School Dinners, James Bond style

A school in the London Borough of Camden has announced that it will be using fingerprint technology to buy school dinners. Acland Burghley Academy inTufnell Park will be using the new bio-metric system which will record everything the pupil orders and their account can be seen by the school staff and the pupil’s parents.

Personally I feel this is the“Big Brother” syndrome at its worst. It is brainwashing young people to learn to accept that it is normal to have everything you do to be recorded, scrutinised and studied by the authorities and the establishment. I can imagine it being a bit of fun to an eleven/twelve/thirteen year old to walk up and press a finger or palm to a screen and order your lunch from a screen selection especially if it shows a view of the fingerprint.

What I find alarming is the that The Information Commissioner’s Office, an august body supposedly there to enforce an individual’s information rights, has come out in favour of this by stating “ the use of the system in schools taught pupils that giving personal information to those in authority was perfectly mundane and routine”.

“perfectly mundane and routine”?

I find it anything but“perfectly mundane and routine” as an adult to have my fingerprints taken never mind as a teenager. Can you imagine the scene as an officer of the establishment such as a policeman or an official of the council or government walks up and says to that pupil five or ten years later and says; “It is alright you had this at school for your dinners I have to take your ‘prints. You know it is harmless, you know it makes sense.”

Are the Irish politicians aware we are now in the 21st Century?

I ask this regarding the case of Pauline Conboy a 46 year old woman with Down’s syndrome who had her passport confiscated.  Her crime was to attempt to fly to Florida to visit her brother and family to see if she would like to live there.    

Pauline lived with her Mother until her Mother’s death last year. Pauline needs some support to live but is mostly independent. It was planned that if Pauline liked it she could live with her brother and his family in Florida.

Here comes the crux of the matter: for some reason the Irish passport office took Pauline’s passport off her denying her the right as human being to travel to meet her brother and family in the U.S.A. The reason for this to quote:  “The Irish Passport Office took my passport and my rights away just over a year ago because they claim they got a "report" but it's a secret report and they won't show it to anyone - I'm not kidding!”

Pauline’s plight has been ignored by the passport office officials and the Passport Office Director responsible for the passport office. The Director had the arrogance, or was it he felt embarrassed and shameful about the situation, to leave his office early on a Friday afternoon when he knew that Pauline and her sister in law were packing their bags and trying to contact him to leave on a plane to Florida.  No doubt he had to go to his weekend retreat and prepare for his evening dinner party.

The Irish passport office will not budge and appears to be hiding behind smoke screens and feeble excuses by stating that a disabled person needs to have a “legal guardian”. The Irish Passports Act 2008 allows people with disabilities to "duly authorise" anyone to fill out and sign an application form so there is no need in law to have a “legal guardian”.

Pauline Conboy says: “So it is not Irish law that is wrong, it is the Passport Office Director and the Minister for Foreign Affairs who don't seem to understand that I am entitled to the same rights as everyone else, so please don't let them get away with this discrimination and injustice.

I ask this question: Are the people involved in the decision to confiscate Pauline’s passport to embarrassed to admit to their mistake and stubbornly standing by the decision to save criticism and face?    

Is it not a fact that the Irish Government has allowed Pedophile Priests to leave the country without any questions, harassment or charges to travel to the other countries with their passports intact. 

From Pauline’s site:

Please call or email the Irish Passport Office at +353 1 671 1633, Email: Joseph.Nugent@dfa.ie, and ask them to give Pauline Conboy her passport PC8471397 back right away. It is so hard on me and my family to be kept apart like this for no reason.  We have done nothing wrong to deserve this.  I just want to spend time with my family who love me, just like I did in the past before my passport was taken away. It's not fair that I am now being stopped from leaving the country for no reason.  Thank you for helping me because by helping me you are also helping other people with disabilities as well as helping preserve everyone's rights.

Pauline Conboy says: “So it is not Irish law that is wrong, it is the Passport Office Director and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, who don't seem to understand that I am entitled to the same rights as everyone else, so please don't let them get away with this discrimination and injustice.”
The Minister for Foreign affairs is Eamon Gilmore T.D. who can be contacted at:
Office of the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade,
Iveagh House,
80 St. Stephen’s Green,
Dublin 2.
Believe it or not he has a degree in Psychology from the University of Galway.

McTaggart

Happy New Year? It was until the Tory-led coalition once again began its attack on the poorly paid

It was until the Tory-led coalition once again began its attack on the poorly paid.

In fact the attack on the low wage earner and the people on benefits began just after Christmas with the right wing Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne demanding that the National State Welfare budget be cut by £10 billion. Where did that figure come from? Was it just plucked out of the air as a good “sound bite” figure to ensure the headlines would follow in the Daily Express and the Daily Mail?

I have not seen any figures to justify this claim that it is £10 billion that needs to be cut from the Welfare budget. It appears to tally with the Tory led coalition aim to cut the loan deficit.

I am also astonished, as far as I have seen/heard at the way the media such as the BBC television and radio channels, Channel 4 or the ITV news have never crossed examined the Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne on how he came to this conclusion.  Just a thought, I find it a wee bit strange that you never see George Osborne give interviews. Is that due to his past performances in live interviews and gaffe blown comments?

