The Joys Of The Freemarket by Les May

MY interest in football peaked when I was eleven in 1953 and has been declining ever since. If professional football vanished from the face of the Earth I would not miss it. But I cannot help observing that the proposed formation of a European Superleague is just the logical conclusion of the ‘greedfest’ which led to the formation of the Premier League in 1992. Domestic and international television rights generates about £2 billion a year for the Premier League which is a corporation in which member clubs act as shareholders. A nice little earner one might say.

Clearly the owners of the six UK clubs which want to become founder members of the European Superleague can see the cash registers continuing to roll and even more money finding its way into their coffers. The remaining Premier League members now seem to be crying foul having themselves done much the same thing to the old Football League almost thirty years ago.

And who has stepped in to see fair play? It’s our free enterprise worshipping Prime Minister. Boris has suddenly discovered that markets sometimes need to be managed to bring about socially desirable outcomes. Though quite what he can do to block the European Superleague is still unclear.

Question: If Boris Johnson can find time to think up ways of taming the excesses of this particular market, why can’t he find time to bring some sanity to the housing market which continues to leave families homeless or living in very substandard housing while paying exorbitant rents a what is euphemistically called ‘the market rate’.

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Civic Spaces & Uncivil Councillors by Anonymous

Begging's at epicentre of a Storm of Political Controversy!

FOR a council whose entire raison d'etre and long term strategic response for the town centre regeneration appears to be to barge their way to the front of each and every available queue for cash handouts, begging bowl in hand to everyone from the European Social Fund to Westminster freebies it rankles with me they should point the finger of accusation at others less fortunate who are effectively doing exactly the same thing. Was it Goebbels who said: accuse the other side of that which you are guilty?

As for councillor expenses - let's not go there!

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Recent media coverage of councillors calling for a Crackdown on begging so close to an election was entirely expected as it was a sickening and predictable re-hash of their previous political posturing whenever totally bereft of new ideas they opt for the easy target each & every time.

Blame someone else lest that electorate blame us is a tried and tested local mantra the world over and homeless people are seldom registered so no votes lost there then comrades.

Their views are not only repugnant but positively Dickensian. At a time when child poverty levels have been revealed to be at over 50% in some electoral wards it's nothing short of astounding that we do not have beggars on every street corner and bread riots across the Township as we did at the time of Peterloo!

https://www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/140218/calls-for-crackdown-on-%E2%80%98criminal-element%E2%80%99-behind-increase-in-town-centre-begging-and-antisocial-behaviour

This Agenda Articles from the meeting in question are at:

http://democracy.rochdale.gov.uk/documents/s78129/Rochdale%20Town%20Centre%20Public%20Space%20Protection%20Order.pdf

The section from the RMBC Zoom Meeting can be found at :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=372kukolzdY

Perfectly legitimate working legislation already exists on the statute book to effectively challenge trafficked Begging separate to and totally independent of PSPO. The Vagrancy Act is also still being enforced locally despite Council saying it is not. One suspects they are hyper sensitive to the fact they are still having to resort to such antiquated legislation at all after their ' flagship PSPO ' was meant to be the ultimate solution to anti-social behaviour Town Centre. Clearly it is not or why else would there be a call for a 'crackdown' at all?

Local Anti Public Space Protection Order campaigners are currently liaising with Liberty ( who called Rochdale Councils PSPO 'unlawful' when it was introduced ) and The Manifesto Club (Manifesto Club) to formulate a formal legal challenge to this 'crackdown'. Vulnerable homeless people, the vast majority mentally ill, addicted, fleeing domestic violence, illegally evicted or complex variations of all have very limited support options due to Covid (though this is not limited exclusively to the pandemic and was a problem previously) face to face 1:1 support for drug ,alcohol, substance misuse virtually non-existent as is mental health support which has existed in digital form only since March 2020 - if at all! No internet connection or no phone then no support.

For example there is a local mental health charity which draws in hundreds of thousands of pounds in funding each year that has remained resolutely closed for over a year offering only digital support sessions (such levels funding should be able to afford and create Covid safe spaces for individual 1:1 mental health support pods in a few weeks never mind over a year!) No wonder people throw themselves off the tops of shopping centres in sheer anguish and despair!

The likes of Blundell should be targeting the total inability of many local support agencies to support those in need rather than those in need of support. As well as proactively advocating for the vulnerable and agitating for increased funding rather than indulging in shameless self promotion & cheap electioneering prior to May Elections. Some might recall our councillors have previous form on this bludgeoning of the publicly visible result of their abject failures to deliver a functioning welfare & Social Care system policies for the vulnerable when Blundell and Danczuk pulled this stunt some years ago - again as a diversionary Black Op when questions were being asked of the dodgy duos mismanagement of Town centre regeneration. Again Beggars were a convenient scapegoated for crass corporate failure & incompetence.

