I stopped giving them money when I walked past one asleep in a door way at Victoria who pulled out his ringing iphone from his sleeping bag. Where the feck does he charge the thing?
Where did he pull it from? This links in nicely with my section about 'the chatham pocket'
I stopped giving tI saw him em money when I walked past one aslme! in a door way at Victoria who pulled out his ringing iphone from his sleeping bag. Where the feck does he charge the thing?
Where did he pull it from? This links in nicely with my section about 'the chatham pocket'
Used to always give a bit of silver change to a chap in tonbridge most weeks but that stoped when i saw him with a better and newer phone than me!
I dont give homeless people anything after a very annoying and bad experience I had a couple of years ago.
I was around liverpool street, on lunch. This bloke came up to me begging for money so he could get a bus as his daughter was in hospital and he needed to get there as soon as possible...
He seemed agrivated, desperate and appriciative of any help. I only had £5 on me. Oh dear...It was now his. I found out later I got verbally mugged...
A couple of weeks later I saw him across the road, around the same spot giving an old bloke the exact same speech...
I should have went over there and knocked his teeth out and at least told the potential vitcim about the c*nt.
I didnt... and regret it. I was just so pissed off, just kept me head down and felt like sh*t.
I hate it on tubes when apparent homeless people give speeches to carraiges... its all bulls*hit. One thing they could do, applying for a job in public speaking, they have good public speaking skills!
I also hate the "buy my tissue" nonsense. The most common one I see, is a polish speaking bloke on the northern line ...that looks like he shops in river island...
Reminds me of a tale my wife told of a woman who accosted her in Piccadilly last year all tearful and wanting money to get a bus ticket because she had 'left' her child on a bus that had driven off. Tears soon dried up when Mrs Cat said she didn't have any cash, but offered to phone TfL to get them to stop the bus....
Anyone had that woman on the train that goes into a whole long speach about how Jesus is with you and he is the saviour, blah, blah, blah at the top of her voice to the whole carriage. She does it everyday. I wonder if she's just doing it on her way home from work or she just spends the day going back and forward on the trains?
One bloke that stands out... on the tube on my way home. Brought his accoustic with him. Told everyone he was selling "happy" and asked people for song requests. He got good rapor, and handed out sweets to people.
Its not my cup of tea to get involved in that kind of stuff on a tube. I like to listen to music on my phone and like to deep think whilst feeling sorry for myself. But, although unwanted, he showed personality, tried to cheer people up and was a respectable begger, putting a shift in..
I suppose there will always be a problem about genuine need and those putting it on. In the early seventies a new charity started called St Mungo's and they had a rather dilapidated house in Battersea. Anyway I was persuaded for two years to help with their soup run. Essentially it was the whole of every Wednesday night. Mothers Pride and the like would donate battered and unsellable bread, and Heinz and the like would donate battered tins of soup. We would basically heat up the soup in giant saucepans in the Battersea kitchens (all mixed together...woe betide if anybody was a vegetarian) and put the soup in giant flasks that could handle a ladle. There was an old van we packed into and we would set off around midnight...I was a young person at the time. The driver would know the places in central London where there were rough sleepers, Covent Garden (still a market in those days), Temple, Holborn, Waterloo, Embankment and all kinds of places. We would arrive and (probably wrongly) disturb the rough sleepers and offer them soup in a polystyrene cup, and bread, sometimes we had fags to give out, and we would have a chat, occasionally we would be able to persuade somebody to return with us to Battersea to crash...especially if they seemed sick, or had sores and suchlike. I simply went with the flow and that was my Wednesday nights for two years. It made an impression on me, and I do think it is a case of 'there but for the grace of god'. Yes there was an alcohol/drug issue, but these people were certainly not professional beggars who returned to somewhere cosy at night after conning people. I don't doubt that chancers exist these days though. Many were ex-servicemen who had not been able to handle life in civvy street, many had heart rending stories to tell which sent them on a spiral of decline, some actively chose the life of a 'tramp'. Other organizations that tried to help were the Salvation Army and individual churches dotted about, there is no doubt that it was for a lot of people I met who helped, a kind of active Christianity. I was a teenager and will not easily forget those times. So what is my attitude all these years later? I fish in my pocket to give a bit of money when I can, even knowing that the money might go on booze or suchlike, I try to work out the genuine needy from the chancers, but essentially I don't have a blanket attitude to all of them. I also sometimes think, as a runaway child myself, that it could so easily be me. There is a genuine dilemma in this phenomena, but it will not go away. I recommend George Orwell's book 'Down and Out in Paris and London', as it shows the issue of rough sleepers has been with us probably for ever.