On Tuesday 8^th January 2013 the House of Commons voted to restrict any rise of benefits of working age to 1% over the next 3 years. This included Working Tax Credits, a payment by the taxpayer to boost the pay of low-paid workers rather than have the worker being paid a living wage by the large companies who make billion of pounds profit to pay their shareholders a large dividend at the tax payer’s expense.

When I say shareholders I am not talking about the person in the street who may have a few shares in a company but the very large global companies listed on the London, New York and the Tokyo stock exchange which make billions of pounds/dollars profit every year.

--McTaggart

Council Tax Benefit Changes 2013

How many people know about the change in the way Council Tax Benefit is going to be paid from April 2013?

From April 2013 Council Tax Benefit (CTB) will be re-named Council Tax Support, (CTS), and payments will become the responsibility of the local authority. The Council Tax budget will also be cut by 10 to 15% and will be paid from a “pot” system rather than a CTS budget fund. This means that the local authority will have to take into account every person who is eligible for a CTS payment and decide how much a person may receive in benefit.

Excluded from this are people of pension age and over.

For example a local council which has a CTS budget of say £10 million has to first pay the people of pension age and over, which may come to £2 million leaving only £8 million left for everyone else applying for CTS.  

The main bulk of people that are going to be affected by this change are those of a working age i.e. those below the pension age. If you fall into the working age bracket the amount of help you receive under the CTS scheme may be less than you currently receive on the current Council Tax Benefit scheme. 

The new system may mean that people who currently receive a full CTB payment will have their payment reduced and possibly have to pay 10 – 20% of their Council Tax.

This will inevitably lead to pushing people further into poverty and debt. (There is currently about 1 in 4 adults living below the poverty line, 13 million approx., and 1 in 3 children about 4 million). 

I feel this will lead to higher crime, a possible increase in the sex trade and a greater use of illegal drugs.  One benefactor may be the “One Stop” or “Pay Day” loan shops that are currently increasing in number in the local High street. These loan “sharks” charge very high interest rates, it is reported as much as 800% Annual Percentage Rate (A.P.R.).

McTaggart   

TUC Anti- Austerity March Saturday 20th October 2012 London

Are you going to be at the Anti-Austerity march leaving from the Embankment, London at 12.00 p.m.to Hyde Park?

If not, why not?

There will thousands of people from all over U.K. arriving by coach, train and motor car to demonstrate against the Tory led Coalition government austerity cuts and the Tory dogma that it is the poorest who have to suffer for their austerity programme to work.

There is definitely a hollow ring to the Prime Minister David Cameron’s slogan “that we are all in it together”. Little or no pay rises cuts to social welfare funding and changes to how benefits such as Housing Benefit will be paid whilst cutting the tax threshold that the highest earners in the country have to pay.

The disabled, sick and the terminally ill being passed as fit for work by a biased and disgraceful medical assessment procedure.

Cuts to the N.H.S. budget meaning less staff, ward closures and worst of all hospital closures.  This week it was announced in several counties in England that ambulance stations will be closed in local areas and main “hubs” will replace them. This will mean an ambulance travelling many miles further to an emergency taking a longer tome which is often crucial in saving a person’s life.

Let us make it clear to the Government that we, the people are very unhappy with this Government’s policy on the economy and their programme for austerity cuts.

Join the march on Saturday 20th October at 12.00 p.m. at the Embankment London.

Remember, “We are many but they are few”.

Getting online this autumn...

The 'Autumn Online' workshops ran across five SHP services and hostels during September and October. These drop-in workshops, run by On Road, helped residents get online, access public services websites, set up e-mail addresses and blog.

Here's a glimpse at what we got up to during the workshops:

Autumn Online comes to a close!

It's been a very busy couple of months running 'Autumn Online' which aimed to build the confidence of 30-50 people, who have experienced homelessness and/or addiction, with using the web.

Watching each other’s first video blogs at Bondway Service

Watching each other’s first video blogs at Bondway Service

Equipped with laptops and cameras, the On Road team spent two days in each service helping residents with basic online skills, blog writing and video blogging. 

The hope was that participants would enjoy the experience of creating online content and feel more confidence to use the web as a result, whether by keeping in touch with people by email or by accessing information that can help them, like news and support websites and public services online.

On Road  held drop-in workshops in 5 different Single Homeless Project services across London; Arlington Road hostel, 165 Project in King's Cross, the Dennis Handfield House, Highbury New Park hostel and Bondway advice and support service.

Participants learned how to set up email addresses and access public service websites like the Post Office, NHS and Direct.gov. They gained confidence in typing, using the mouse, searching for information and getting online. Working in small teams, they were shown how to use simple flip cameras, interview each other and edit short videos which were then uploaded onto Youtube. You can watch some here.

Many people were interested in writing for Unheard Holler (the blog On Road helped clients to set up back in September 2011) and there has certainly been some rich content up there! People have shared their personal experiences and journeys, contributed poetry, drawings, music and videos. There has been a lot of thought and time put into posts about raves and republicanism, medication and movie reviews, detoxing and democracy, careers and creativity - not to mention gardening! And there's more to come…

Check out the photos from all the workshops on Facebook.  If you're a client and want to get involved with the blog speak to your SHP service manager. If you want to learn more about the project contact Alana (alana@onroadmedia.org.uk).