Church and State blog: Newham Council's befriending blockade: Declan brings a formal Stage 1 complaint against the Equality Advisory Support Service (with updates on non-access to our Church and State website)

Monday, September 19, 2016

Newham Council's befriending blockade: Declan brings a formal Stage 1 complaint against the Equality Advisory Support Service (with updates on non-access to our Church and State website)

Befriending blockade

Excerpt from Declan's formal complaint of discrimination against Newham Council

On 2 September 2016, in reply to my appeal request, Newham Council's Pauline Jones, Interim Head of Complaints and Member Enquiries, was satisfied that my stage one complaint was "assessed correctly" by Bernie Lynch, Complaints and Member Enquiries Manager, who determined that I may not be informed of Active Newham's next befriending training session, or asked for personal information to facilitate a befriending match up, because the session will be "bespoke to the person who needs befriending".

This irrational and illogical determination from senior management in Newham Council not only denies me the opportunity to befriend an older or isolated resident in my community, but seriously affects my educational and vocational prospects. It is at variance with the rational information provided in an Active Newham newsletter: "After attending the Newham’s Volunteers befriending Induction and training, Sajid was introduced to an older person - Mr Porter, based on the information he provided at the session." And it is discriminatory in its application and impact.

Declan cannot even befriend an older or isolated resident in the London Borough of Newham! This "befriending blockade" is being maintained by senior management in Newham Council right under the nose of Kim Bromley-Derry, the Council's CEO. Declan is trying to get his complaint of discrimination against the Council to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, but not even the Government's Equality Advisory Support Service (EASS) will confirm whether or not our local Labour MP, Lyn Brown, can refer a complaint of discrimination to the Commission. This is his formal Stage 1 complaint to the EASS for this crucial information if we are to keep going in our attempt to break this blockade:

19 September 2016

Dear Team Manager,

Please accept this email as a formal Stage 1 complaint.

I have twice telephoned your service to enquire if a Member of Parliament (MP) can refer a complaint of discrimination to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC). I have been twice informed that your service does not know the answer to the question.

On 8 September 2016 I contacted my local Labour MP's office in Newham - Lyn Brown MP - regarding the referral of my complaint of discrimination against Newham Council to the EHRC. I was told that they do not know the answer to the question either.

On 14 September 2016 I wrote to the Director of the Government Equalities Office, Hilary Spencer, but I have not received a reply to date.

I would like you to investigate my complaint with a view to confirming whether or not an MP can refer a complaint of discrimination to the EHRC.

Yours faithfully,

Declan Heavey

Meanwhile, the unprecedented double-barrelled attack on our Church and State website continues unabated (SiteGround is paid $1,000 per year to host our site and manage the server):

1. Our Facebook likes/shares plugin has been showing zeros to varying degrees on category pages throughout the site since 19 August.

2. I've been blogging data relating to non-access to the site since 26 July.

1st 26 July 2016, 9.34pm
2nd 27 July 2016, 12.10pm
3rd 27 July 2016, 5.55pm
4th 28 July 2016, 11.44pm
5th 29 July 2016, 12.29pm
6th 30 July 2016, 3.58pm
7th 31 July 2016, 7.03pm
8th 2 August 2016, 10.23pm
9th 3 August 2016, 1.05pm
10th 7 August 2016, 10.49am
11th 8 August 2016, 11.38am
12th 14 August 2016, 2.02pm
13th 16 August 2016, 8.56pm
14th 18 August 2016, 10.48pm
15th 18 August 2016, 11.14pm
16th 20 August 2016, 6.04pm
17th 21 August 2016, 2.35pm
18th 25 August 2016, 3.07pm
19th 30 August 2016, 8.10pm
20th 31 August 2016, 1.10am
21st 2 September 2016, 8.44pm
22nd 10 September 2016, 11.51pm
23rd 11 September 2016, 3.46am
24th 15 September 2016, 3.47pm
25th 16 September 2016, 3.45pm
26th 19 September 2016, 4.50am
27th 19 September 2016, 12.15pm

UPDATES

28th 20 September 2016, 4.39pm
29th 22 September 2016, 10.43pm
30th 23 September 2016, 10.32am
31st 23 September 2016, 8.53pm
32nd 25 September 2016, 5.54pm

Paragraph 12 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations re the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)

12. It is important to underscore that the discriminatory surveillance suffered by the Applicant and his wife is not an isolated event. Rather, it is emblematic of a larger pattern of surveillance by law enforcement officials in the UK that has been well-documented by international and domestic human rights bodies. For example, GCHQ's Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) specialises in the "4 D's": deny, disrupt, degrade, deceive. It has been branded by the press as the spy agency's "deception unit". Though its existence was secret until 2014, JTRIG has developed a distinctive profile in the public understanding, after documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the unit had engaged in "dirty tricks" like deploying sexual "honey traps" designed to discredit targets, launching denial-of-service attacks to shut down Internet chat rooms, pushing veiled propaganda onto social networks and generally warping discourse online. Previous reporting on GCHQ established its focus on what it regards as political radicalism. Beyond JTRIG's targeting of Anonymous, other parts of GCHQ targeted political activists and groups deemed to be "radical", even monitoring human rights NGOs. Simon Davies, president of the London-based Privacy International, asks: "If spying on human rights NGOs isn't off limits for GCHQ, then what is?"