I dont give homeless people anything after a very annoying and bad experience I had a couple of years ago.
I was around liverpool street, on lunch. This bloke came up to me begging for money so he could get a bus as his daughter was in hospital and he needed to get there as soon as possible...
He seemed agrivated, desperate and appriciative of any help. I only had £5 on me. Oh dear...It was now his. I found out later I got verbally mugged...
A couple of weeks later I saw him across the road, around the same spot giving an old bloke the exact same speech...
I should have went over there and knocked his teeth out and at least told the potential vitcim about the c*nt.
I didnt... and regret it. I was just so pissed off, just kept me head down and felt like sh*t.
I hate it on tubes when apparent homeless people give speeches to carraiges... its all bulls*hit. One thing they could do, applying for a job in public speaking, they have good public speaking skills!
I also hate the "buy my tissue" nonsense. The most common one I see, is a polish speaking bloke on the northern line ...that looks like he shops in river island...
That's the point of the Big Issue though. it gives them a source of income to help get them back on their feet. They buy, they sell at a profit.
If he chooses to spend the money he has earned on clothes good luck to him. He's worked for it he can spend it how he likes.
As John Bird says the Big Issue is a hand up not a hand out.
I suppose there will always be a problem about genuine need and those putting it on. In the early seventies a new charity started called St Mungo's and they had a rather dilapidated house in Battersea. Anyway I was persuaded for two years to help with their soup run. Essentially it was the whole of every Wednesday night. Mothers Pride and the like would donate battered and unsellable bread, and Heinz and the like would donate battered tins of soup. We would basically heat up the soup in giant saucepans in the Battersea kitchens (all mixed together...woe betide if anybody was a vegetarian) and put the soup in giant flasks that could handle a ladle. There was an old van we packed into and we would set off around midnight...I was a young person at the time. The driver would know the places in central London where there were rough sleepers, Covent Garden (still a market in those days), Temple, Holborn, Waterloo, Embankment and all kinds of places. We would arrive and (probably wrongly) disturb the rough sleepers and offer them soup in a polystyrene cup, and bread, sometimes we had fags to give out, and we would have a chat, occasionally we would be able to persuade somebody to return with us to Battersea to crash...especially if they seemed sick, or had sores and suchlike. I simply went with the flow and that was my Wednesday nights for two years. It made an impression on me, and I do think it is a case of 'there but for the grace of god'. Yes there was an alcohol/drug issue, but these people were certainly not professional beggars who returned to somewhere cosy at night after conning people. I don't doubt that chancers exist these days though. Many were ex-servicemen who had not been able to handle life in civvy street, many had heart rending stories to tell which sent them on a spiral of decline, some actively chose the life of a 'tramp'. Other organizations that tried to help were the Salvation Army and individual churches dotted about, there is no doubt that it was for a lot of people I met who helped, a kind of active Christianity. I was a teenager and will not easily forget those times. So what is my attitude all these years later? I fish in my pocket to give a bit of money when I can, even knowing that the money might go on booze or suchlike, I try to work out the genuine needy from the chancers, but essentially I don't have a blanket attitude to all of them. I also sometimes think, as a runaway child myself, that it could so easily be me. There is a genuine dilemma in this phenomena, but it will not go away. I recommend George Orwell's book 'Down and Out in Paris and London', as it shows the issue of rough sleepers has been with us probably for ever.
