Declan narrowly escapes being assaulted

Last Tuesday Declan narrowly escaped being assaulted by a homeless in the men's washroom of the Sisters of Mercy-run Dellow Centre. Declan is at his sink when this guy begins harassing him, out of the blue, eventually making physical contact. Declan quickly dresses and from the door calls to the receptionist to bring in a male member of staff. "I want this guy to say good morning and he is ignoring me", this homeless tells the worker. And he must have interpreted the worker's response: "What are you going to do about it?", as a carte blanche to continue - when the worker is gone, Declan is a rat, a c**t, a f**ker, etc. This guy is so emboldened, Declan has to again call out to the receptionist to enquire if perhaps he needs to phone 999 and bring the police in. The prospect of sitting at a breakfast table in the canteen didn't exactly fill Declan with cheer and we left – he was pretty hungry that day.

Declan has always showered in the Dellow but since we were effectively barred from the public toilets in Liverpool Street Station on 17 March (see previous blog), he has been left with no option other than to shave and do his teeth in the centre too. Prior to Liverpool Street Station, we were washing in the Methodist Church-run Whitechapel Mission but were also barred from there on 18 June by the minister's wife due to concerns about our safety – in the Mission's 130th Anniversary Review, which is published on their website, it states: "We will not bar you or exclude you. If your behaviour is not acceptable you will be asked to leave, but will be welcome back the next day"; yet we were not re-admitted, despite Declan writing by registered post to the minister himself and to the head of the Methodist Church in the UK, Rev Graham Carter.

Declan’s encounters with the homeless didn't end in the Dellow Centre though. Yesterday evening a homeless walked along with Declan as he was making his way to meet me, shouting at him that he was "a f**king Irish c**t" and that he should go back to where he came from. This morning, while eating at the Manna Centre (whose building is provided rent-free by the Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark), a big homeless Pole booted him hard in the calf – the Manna is the same place I mentioned in the previous blog, where we went over the Easter holiday; it is a round walk of well over two hours, but Declan now goes there every weekday afternoon to get something to eat.

A place we regularly run into difficulties is the Tower Hamlets Council's Idea Store Whitechapel, where we do all our emailing. It is bad enough that on 29 January the library imposed a 3-hour limit on computer use on both our membership cards – a look at both our reservation bookings for, say, December and January would show that we frequently had one or two extra hours of computer time. (I should perhaps add that I foresaw a turn for the worse in my blog of 20 January "Begging for over a week".) Things got substantially worse at the end of last week and on Friday Declan had to again write to the Head of Tower Hamlets Council, Councillor Denise Jones (the email is presented below). Oh, and despite Declan's complaint, twice on Sunday I had to complain to a member of staff that I couldn't log in to my booked computer because my name didn't appear on the monitor.

Needless to say, the vast majority of our emails to scientists and academics continue to be flagged as spam (see blog of 14 March "SpamCop reports Declan as a spammer"). I actually feel lucky if, after emailing for over four hours a conservative number of 350 scientists and academics, two sign Declan’s petition. (I know the number of emails sent on any day because not only does Declan keep a detailed account of such things in his spreadsheet, which now contains 5,190 names and email addresses, but Google Mail keeps a record of every email sent.) On Wednesday two scientists signed the petition and it has little credibility that only two would be interested in adding their name to 509 signatories when, for example, on 7 December, a Friday, nine added their name when the petition only had 29 signatories; and on 9 December, a Sunday, eight did so.

I haven't been arrested for begging in the train station yet and we are still sleeping in the same porch: in relation to the former, the last time I was issued with a ticket, on 26 February, PC 9191 referred to me as "a piece of shit" who should be put away before his partner informed me that I would be arrested if I came back; and, in relation to the latter, on 22 February two police officers visited us at the porch to tell us that they had an order to evict us – despite that you wouldn't need to be Sherlock Holmes to figure out the porch is hardly used by anybody.