Blundell was at the time paying his landlord ( Danczuc) in gin to crash at his Westminster pad paid for by taxpayers dosh - allegedly! Whilst the former Mrs Danczuk left an unsightly and rotting empty business unit in the shape of Danczuk's Deli blighting The Walk for years with a far greater visible blight left behind by a high profile social climber than any downwardly mobile beggar waiting for a handful of small change from sympathetic shoppers cashing in their pensions or collecting their monthly Universal Credit payments.

The Majority of the Councils much publicised Covid response is being delivered by idealistic unpaid volunteers whilst paid staff remain safe 'working at home' (behind the lines via a laptop screen facility) totally disconnected from the reality on the ground totally and dangerously oblivious of the crisis levels needed on the ground.

Any visiting councillors to one of the numerous Soup kitchens across the Borough will educate all but the most stupid of our councillors that poverty, exploitation & socail exclusion are the primary driver of begging. Something they are clearly unwilling or unable to address as a council and one which is lacking entirely from any of their May 6 election promises. As a collective the council has also turned down 1,868 Covid support applications whilst having some of the highest child poverty & unemployment & low skilled /low waged local economy in GM plus consistently high levels of C19

Simultaneously our 'pro-business council' has all the largess and generosity of Croesus when it comes to business bailouts - especially just before May local elections ?

https://www.questmedianetwork.co.uk/news/tameside-reporter/thousands-across-greater-manchester-denied-500-covid-support-payments/

Instead of having another toddler stop and stamping his designer jackboots Blundell needs a 'crackdown' on his own aggressive begging from the public purse as well as independent scruiting of his political record on the failed town center regeneration leaving two empty Indoor Markets and virtually derelict Drake Street, a partially deserted Yorkshire Street and a defunct Outdoor market in his wake?

Two hundred and fifty million quid for this? We were robbed!

Perhaps if Councillor Blundell and those like him rolled up their delicate shirt sleeves or blouses and did some proper graft down at a local Soup Kitchen or Foodbank (we have a potential sixty strong workforce of councillors champing at the bit to play their part in supporting their Town during the Pandemic Response after all!) instead of angling for cheap media stunts or photo-bombing on the backs of those socially committed individuals and collectives doing the real community regeneration work people would have at least a little respect for the man?

Cllr. Blundell is not interested in Building Back Better, he is only interested in building his own councillor profile and political career and needs to be called out publicly for it.

Kicking someone when they are down is the dictionary and my own definition of bullying. Blundell is not only a bully but an ill informed braggart & clown who should be nowhere near public office or paid from the public purse for his ill informed and biggoted opinions. Replace the word beggar with jew, gypsy, traveller, black or woman and you might have a clearer insight into how repugnant and stereotyping his views are in actuality

Where Blundell a member of a charity rather than a council he would be on a suspension pending an independent investigation from the charity commission on breach of safeguarding policy - quite possibly by the police under potential Hate Crime legislation. That a councillor can seek to , and is allowed to do so by his Party colleges, aided and abetted by an entirely complicit local media commentariat, to criminalise and scapegoat an entire section of the community in such a way tells you all that you need to know about what lessons have been learnt from previous Rochdale safeguarding scandals from Smith to the Grooming Scandals. Once again we only have to scratch the thin veneer to see the ugly unvarnished truth beneath.

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MODERN TIMES & Homelesness by A. Wastling

MODERN TIMES ( Charlie Chaplin ) 1936 : The Tramp struggles to exist and retain his individuality with the aid of a homeless woman The Gamin who is fleeing the police after stealing a loaf of bread.A damning indictment on the desperate employment and financial conditions many people faced during the Great Depression . When millions were thrown on the scrapheap of mass unemployment after the Capitalist financial crash . The System attempts to crush The Tramp to the level of an anonymous and alienated cog in the production line factory system.Quite innocently The Tramp picks up a flag fallen off the back of a lorry and waves it aloft in an attempt to attract the attention of the driver only to find himself by chance at the front of a workers march and thrown in jail as a Communist agitator after a riot ensues after the cops attack the peaceful though noisy workers march. A masterpiece of silent cinema which also incorporates the Marxist Theory of alienation and imagery particularly when The Tramp becomes locked into the very heart of the machine he is tasked with operating as well as having an episode of mental breakdown due to the drudgery and repetitive nature of work on the ceaseless conveyor belt of the then novel factory Assembly lines. Some of Chaplin's earliest California friends were socialists and members of the radical International Workers of the World, the so-called Wobblies, all dedicated foes of capitalism. In some of Chaplin's earlier films the initials IWW can still be clearly seen chalked on the backs of doors on set

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Covid 19 How can you stay at home - when you have no home? - by Andrew Wastling

“There is only one way to solve this issue…crack down. Fine aggressive beggars and arrest them.”