I got as far as your your part about chosing the life of a tramp and I thought "I read a great book by a famous author like this"; thanks for mentioning it at the end; was driving me mad trying to remember the title. I'd also recommend that book.
I dont give homeless people anything after a very annoying and bad experience I had a couple of years ago.
I was around liverpool street, on lunch. This bloke came up to me begging for money so he could get a bus as his daughter was in hospital and he needed to get there as soon as possible...
He seemed agrivated, desperate and appriciative of any help. I only had £5 on me. Oh dear...It was now his. I found out later I got verbally mugged...
A couple of weeks later I saw him across the road, around the same spot giving an old bloke the exact same speech...
I should have went over there and knocked his teeth out and at least told the potential vitcim about the c*nt.
I didnt... and regret it. I was just so pissed off, just kept me head down and felt like sh*t.
I hate it on tubes when apparent homeless people give speeches to carraiges... its all bulls*hit. One thing they could do, applying for a job in public speaking, they have good public speaking skills!
I also hate the "buy my tissue" nonsense. The most common one I see, is a polish speaking bloke on the northern line ...that looks like he shops in river island...
That's the point of the Big Issue though. it gives them a source of income to help get them back on their feet. They buy, they sell at a profit.
If he chooses to spend the money he has earned on clothes good luck to him. He's worked for it he can spend it how he likes.
As John Bird says the Big Issue is a hand up not a hand out.
I suppose there will always be a problem about genuine need and those putting it on. In the early seventies a new charity started called St Mungo's and they had a rather dilapidated house in Battersea. Anyway I was persuaded for two years to help with their soup run. Essentially it was the whole of every Wednesday night. Mothers Pride and the like would donate battered and unsellable bread, and Heinz and the like would donate battered tins of soup. We would basically heat up the soup in giant saucepans in the Battersea kitchens (all mixed together...woe betide if anybody was a vegetarian) and put the soup in giant flasks that could handle a ladle. There was an old van we packed into and we would set off around midnight...I was a young person at the time. The driver would know the places in central London where there were rough sleepers, Covent Garden (still a market in those days), Temple, Holborn, Waterloo, Embankment and all kinds of places. We would arrive and (probably wrongly) disturb the rough sleepers and offer them soup in a polystyrene cup, and bread, sometimes we had fags to give out, and we would have a chat, occasionally we would be able to persuade somebody to return with us to Battersea to crash...especially if they seemed sick, or had sores and suchlike. I simply went with the flow and that was my Wednesday nights for two years. It made an impression on me, and I do think it is a case of 'there but for the grace of god'. Yes there was an alcohol/drug issue, but these people were certainly not professional beggars who returned to somewhere cosy at night after conning people. I don't doubt that chancers exist these days though. Many were ex-servicemen who had not been able to handle life in civvy street, many had heart rending stories to tell which sent them on a spiral of decline, some actively chose the life of a 'tramp'. Other organizations that tried to help were the Salvation Army and individual churches dotted about, there is no doubt that it was for a lot of people I met who helped, a kind of active Christianity. I was a teenager and will not easily forget those times. So what is my attitude all these years later? I fish in my pocket to give a bit of money when I can, even knowing that the money might go on booze or suchlike, I try to work out the genuine needy from the chancers, but essentially I don't have a blanket attitude to all of them. I also sometimes think, as a runaway child myself, that it could so easily be me. There is a genuine dilemma in this phenomena, but it will not go away. I recommend George Orwell's book 'Down and Out in Paris and London', as it shows the issue of rough sleepers has been with us probably for ever.
Fantastic post.
I know there are piss-takers out there but many who end up on the streets are victims of circumstance and it could happen to many people on here quite easily.
In fact, there are people on here who have recently fallen on hard times and would themselves have been very close to falling through the gap, so a bit of compassion would not go astray.