The British press erupted on Tuesday with news that a team based at Newcastle University’s Institute of Human Genetics
produced the UK’s first human-animal hybrid embryo. The team, led by Dr Lyle Armstrong (a signatory of Declan’s petition), produced the embryo by inserting human DNA from a skin cell into a hollowed-out cow egg. An electric shock then induced the hybrid embryo to grow. The embryo, 99.9% human and 0.1% other animal, grew for three days, until it had 32 cells. (Professors John Burn, head of the Institute of Human Genetics, and Tom Strachan, scientific director of the Institute, have also added their name to the petition).

The news came days after Prime Minister Gordon Brown was forced to give Labour MPs a free vote on the Government’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill (see previous blog), which has faced condemnation from Catholic bishops. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland, used his Easter homily to denounce what he called experiments of "Frankenstein proportions" and called the bill a "monstrous attack on human rights, human dignity and human life".

Interestingly, the front-page of the Jewish Chronicle on 28 March carried the headline “Rabbis back embryo bill as a life-saver” after Jewish leaders across the religious spectrum united in their support of the bill. Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain of Maidenhead Synagogue said:

The creation of human-animal hybrid embryos for medical research is not to be condemned as ‘Frankenstein science’, but welcomed as a life-saving development that uses our God-given skills in the noblest of causes. It is irresponsible to hold back the progress that could benefit so many lives. The Cardinal is accusing scientists of creating monsters, but maybe it is even more monstrous to obstruct possible cures.”

The former chair of the UK Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, Baroness Deech, also lent her full support to the bill. She described Cardinal O’Brien’s comments as “ill-informed and histrionic”, adding: “His comments are dangerous in terms of hindering future research.”

Meanwhile Tony Blair delivered his first major speech on religion at Westminster Cathedral on Thursday night, telling an audience of about 1,600 people that “we ignore the power of religion at our peril". (Blair, who has accepted a teaching post on the subject of faith and globalisation at Yale University, also set out plans for the Tony Blair Faith Foundation.) These words must surely ring true for Gordon Brown.

For the record, this is Declan’s email of 28 March to Cllr Jones, to which he has yet to receive a response:

Subject: Idea Store Whitechapel

Dear Cllr Jones

I refer further to the attached copy of my recent correspondence with Mr Ian McNicol, Head of Idea Stores, to whom you referred my original complaint of 21 January regarding Idea Store Whitechapel and the repeated loss of computer bookings and internet access on both my wife's card (card no. D000350314) and my card (card no. D000355837) since 14 November 2007.

In the continued absence of a response from Mr McNichol in respect of my original complaint to you of 21 January, I wish to confirm that from 12.30pm to 1.50pm this afternoon on computer 8 in Idea Store Whitechapel, and as reported to a member of staff, my wife had problems accessing the internet; for example, she had to wait from 12.53pm to 1.05pm for two pages to load. The member of staff informed her that no other person had reported difficulties accessing the internet.

I also reconfirm (1) my wife experienced similar difficulties yesterday from 4.20pm to 6.00pm, (2) on 11 February a member of staff had to move me from one computer to another because it was not possible for me to access the internet (no other computer user reported any such difficulty), (3) on 10 February my wife lost her booking to another customer and had to spend 10 minutes dealing with a member of staff before the computer was re-booked in her name, and (4) on 1 February I received an email from Mr Sergio Dogliani, Principal Idea Store Manager, advising that the restriction by Idea Store Whitechapel of my wife and I to a 3-hour maximum computer use per day as from 29 January was irretractable, despite that for several months previous both my wife and I had been given extra hours of computer use, subject to computer availability.

As I explained in my original complaint of 21 January, since 22 October 2007 my wife and I have been using as much of our computer time in Idea Store Whitechapel as we can to contact distinguished scientists and academics to invite them to sign my petition to the United Nations in support of work on therapeutic cloning and the use of stem cells for research and for the treatment of disease. To date, this petition has been signed by 504 scientists and academics, including 22 Nobel laureates.

Please would you acknowledge receipt.

Yours sincerely
Declan Heavey