Councillor John Blundell 2017

“Blundell’s comments are dehumanising, divisive and frankly just ignorant, only exposing his lack of knowledge and experience on the issue.

“The solution to begging, rough sleeping and homelessness isn’t fines, intimidation and social cleansing – the typical Labour way. It is fixing our broken housing system once and for all, ending luxury developments, guaranteeing genuinely affordable housing, getting people off the streets and preventing the initial causes.

“I will never understand why the Labour party seems to have such a problem with rough sleepers and homelessness – it’s just baffling.”

Former Manchester MP John Leech 2017

A 2017 Freedom of Information Request to Rochdale Council recorded 945 homelessness presentations, 205 homelessness advice presentations from people aged 16-25yrs for the same period with 65 homelessness presentations from people aged 16-25yrs recorded in the last quarter of that year. We also know also that the number of people waiting on the current waiting list for Social Housing in 2017 was 6,374 households.

Three years before the Covid pandemic began I calculated that if all of the people currently on Rochdale Councils waiting lists stood one person per step on St.Chads 122 stone steps they would have gone up and down our towns historic landmark almost 54 times with one family standing on each medieval stone step!

Moving forward to the pandemic outbreak , in 2020 B&B accommodation has been used locally for 384 clients, this includes 272 singles and 90 families.

Additionally the number of households open to homelessness fleeing domestic abuse throughout the pandemic was 159.

That there is a local housing and homelessness and domestic violence crisis there is no absolutely doubt whatsoever!

At the same time we know that Empty Homes Week (23rd September 2019 - 29th September 2019 ) reported over 216,000 homes in England have been empty for over six months. In all, over 600,000 homes are currently vacant. The latest statistics for Rochdale show that there were in 858 long term empty properties in 2017.

Rochdale Borough Housing proposals for massive urban vandalism with the potential demolition of 4 blocks at College Bank and 11 blocks at Lower Falinge, which include 395 currently occupied RBH social rented flats will only serve to remove further essential units from the Social Housing stock - or Council Houses as they were once rather quaintly referred to in certain circles!

Campaigners have long been concerned that attempts to exclude homeless people through draconian and overzealous use of Public Space Protection Orders will simply serve to criminalise and further marginalised already socially excluded individuals.The vast majority of whom should be in a place of safety receiving care for complex mental health , trauma or addiction issues rather than a magistrate courts prison cell.

Locally we know that 49 Fixed Penalty Notices have been issued since the introduction of the Rochdale Town Centre Public Space Protection Order. Consisting of Street Drinking – 7 Soliciting for money – 3 Anti-social parking – 7 Begging 32 . This was as of December 2020 as the second wave of Covid-19 began . It's also illuminating to note that nobody from the Council staff issuing these fines has bothered to record the number of people offered legal aid . Despite the fact Rochdale Council is at pains to point out that : vulnerable people will be offered support not just punishment.

Likewise although Rochdale Councils states nobody was issued notices or imprisoned under the decrepit and discredited 1824 Vagrancy Act it is not too difficult to find local homeless people who will tell you that they have spent a night in the cells under Vagrancy Act legislation just prior to Christmas. A public and significant corporate endorsement of the Christiam message at the heart season of peace & goodwill to all which even Scrooge would retch at?

With many people in the hostel environment having low or no immune systems requests from campaigners to prioritise the Townships homeless rough sleepers or sofa surfers for Covid-19 vaccinations have hitherto fallen on entirely deaf ears.

A recent written request to NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group to lobby local NHS Service Providers & GP Practices to prioritise the position of local homeless population on the grounds that:

Currently the homeless lie sixth in line for inoculation behind care home residents, health workers and older folks. They would likely be classed as, “vulnerable adults under 65” by medics, as their average life expectancy is just 45 years-of-age '. The only response to this so far has been that:

Details of the vaccine programme locally can be found on RBC Public Health site at http://www.rochdale.gov.uk/covidvaccine

In addition in response to further public questions , namely:

How many homeless people, rough sleepers, hostel residents have tested positive for Covid-19 since the beginning of the pandemic?

and,

Have there been any fatalities of homeless people attributed to Covid-19 in the homeless / hostel environment or on the street itself in Rochdale since the pandemic began?