"The Big Issue, whose vendors are classed as self-employed, offers an opportunity for A2 migrants to work in the UK. By 2011, around half of Big Issue sellers in the north of England were of Romani origin, many of whom having migrated from Romania and Bulgaria." This is from a newspaper article headlined "Efforts to integrate Roma people are under threat from cuts".
I suppose if you are homeless then it doesn't matter that you travelled from your home country to be homeless in another one but I am not convinced this is what the programme was originally designed for is it ?
"The Big Issue, whose vendors are classed as self-employed, offers an opportunity for A2 migrants to work in the UK. By 2011, around half of Big Issue sellers in the north of England were of Romani origin, many of whom having migrated from Romania and Bulgaria." This is from a newspaper article headlined "Efforts to integrate Roma people are under threat from cuts".
I suppose if you are homeless then it doesn't matter that you travelled from your home country to be homeless in another one but I am not convinced this is what the programme was originally designed for is it ?
How dare those people come here to escape persecution!
"The Big Issue, whose vendors are classed as self-employed, offers an opportunity for A2 migrants to work in the UK. By 2011, around half of Big Issue sellers in the north of England were of Romani origin, many of whom having migrated from Romania and Bulgaria." This is from a newspaper article headlined "Efforts to integrate Roma people are under threat from cuts".
I suppose if you are homeless then it doesn't matter that you travelled from your home country to be homeless in another one but I am not convinced this is what the programme was originally designed for is it ?
I have occasionally posted on here that I am anti EU and wish the UK to leave. In summary the main reason for my antipathy is lack of democratic accountability. However a strong secondary reason is that the Single European Act renders the UK powerless to control or restrict immigration from EU countries which I think is absurd and wrong.
That said I do not blame individual immigrants at all if they visualise a better future in the UK and thus do not believe in discriminating against them as individuals. The nationality of anybody homeless in the UK is (or should be) irrelevant and the Big Issue recognises that: http://www.bigissue.org.uk/news/2014/june/24/english-speaking-classes-big-issue-vendors
The blame for a disproportionate number of homeless immigrants lies fair and square with successive governments, in particular Blair's Labour government, which cynically and deliberately encouraged immigration from both inside and outside the EU.
I buy a big issue every now and then from our local vendor. She got moody when I asked for two quid change from a fiver last time. Made out she didn't have the change. I know she has the change. She killed a golden goose that day.
Personally I don't care if they are spending it on drink or drugs. If they need money they need money. If someone has got a totally sh*t life who am I to dictate how they make themselves feel better. If I feel I can spare it I give it, if I don't I don't. If I just feel that I don't want to give anything, I don't. If I can't let go of the money and let go of the idea that i have some responsibility or right to say how the person should use it I'm better off keeping it - that's what giving is. Once it is in their hand it is their money. If they are lying and cheating then ultimately I don't lose much by giving away a few quid but I suspect they lose something. If I am a naive fool, then I am a naive fool who has a home to live in, food in the cupboard, and not imminently in danger of being raped, beaten up or robbed, so I can't be THAT naive.
On the spare any chance line. The day after we played Bristol Rovers in Bath. A down & out offered to fight me for the price of a cup of tea!
Did he think you would pay for a fight? You should have told him that you could have got a fight in Bristol any day of the week. They spend most of the time fighting each other there anyway...
Comments
No that bloke is dead now. He was on the other side of the medway
Good thread topic.
I dont give homeless people anything after a very annoying and bad experience I had a couple of years ago.
I was around liverpool street, on lunch. This bloke came up to me begging for money so he could get a bus as his daughter was in hospital and he needed to get there as soon as possible...
He seemed agrivated, desperate and appriciative of any help. I only had £5 on me. Oh dear...It was now his. I found out later I got verbally mugged...
A couple of weeks later I saw him across the road, around the same spot giving an old bloke the exact same speech...
I should have went over there and knocked his teeth out and at least told the potential vitcim about the c*nt.
I didnt... and regret it. I was just so pissed off, just kept me head down and felt like sh*t.
