Making the news today....

[Ratman]

Our charity provides opportunities for homeless and addicted people to have a safe, clean , caring environment. I gave one of our flyers to a homeless girl the other day. It was obvious she had been homeless and sleeping rough for a long time. She declined the offer of help because she earned too much begging every day. We were holding a bucket collection right near where she was sat with all her duvets and bags by a cash point outside a Sainsbury’s. I watched a steady stream of people give her food, drinks, wads of cash etc... we were there all week and I saw a pattern emerge. Every couple of hours a guy in a hoodie with a staffy would appear and she very quickly left her spot and disappeared with this guy for half an hour or so only to return, semi-conscious and begin the process all over again. She told me that she had a daughter but she was being looked after by her mum. She was spending about £200 - £300 a day on her habit, had no veins left and was injecting into her groin where she had multiple abscesses.

On Christmas Eve her mum turned up and begged her to come home and spend Christmas with her little girl. She started yelling and screaming at her mum (it was horrible). Then the guy with the pit bull turned up again and she disappeared sharpish.

It made me ask myself some very searching questions. We even had people come to our pitch and tell us; “I hope you’re going to give some of that money you’ve collected to that girl’.

I did give her a few quid and some food and a hot drink but only so I could open up some dialogue and tell her about our charity.

She really didn’t want to know.

It’s easy to point the finger at the dealer, but that day I asked myself,

“Who were the real villains of the piece?”

The mum?

The dealer?

The authorities?

Or the people who walked home that night feeling self satisfied that they had given £10 or £20 to help a homeless girl?

 

 

 

 

 

The child is the biggest victim, the villan is the childs mother firstly with the dealer a close second. IMO

 

[Mick Dempsey]

That’s quite a tale Timon.

 

Terrible stuff smack.

 

 

[Vespasian]

39 minutes ago, TIMON said:

“Who were the real villains of the piece?”
The mum?
The dealer?
The authorities?
Or the people who walked home that night feeling self satisfied that they had given £10 or £20 to help a homeless girl?


 

Every single one of them...   and the one you failed to mention, the girl herself.

 

 

 

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

2 hours ago, TIMON said:

Our charity provides opportunities for homeless and addicted people to have a safe, clean , caring environment. I gave one of our flyers to a homeless girl the other day. It was obvious she had been homeless and sleeping rough for a long time. She declined the offer of help because she earned too much begging every day. We were holding a bucket collection right near where she was sat with all her duvets and bags by a cash point outside a Sainsbury’s. I watched a steady stream of people give her food, drinks, wads of cash etc... we were there all week and I saw a pattern emerge. Every couple of hours a guy in a hoodie with a staffy would appear and she very quickly left her spot and disappeared with this guy for half an hour or so only to return, semi-conscious and begin the process all over again.
She told me that she had a daughter but she was being looked after by her mum. She was spending about £200 - £300 a day on her habit, had no veins left and was injecting into her groin where she had multiple abscesses.
On Christmas Eve her mum turned up and begged her to come home and spend Christmas with her little girl. She started yelling and screaming at her mum (it was horrible). Then the guy with the pit bull turned up again and she disappeared sharpish.
It made me ask myself some very searching questions. We even had people come to our pitch and tell us; “I hope you’re going to give some of that money you’ve collected to that girl’.
I did give her a few quid and some food and a hot drink but only so I could open up some dialogue and tell her about our charity.
She really didn’t want to know.
It’s easy to point the finger at the dealer, but that day I asked myself,
“Who were the real villains of the piece?”
The mum?
The dealer?
The authorities?
Or the people who walked home that night feeling self satisfied that they had given £10 or £20 to help a homeless girl?


 

Moody post that Ti (and Gary’s earlier one about personal efforts to help someone)

 

Maybe the ‘answers’ don’t come from central government but from personal actions. 