There is now the familiar response that: 'The CCG does not have access to this data'.

Campaigners have also pointed out to Rochdale Council that FEANTSA the European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless / Fédération Européenne d'Associations Nationales Travaillant avec les Sans-Abri has issued an international statement pointing out that:

'Homeless people are disproportionately affected by poor health with mortality rates 3–6 times greater than those of the general population. They are often at a higher risk of contracting infectious diseases and are especially vulnerable to respiratory problems due to compromised immune systems, poor nutrition and hygiene, and frequent overcrowding at shelters. Research has found that when homeless people are in their 30s, 40s, and 50s, they often have problems typically associated with much older people. Homeless people are at high risk of premature frailty and geriatric conditions. There is also a high prevalence of multimorbidity in this group.Research calls for a needs-based rather than an age-based approach for homeless health and it makes the case for homeless people to be included in the priority group for vaccines based on their specific health needs rather than their age. Although they are clinically vulnerable and have complex underlying health conditions, people experiencing homelessness often face barriers in accessing health care and consequently, their medical conditions are often underdiagnosed and their health needs, while multiple, left unmet. This makes them a high-risk group for COVID-19.'

Incidentally any Northern Voices reader who'd like to send a copy to their ward councillor to urge them to get a hurry on with the priority vaccination homeless people and other disadvantaged socio-economic groups can find the full FEANTSA statement at : Vaccine_Statement_Feb_21.pdf (feantsa.org)

Though don't expect a reply or even an acknowledgement anytime from them anytime soon!

In short a forty year old hostel dweller with a history of sleeping in the damp conditions of squats of skips with a bronchial infection, a drug user with a history of intravenous drug use with an impared immune system through HIV or AIDS, or a someone in their forties with the lungs of an eighty year old due to the reduced lung capacity of COPD or low or no immune system due to years of drug alcohol or substance misuse is not best placed to avoid the transmission of Covid 19 in the comunal conditions of a hostel, bed and breakfast, hotel or squat with shared showers, toilets and baths and cramped living conditions with limited opportunities to self isolation or quarantine.Homeless people have also experienced problems in accessing NHS GP services. As FEANTSA state:

'They are often at a higher risk of contracting infectious diseases and are especially vulnerable to respiratory problems due to compromised immune systems, poor nutrition and hygiene, and frequent overcrowding at shelters.'

It is self evident also that there will be no records locally of the number of transient or itinerant individuals not registered since they are by their very nature hard to reach and mobile.What is certain however is that they will not be getting an email, text, or a telephone call asking them to come in for a Covid vaccination - since officially they do not exist. No GP registration then no vaccine unless you are fortunate to be homeless in a progressive council such as Oldham or Liverpool that is.

But it is not the homeless alone who appear to be languishing forgotten and marginalised at the back of the vaccination queue People with learning disabilities were found to be up to six times more likely to die from Covid-19 during the first wave of the pandemic, analysis shows. A report from Public Health England (PHE) found the death rate for those with a learning disability was 30 times higher in the 18-34 age group. Learning disabilities charity Mencap have said that the government had "failed to protect" a group already experiencing health inequalities.'

'The report highlighted that certain kinds of learning disabilities, such as Down's Syndrome can make people more vulnerable to respiratory infections. Adults with the condition have recently been added to the government's "clinically extremely vulnerable" list. Almost half of those with Down Syndrome who died from Covid-19 were living in a care home. The Down's Syndrome Association said priority must be given "to measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in these settings, including regular testing of care staff".

When asked if our local HMR CCG agreed with the findings of the Public Health England Report their response was:

The CCG is unable to provide opinion-based responses

Our HMR CCG it would seem are short on answers and long on the time taken in responding to them.

Whilst our Council is keener on sweeping the homeless issues out of sight and out of mind rather than dealing with the root causes. When considering the issues of local homelssness, rough sleeping, begging and the thousands of local families waiting without any realistic hope of rehousing please remember three things. Whilst this crisis is deepening local Housing provider Rochdale Borough Housing are in the process of moving ( in many instances frail & vulnerable residents ) out of their homes in three of the Seven Sister flats , Underwood, Holland Rise, and Mardyke , stating that:

'Over the past few months, we have been carrying out technical surveys, including the recent fire risk assessments, and although we still do not have the full detail of what refurbishment and modernisation work could involve, we do now know for certain that it would be extensive enough that residents would not be able to continue to live in their homes while the work is carried out.'

One can only marvel at the total lack of awareness & timing of this during a global health pandemic requiring social distancing and unnecessary travel; particularly of the elderly with possible underlying health conditions!