I hate it on tubes when apparent homeless people give speeches to carraiges... its all bulls*hit.
One thing they could do, applying for a job in public speaking, they have good public speaking skills!
I also hate the "buy my tissue" nonsense. The most common one I see, is a polish speaking bloke on the northern line ...that looks like he shops in river island...
Its not my cup of tea to get involved in that kind of stuff on a tube. I like to listen to music on my phone and like to deep think whilst feeling sorry for myself. But, although unwanted, he showed personality, tried to cheer people up and was a respectable begger, putting a shift in..
I got a sweet out of it.
In the early seventies a new charity started called St Mungo's and they had a rather dilapidated house in Battersea. Anyway I was persuaded for two years to help with their soup run. Essentially it was the whole of every Wednesday night. Mothers Pride and the like would donate battered and unsellable bread, and Heinz and the like would donate battered tins of soup.
We would basically heat up the soup in giant saucepans in the Battersea kitchens (all mixed together...woe betide if anybody was a vegetarian) and put the soup in giant flasks that could handle a ladle.
There was an old van we packed into and we would set off around midnight...I was a young person at the time.
The driver would know the places in central London where there were rough sleepers, Covent Garden (still a market in those days), Temple, Holborn, Waterloo, Embankment and all kinds of places.
We would arrive and (probably wrongly) disturb the rough sleepers and offer them soup in a polystyrene cup, and bread, sometimes we had fags to give out, and we would have a chat, occasionally we would be able to persuade somebody to return with us to Battersea to crash...especially if they seemed sick, or had sores and suchlike.
I simply went with the flow and that was my Wednesday nights for two years.
It made an impression on me, and I do think it is a case of 'there but for the grace of god'. Yes there was an alcohol/drug issue, but these people were certainly not professional beggars who returned to somewhere cosy at night after conning people. I don't doubt that chancers exist these days though.
Many were ex-servicemen who had not been able to handle life in civvy street, many had heart rending stories to tell which sent them on a spiral of decline, some actively chose the life of a 'tramp'.
Other organizations that tried to help were the Salvation Army and individual churches dotted about, there is no doubt that it was for a lot of people I met who helped, a kind of active Christianity.
I was a teenager and will not easily forget those times. So what is my attitude all these years later? I fish in my pocket to give a bit of money when I can, even knowing that the money might go on booze or suchlike, I try to work out the genuine needy from the chancers, but essentially I don't have a blanket attitude to all of them.
I also sometimes think, as a runaway child myself, that it could so easily be me. There is a genuine dilemma in this phenomena, but it will not go away. I recommend George Orwell's book 'Down and Out in Paris and London', as it shows the issue of rough sleepers has been with us probably for ever.
If he chooses to spend the money he has earned on clothes good luck to him. He's worked for it he can spend it how he likes.
As John Bird says the Big Issue is a hand up not a hand out.
http://www.bigissue.com/about-us#
I know there are piss-takers out there but many who end up on the streets are victims of circumstance and it could happen to many people on here quite easily.
In fact, there are people on here who have recently fallen on hard times and would themselves have been very close to falling through the gap, so a bit of compassion would not go astray.
I suppose if you are homeless then it doesn't matter that you travelled from your home country to be homeless in another one but I am not convinced this is what the programme was originally designed for is it ?
That said I do not blame individual immigrants at all if they visualise a better future in the UK and thus do not believe in discriminating against them as individuals. The nationality of anybody homeless in the UK is (or should be) irrelevant and the Big Issue recognises that: http://www.bigissue.org.uk/news/2014/june/24/english-speaking-classes-big-issue-vendors
The blame for a disproportionate number of homeless immigrants lies fair and square with successive governments, in particular Blair's Labour government, which cynically and deliberately encouraged immigration from both inside and outside the EU.
http://www.migrationwatchuk.org/pressArticle/83
In answer to your question the Big Issue exists to help the homeless in the UK. Where they are from originally is irrelevant.