I was at a 3rd sector networking event today and a woman who runs a charity that helps homeless people in my home town has been ‘slapped down’ by the council as her giving people food and help makes them ‘dependant’ and less likely to go out and ‘get a job’ ‘cos she’s feeding them……… 😯

I f’n give up….!! Next they’ll be saying my blind, deaf, learning disabled elderly clients can get back to work and have their benefits cut…. oh yeah….. 😈

is she fit?

That’s not PCness at all 😕 Totally the opposite really, it’s old-fashioned “being a c**t”

Quite obviously getting some soup and roll from her means they think they’re well off and can suddenly afford a permenant address and a suit for interviews

I think you’ll find that it’s the Big Society in action.

yip yip *sighs*

sounds like pure BS to me

Wasn’t Westminster was it? I believe that is their policy.

There was even a sly dig at the policy as part of the dialogue between a priest and Boyd on Sunday’s Waking the Dead.

Nope a Northern market town nothing glam…. is it a general policy then? FFS…. 😯

What? You cannot feed people? WTF!

😯

Its “PC living with mental health issues” FFS

Apparently not were I live there was a local vicar there too who’d been ‘talked to’ about opening his door to people who knocked on it asked for help got told it was a safeguarding issue…. it would be funny if I wasn’t joking

is it a general policy then? FFS

Dunno about that. But it certainly exists in more than one place. it is a disgrace.

I said they’re not seagulls for gods sake “don’t feed them it causes dependancy and they come back or hang around” I[‘ve heard some horror stories from this lady with regards to why people are homeless and its a very small percentage self inflicted i.e. drugs / booze but even then there’s a reason these people have had to turn to booze / drugs i.e. abuse etc its all very sad 🙁

Ask the woman from the council if it is a official policy and ask for the documentation for the policy – then publicise it in the local press

.. if you don’t feed them, they’ll **** off to somewhere else. Isn’t your council wonderful? Homelessness solved at a stroke, unlike them over there, area’s full of scruffy beggars

This is shocking

Ask the woman from the council if it is a official policy and ask for the documentation for the policy – then publicise it in the local press

It’s made the National press already.
Daily Mirror
Guardian
Daily Mail
Independent

Well I don’t think we yet live in a society where people, for whatever reason, are allowed to starve to death because they have no money. Therefore all rough sleepers would be entitled to some sort of benefit from the state – which would enable them to buy food. If they don’t claim it, then it is probably due to mental health issues and/or a drug/alcohol dependency.

Their lack of food has almost certainly nothing to do with the fact that they don’t have a “job”. And the lack of food is more likely to kill them, than drive them to securing a job.

is she fit though?

PC gone mad
be afraid!

Hello,
If you want, E-mail me with all the details/names etc and if you can any contact numbers and I’ll pass it on!
MartynDOTSouterATbbc.co.uk

So, Martyn…

Welcome to the forum. What bike do you ride?

8)

Turner,
Been here ages
Work for BBC News in the Northwest
Might be a story for us

Re-reading my earlier post, it looks a bit sinister I’ll grant you.
Anyhoo Bagpuss if you want E-mail me and I’ll have a natter with our News Ed today.

Classic!

Self-pwned! 😳

Check posters history before making smart ass comments mr BH!!

Yes dad….

Classic scapegoating, project the blame onto an individual for the failings of a larger system. I love people, but then I really f*cking hate them sometimes!

Martyn, ok cool, I’ll try and find out who she was I’d never seen her before at the networkung. I’ll check with her she’s ok with me doing it as outraged as I was to hear it I don’t want to cause her any trouble with her charity. If you’re totally independant from statutory funding its good to campaign but she may be reliant on the people she’d be kicking off about its so hard as a small local. I’ll mail you later

Next they’ll be saying my blind, deaf, learning disabled elderly clients can get back to work and have their benefits cut

Already happening I’m afraid. Our wonderful governments new ‘targets’ for getting people off benefits mean the default position is to regard everyone as fit for work. You are now interviewed/evaluated by unqualified box-tickers with no medical experience. Short of being paraplegic, your on your own! Under the new system, 75% of the decisions are being turned over at appeal as unfair. But the government are banking on people not having the means/motivation/knowledge to lodge appeals. Its scandalous! Totally and utterly morally wrong!!!

This is worth reading

Big Society?

During the preliminary roll-out of the test, people with terminal cancer, multiple sclerosis and serious mental illnesses have been found fit to work.

Every day that passes I despise this lot even more. I notice we haven’t heard the phrase ‘we’re all in this together’ pass anyone’s lips of late. Even the monumental arrogance of this bunch of hoorays can’t disguise the fact that they’re making Thatcher look like a picture of humane altruism.

Info on the proposed Westminster byelaw

The proposed by-law will fine people in the Victoria area if they “lie down or sleep in any public place”, “deposit bedding” and distribute free food and drink.

This byelaw will affect the 1,600 people it is estimated sleep rough in Westminster each year, many of whom bed down in the Victoria area.

Many voluntary groups, ‘soup runs’, hand out food in the Victoria area, especially at Howick Place behind the House of Fraser. These groups will be facing the possibility of moving or being fined for their charity if the ban goes ahead.

Every day that passes I despise this lot even more. I notice we haven’t heard the phrase ‘we’re all in this together’ pass anyone’s lips of late. Even the monumental arrogance of this bunch of hoorays can’t disguise the fact that they’re making Thatcher look like a picture of humane altruism.

But the Atos assesments are getting people back to work!

Just a shame some of them die before they start

“Atos Healthcare is not producing the results it is paid for because so many decisions are being overturned. It is costing the country money to go through the appeals process.

“It would be better if every time an appeal was upheld Atos Healthcare had to repay the fee it was paid for the case or, better still, pass it on to a welfare group to help other people,” he said.

With a backlog of cases waiting for appeal dates, Mr McCafferty expects the success rate of the Clydebank resource centre (which is part-funded by Oxfam) to increase well beyond 70%

Nice one Bagpuss,
didn’t realise you didn’t know her, still council tells charity to stop doing its work is a good line!!

No promises obviously but I’ll let ’em know when I’ve got the details.

I need to work out what “self pwned” means as I have absolutly no idea…

I think you probably need to think again about what political correctness actually is. The logic behind this step reflects Victorian cultures of philanthropy associated with groups like the Charity Organization Society. Thankfully Britain’s transition into a social democracy put paid to such attitudes until the idea of ‘welfare dependency’ was then picked up and elaborated as part of the New Right’s attack on consensus politics and the state from the 1970s onwards. Given that ‘political correctness’ is something that tabloids and the hard-of-thinking usually attribute to the woolly liberal or the left you seem to have the politics of this move completely the wrong way round.

Mattie, I’m not that deep or political I don’t care who the party is to be honest, I work for a charity I know how hard it is and I was outraged for another charity worker its as simple as that, perhaps my title was wrong for the post but the sentiment stays the same…..