Rough sleeper found frozen death in Manchester City centre on Boxing Day.

 

On Boxing Day, a man was found dead under a bridge in Manchester City centre near to the Bridgewater Hall. The police said there were no suspicions circumstances. What they couldn't say, and this was reported in the Manchester Evening News (MEN), was that this man had frozen to death because he was a rough sleeper. The temperature that night was -4 degrees.

It was also reported in the MEN, that last Monday, the Holiday Inn, on Oxford Road, Manchester, refused two people accommodation because they were people off the streets. Apparently, a charity had taken pity on them and had paid their accommodation costs and the rooms had been pre-booked. The receptionist told them that he knew they were people off the streets and that it was the policy of the hotel, not to admit rough sleepers. The temperature that day was -6 degrees. I believe the two individuals were eventually accommodated in a Travel Lodge.

British politicians like to describe Britain as an "inclusive society". When people are freezing to death on the streets of Britain, one of the richest countries in the world, because they're homeless and people are being denied access to accommodation because they're off the streets, you can hardly call that an inclusive society. I'm afraid that we seem to be returning to Victorian times when these kinds of deaths among the homeless and destitute were commonplace.