[tree-fancier123]

12 hours ago, Gary Prentice said:

4 migrants? There. Was 40 alone recorded on Christmas Day.

so surely it is fair for the government to call it a crisis - its an invasion in my mind. After a few weeks of 40 a day this is another few thousand bods hoovering up our debt funded handouts

[tree-fancier123]

3 hours ago, TIMON said:

“Who were the real villains of the piece?”
The mum?
The dealer?
The authorities?
Or the people who walked home that night feeling self satisfied that they had given £10 or £20 to help a homeless girl?

the dealer with the pitbull - so he sees the state she's gotten into by consuming his merchandise and he knows it's better money and easier than manual labour.  People like him deserve to become the targets of vigilantes - he may even walk along thinking 'if I didn't sell to her, someone else would'. Dealers got rid of by mercenaries paid for by a caring billionaire would be good

 

[Stubby]

3 hours ago, TIMON said:

Our charity provides opportunities for homeless and addicted people to have a safe, clean , caring environment. I gave one of our flyers to a homeless girl the other day. It was obvious she had been homeless and sleeping rough for a long time. She declined the offer of help because she earned too much begging every day. We were holding a bucket collection right near where she was sat with all her duvets and bags by a cash point outside a Sainsbury’s. I watched a steady stream of people give her food, drinks, wads of cash etc... we were there all week and I saw a pattern emerge. Every couple of hours a guy in a hoodie with a staffy would appear and she very quickly left her spot and disappeared with this guy for half an hour or so only to return, semi-conscious and begin the process all over again.
She told me that she had a daughter but she was being looked after by her mum. She was spending about £200 - £300 a day on her habit, had no veins left and was injecting into her groin where she had multiple abscesses.
On Christmas Eve her mum turned up and begged her to come home and spend Christmas with her little girl. She started yelling and screaming at her mum (it was horrible). Then the guy with the pit bull turned up again and she disappeared sharpish.
It made me ask myself some very searching questions. We even had people come to our pitch and tell us; “I hope you’re going to give some of that money you’ve collected to that girl’.
I did give her a few quid and some food and a hot drink but only so I could open up some dialogue and tell her about our charity.
She really didn’t want to know.
It’s easy to point the finger at the dealer, but that day I asked myself,
“Who were the real villains of the piece?”
The mum?
The dealer?
The authorities?
Or the people who walked home that night feeling self satisfied that they had given £10 or £20 to help a homeless girl?


 

The villain is the smack itself . Remove it and non of it would happen .

[Gary Prentice]

35 minutes ago, tree-fancier123 said:

so surely it is fair for the government to call it a crisis - its an invasion in my mind. After a few weeks of 40 a day this is another few thousand bods hoovering up our debt funded handouts

Over the holiday period the numbers were even higher, with the people smugglers maybe thinking border protection staff levels would be lower. 

 

I think two boats actually landed in the UK yesterday morning.

 

i can't find the link, but there's an article about Javet/Javed meeting with various bodies to increase patrol boats because of the numbers involved.

[TIMON]

..... And you concluded?

It’s a heartbreaking story, and one of countless thousands.
The government have now completely cut all funding for rehabs, meaning that most are in the process of being shut down.
There aren’t any easy answers.
The girl is being prevented from becoming truly desperate by well meaning but Ill-informed people. She has no incentive to seek help (even if she can find it) because it seems too much like hard work. Rough sleeping has become the latest well paid career choice. How many of us reading this are on £300 a day?

[tree-fancier123]

1 hour ago, TIMON said:

The girl is being prevented from becoming truly desperate by well meaning but Ill-informed people

so you seem to be saying the cash on the street she gets given is all being spent on injections - the gifts from passers by are making her worse. If she had no cash she couldn't buy drugs, but could at least still go to food banks.

Top tip for new year - never ever give cash to homeless - only hot drinks and tinned food and corrugated iron and second hand sleeping bags - dont give them brand new sleeping bags or theyll sell them for cash to buy drugs. Best thing would be cart them off the street into a special facility where they perform neurosurgery to remove the part of the brain that creates pleasure from opiates