'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' - Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

Church and State

MAYOR OF LONDON RSI PROPERTY
DAY 406 IN A WEEKLY PERIODIC TENANCY
SUBJECT TO A SECTION 21 NOTICE

(SEE PARA. 3 BELOW)

1. Our 308 Honorary Associates include 20 Nobel Prize laureates. Declan and I are engaged in a project that deals with the publication of issues significant to social policy in a number of key areas, e.g., climate change, population, futurism, atheism, and free speech. Established as Network for Church Monitoring, a non-profit company limited by guarantee, our main publication, found at the website, Church and State, calls attention to subjects, not the least which have been critical of the interaction between religious and secular institutions. We have been the target of numerous threats and actions, e.g., the former resulting in threats to Declan's life, and the latter, which have led to vandalism. The various incidents are on record with the police and other official agencies.

2. There are no less than 63 Nobel Prize laureates on the Church and State website from 20 Honorary Associates, eight articles, nine book excerpts and 33 petition signatories. (For example, one Nobel laureate signed our Nobel petition in support of human embryonic stem cell research and gave us permission to excerpt from one of his books.) Our list of associates also includes 18 US National Medal laureates, and six Turing Award laureates (the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science). We have published one article and excerpted from the books of seven members of the British House of Lords. And there are 31 knighted professors on the site from 13 Honorary Associates, one book excerpt and 21 petition signatories. These figures are despite the never-ending assault on our email (this link reveals the targeting of our emails to, among others, a close colleague in Washington, DC as well as space advocates and Nobel laureates).

3. This is Day 406 for us living under the threat to life of a 'no fault' eviction by Peabody Trust.[1] We live in a Mayor of London's Rough Sleepers Initiative (RSI) property. Peabody's appalling new terms of tenancy have forced us into an unstable weekly periodic tenancy that poses a threat to Declan's life and inhibits our ability to exercise our rights. Declan accumulated quite a history with the Housing Ombudsman Service before he received the Ombudsman's decision not to investigate a referral from Lyn Brown MP on jurisdictional grounds. The Ombudsman was asked to consider whether or not our tenancy has been renewed like for like; and whether, if not, it should be in light of the landlord having accused us of not signing a like-for-like agreement. The Equality and Human Rights Commission will not accept a referral of discrimination from Ms Brown, the Commission's helpline (EASS) having grossly distorted the complaint against Peabody. We no longer have pro se access to the courts (see next paragraph).

4. This eviction matter came before District Judge Ruth Fine at the Central London County Court on 30 June 2020, when both counsel for St Mungo's (the charity in effective control of our tenancy) and Declan presented their positions. Declan lost the case and was ordered to pay £1,850 in costs. A publishing colleague in America cleared these costs within 24 hours of my blog post about this hearing for strike out on a related issue that was the essence of the claim, i.e., that St Mungo's would take a phone call to confirm that we are clients of the Mayor of London's RSI programme. Within a week of the hearing, St Mungo's had agreed to take this phone call for us both, the Court having ruled that they were not obliged to do so despite our circumstances. This time we escaped bankruptcy (counsel for St Mungo's asked for £3,407.50 in costs), but consider that to seek pro se access to justice in the courts has become far too dangerous for us. Declan currently has before the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman the decision of the Information Commissioner that allows St Mungo's to continue processing coercive support plans without our knowledge or consent and that also poses a threat to his life.

5. When it comes to traffic, we have had 10.7 million hits in the past three years on Facebook; however, I left the platform on 13 March 2021 for one year rather than risk being banned for life. It is indisputable that with any sort of level playing field Church and State would have far exceeded 2.5 million hits last year. In addition to a large variety of blocks without explanation, Facebook had so severely restricted our Page's distribution by October 2020 that it was almost as good as an unpublished page.[2] Currently, we are up to their 85th block since 1 December 2015, and as usual without an explanation. This block records as one half of their 3rd double block in the first five weeks of this year that lasted 60 days. Our traffic has also been curtailed by over 2.5K blocks on access to Church and State since 26 July 2016, including 29 full distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks since 17 May 2019 that have lasted for as long as 54 hours at a time.[3] About 70% of our hits are from Americans.

"This is precisely the hard hitting kind of response needed to clarify the unfair way Facebook is treating your highly reputable site." Don Collins, Founder, International Services Assistance Fund, Washington DC

Last updated: 26/06/21

_________________________

[1] Once a fixed term has elapsed, the landlord has the option to seek eviction even if the tenant has upheld their obligations in full (though of course the landlord must still apply for and obtain a county court order).

[2] 17/10/20: We have permission to publish this ISAF letter of 30 September to Facebook COO Sheryl Samberg. Facebook has so severely restricted our Page's distribution since 4 September that it's almost as good as an unpublished page

[3] Since October 2019, we have been defining a full DDoS attack as having such a high volume of up to 4-minute blocks on access to Church and State that we don't bother recording them all.

Church and State blog

Monday, September 19, 2016

Newham Council's befriending blockade: Declan brings a formal Stage 1 complaint against the Equality Advisory Support Service (with updates on non-access to our Church and State website)

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