are already in a worse off position as they are less likely to be able to beg (polis will often turn a blind eye to British beggars, but arrest anyone without papers). This makes it more likely that they will turn to crime or just be more malnourished and more susceptible to health problems.