- Apr 5, 2014
- 26,343
- Thread starter
- #141
Add a few bells and whistles to this.I sleep in a tent a few nights a year as a lifestyle choice, it's called camping. It's fun (allegedly) all together in a field with kids playing rounders, bbq's & campfires. In the middle of Aug I went to bed wearing pj's, a hoodie, a sleeping bag with a hood & a duvet, laying on top of a air bed with pillows. I was still chilly.
'Camping' is a lifestyle choice but in a decent tent, with fresh water of some description & the knowledge that if it all starts leaking or thunderstorms etc., you can sleep in the car.
Sleeping rough in a shit '2 person' pop up tent that wouldn't be big enough for my dog to turn around in, is probably not a lifestyle choice.
Nearly 20 years ago I went to a 'Ball' at The Grand for a charity event to raise funds in the name of a young girl who had passed away. I went outside for a cigarette & ended up sitting on the floor in my ball gown chatting to a homeless guy. He didn't speak to me 1st or ask for a cigarette, I struck up the conversation because I feel more uncomfortable 'not' talking to people, I even spoke to Palace fans that night (don't start smoking kids, as you'll end up having to speak to Palace fans).
When I did eventually ask him how he had he found himself outside The Grand in January he said it was because that was where he wanted to be. He made it sound like a 'lifestyle choice' to start with. Upon further questioning he revealed that he had been in the army, suffered from ptsd & couldn't stand the thought of being 'trapped'. Suella would take that as a 'lifestyle choice', most of us would see that as a person who needs treatment for ptsd so that he can feel comfortable living in a 'home' he can call his own. My friends did eventually come to his rescue & find me. On departing he tried to give me some money to add to the charity funds & only accepted the rest of my cigarettes because I threatened to stay and chat to him for longer! He probably didn't even smoke.He didn't actually have a tent in the vicinity that I noticed but under this new 'bright' idea, it could've been taken away from him.
I'm sure there's a saying along the lines of.... people are only 3 months wages away from being homeless. For a lot of people (probably the majority) this is true. You know those 'to let' prices you see that are '£1500 per month', what they actually mean in Brighton, is that it's 'from £1500 per month'. There is now bidding going on, 6 months rent up front, guarantor, plus deposit is becoming normal. If you don't believe me go onto an estate agents website, ask to view a couple of properties, view 1, say you'll take it, then see what happens.
If I become homeless you'll know who I am as I'll pitch my expensive tent up in Stanmer Park, with my gazebo, bbq, camping gas stoves & all the little 'lifestyle choice' luxuries & I'll put a Brighton flag somewhere on my set up. Then over time & weather etc you can watch an amazing set up be reduced to a 2 man tent with my dog because that's what happens. No fixed address & you're out of the housing market, being on benefits puts you out of the housing market. Kids and parents living in bedsits but Suella is taking aim at people who are lucky to have a 2 man tent. FFS.
Where I worked in North Road once there was a chap who lived in the hostel there. He could barely muster a word. He walked with a limp and picked up cigarette butts off the floor. I once found him outside on the floor, injured. I called the ambulance. Someone came up from the hostel saying he was probably stoned. The problem being that when he picked up the butts some would contain weed.
I then learnt he was injured in a motor cycle accident many years before and suffered a brain injury.
He used to nestle in an alcove by the building and one day as we were coming out suddenly he raised his fists at one of the women. She complained loudly and was put right immediately. He wasn't going to attack her, he was scared. All these people bundling into his comfy space at the same time. The dear owner of the kebab shop on Queen's Road, who I couldn't understand how he made a penny, would give him sanctuary and ample food for next to nothing. This guy had no hope, no aspirations. He was once someone's son, but now no-ones love.
It makes me feel tearful even writing this, and all you say is correct. Braverman is heartless and ruthless, devoid of any empathy and desperate for the world of Janet and John, People's Friend and sneering alms for the poor. Like those wonderful 19th century postcards of Brighton that showed you genteel folk walking along the new roads of Kemptown, but not showing you the abject poverty just five minutes away. The poverty that facilitated their wealth.
It is also astonishing that the daughter of immigrants of Indian descent could say how much admiration she has for what Britain did for India without any balance that regrets the suffering that was caused. But this is nothing new. I have met others who have said the same. And there is a trend. They hail from the backgrounds of the small percentage who did indeed thrive under empire. Those who saw an opportunity to make their own money from it. And thus it primes her for a transference of such ideology to government here. And she is doing it well.
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