Secondly we should remember that just THREE people were recorded sleeping rough in Rochdale in November 2018 - a truly astounding 40% reduction from figures taken eight years earlier!

And, thirdly , we need to be mindful of the unavoidable fact that there are elements within Rochdale Council who would clearly spitefully and totally unecessarily rather scapegoat , dicriminate against , prosecute and criminalize the poor , mentally ill an marginalised than give them fully funded and functioning support services with which to treat them with basic human dignity to help them rise up out of their destitution and misery. As the great Angela Davis once said :

'Prisons do not disappear social problems, they disappear human beings. Homelessness, unemployment, drug addiction, mental illness, and illiteracy are only a few of the problems that disappear from public view when the human beings contending with them are relegated to cages.' ______________________________

Unpublished letter to Rochdale Observer & Manchester Evening News 14/01/2021

Dear Editor Rochdale Observer / MEN ,

Local Homeless People & Covid 19 Vaccine roll out

On 13 January Oldham Council teamed up with local GPs in a bid to ensure that rough sleepers and those without homes are inoculated against Covid 19. They are the first in the country to roll-out a programme specifically designed to vaccinate homeless people (1).

This progressive and humane initiative received favourable national publicity in the print media, online , on radio & television, (2), (3).

Could I please ask Rochdale Council through your Letters Page what plans there are, if any, for the scheme to vaccinate homeless people to be extended to cover homeless, rough sleepers & hostel & bed & breakfast dwellers in the Heywood, Middleton & Rochdale area?

As we know homeless people are at risk of Covid due to low or no immune systems & also at risk of transmitting it through the wider community through no fault of their own.

I am aware of one homeless person still sleeping on the streets of Rochdale & sofa surfing who should be screening because he has no Spleen and is on the NHS list for those at high risk of Covid 19. Is he a lone example or more typical of the local response to meet the needs of those without homes during the pandemic?

Founder of Homeless Friendly Dr Chauhan has pointed out that: 'As a health carer who has worked on the Corona virus front-line at care homes, I can absolutely see why older people and health workers need to be prioritised. But so too do the homeless. Each winter they face problems such as hypothermia, pneumonia and even frostbite. Does death from COVID-19 also now be added to that list of shame?'

Thank you

Faithfully,

Andrew Wastling

Park Court, Drake Street, ROCHDALE

m | 07786251801

APPENDIX:

(1).

'Homeless man gets Covid-19 jab in city council's rough sleepers vaccine drive', Daily Mirror( 13/01/2021)

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/homeless-man-gets-covid-jab-23311099?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar

(2).

'Oldham launches one of the first homeless COVID-19 vaccine schemes', Planet Radio, (13/01/2020)

https://planetradio.co.uk/hits-radio/manchester/news/oldham-launches-one-of-the-first-homeless-covid-19-vaccine-schemes/

(3).

https://www.bigissue.com/latest/homeless-couple-given-covid-19-vaccine-in-oldham-world-first/

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Manchester ranks worst for child homelessness

  outside of London

One in 47 children in Manchester is in need of temporary accommodation, according to new figures released by Shelter.

An astonishing 2,725 children in Manchester were in need of temporary accommodation in 2019, ranking the city highest outside of London for child homelessness.

The number of children in temporary accommodation across the North West was up an astonishing 385% – the highest anywhere in the UK.

An estimated 6,523 children were made homeless in the North West last year, meaning 18 children became homeless every single day, or one child being made homeless every 18 minutes.

The Liberal Democrats have warned that both national and local government are condemning a generation of children to the streets.

Labour's Homeless Tax and Hardship Sanction

Leader of the Liberal Democrats in Manchester John Leech said:

“While Westminster is obsessed with pushing through a damaging Brexit, problems in Manchester are accelerating at a UK-high rate, and children in Manchester are paying the price.

"But it is the Tories’ complete lack of interest in tackling the national homeless crisis which is aptly coupled with Labour’s appalling Homeless Tax and Hardship Sanction which hit those already struggling even harder.

“This doesn't just highlight the gross incompetence and lack of priorities from local and national government, nor is it just a complete embarrassment, but it exposes the devastating, critical and consistent failure of a system that simply doesn’t care.

"The Lib Dems have a clear plan to end this crisis. Lib Dems will end wasteful spending, invest more money than ever before into preventing homelessness, tackling the cause, guarantee at least 100,000 social homes every year, scrap the Homeless Tax and finally put an end to the greatest injustice of our lifetime.

"Only the Lib Dems will stop Brexit and build a brighter future where children in Manchester and beyond will always have a roof over their heads and a council with their best interests at heart, no matter what"

ENDS.