Did the Tory war on the poor weed out magistrates opposed to 'push button' mass-destruction in the name of 'debt recovery'

Reflecting on the two most recent Kwug Blog posts,

1. Unjustly treated Revd Paul Nicolson points to the mass-destruction perils of 'push button justice' over civil debt (1) and
2. Alleged 'left wing bias' in schools and social work education

it strikes me that those two blog posts link in with previous Kwug Blog posts about magistrates. (3)

Magistrates are sworn to 'uphold the law' — whatever that law might be — and when Michael Gove was Justice Secretary [sic] he brought in legal charges that so disgusted some magistrates that they felt obliged to resign in protest to changes he sought to bring in regarding criminal courts charges. (4)

In my experience, when truly socially engaged professionals such as good Disability Employment Advisers have been faced with 'service constraints' that are against the interests of the people before them, they have sought employment elsewhere; what that leaves amounts to postholders that are purely 'functionaries' or mercenaries, serving really only as 'window dressing'.

Revd Paul Nicolson's court summons yesterday was in response to a civil debt rather than a criminal case, but I believe it does tie in with my point about 'service delivery'. Barrister Alan Murdie has written two Big Issue articles regarding the kind of justice meted out to Council Tax debtors:

• The great British council tax scandal – a Big Issue investigation (5) and
• Council Tax Scandal Part II: The Human Cost (6)

It was those poor people's interests Paul seeks to highlight with his campaign of Civil Disobedience.

An eye-witness of yesterday's proceedings gives this account:

The Judge didn't allow an adjournment, despite RP [Revd Paul] needing more time to understand a council document, plus hadn't had a response from independent auditor. Judge stated his "hands are tied" and has "no discretion"...how can one 'judge' with such constraints? Council got eventually what they wanted, but look crumby!

Yesterday I wrote Paul that I regard him as a modern day Conscientious Objector. This was after I had blogged about the parallels between

1. Paul's Guardian letter pointing out that people whose mental health had been severely harmed by benefit sanctions and the like being prescribed tranquilisers rather than a resolution of their sanctions by the Department for Work & Pensions, and
2. World War 1 bullying of people into becoming 'combatants'.

Today, a statement by the late Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo reminds me of a world without people of courage such as Paul Nicolson:

'If you want to enter hell, don't complain of the dark....' (7)

Perhaps magistrates such as the one presiding over Paul's case are gatekeepers for such a hell, telling them that the harm done to society by Civil Disobedience must be punished while the hell that they are allowing to creep in is inevitable because magistrates are sworn to uphold the law?

It also strikes me that were someone to write someone else, "What words would you like to be your epitaph?" that query would be generally regarded as a death threat. Yet such a query can be an invitation to examine one's life and seek to live a better one.

Dude Swheatie of Kwug

PS: Meanwhile those who attack defenders of public spending and investment in society as 'politically motivated' while being keen to stand as Tory candidates in council elections (8) — especially when the defenders of public spending and investment invest their own lives in public service delivery — remind me of a Flanders & Swann comment in the 1960's that 'strictly non-political' translated in reality as 'very right wing'.

Notes

1. http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/unjustly-treated-revd-paul-nicolson-points-to-mass-destruction-perils-of-push-button-justice-over-civil-debt.html
2. http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2017/07/alleged-left-wing-bias-in-schools-and-social-work-education.html
3. http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=magistrates+gove
4. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/criminal-courts-charge-mass-resignations-amid-judicial-revolt-against-extremely-unfair-fees-10492130.html
5. https://bigissue.com/news/great-british-council-tax-scandal-big-issue-investigation/
6. https://bigissue.com/news/council-tax-scandal-part-ii-human-cost/
7. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-40585327
8. http://camdennewjournal.com/article/face-of-governments-teacher-recruitment-drive-rails-against-lefty-bias-in-schools

1. 
   

Unjustly treated Revd Paul Nicolson points to the mass-destruction perils of 'push button justice' over civil debt

Guest blog post from Revd Paul Nicolson

IT IS HIGH TIME THIS INHUMAN COMPUTERISED INJUSTICE IS STOPPED. 

Today Highbury Corner Magistrates court, as expected, issued a liability order against me to Haringey Council adding £115 costs. 

But far more seriously the magistrate issued liability orders plus costs against 510 Haringey residents by signing a computer printout. That was a small number: sometimes it has been over 2000 at one time by signing a print out. The total number of summons issued by Haringey last year was over 27.000. Nationally there are 3.5 million a year. 

The vast majority are issued by computer against local people who can never afford to pay the tax because their benefit incomes have been shredded by central government. 

Haringey Councillors ought to be ashamed of themselves for letting such an oppressive law loose on the large number of vulnerable and impoverished residents in the borough. It creates serious hardship.  

Great efforts by council staff goes in to collecting the tax from people who cannot pay. No surprise that over £2million is left unpaid every year. 

A computer will now send the following threats to residents of the borough vulnerable or not. It is an inhuman process. 

​​

Failure to contact 

​the council on receiving a liability order 

will result in the council taking one of the following methods of recovery to collect the outstanding Council Tax

​. 

• Enforcement Agents (
  ​commonly known ​
  as bailiffs)
  ​​
   
  ​ They add £75 as soon as Haringey give them the case​ (over 11,000 times last year). They then add £235 if they have to make a visit and another £110 if they call to collect the furniture. Council tax is a civil debt so they are not allowed to break in to people's homes. Keep to door shut is the advice. 
• Attachment of Earnings
• Attachment of Benefit
• Bankruptcy / Liquidation
• Charging Orders
• Committal to Prison 

DWP making poor people mentally ill at great cost to the NHS as we approach centenary of a WW1 blood bath

Yesterday I read Paul Nicolson's letter published in The Guardian about the Department for Work & Pensions making poor people mentally ill at great cost to the NHS in treating the symptoms resulting from the DWP's inhumanity.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/11/stop-making-poor-people-mentally-ill

This morning I heard on the news that the cenenary of the World War I blood bath known as Passchendaele takes place at the end of this month.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-birmingham-40586129/poppy-pins-made-from-battlefield-shells-and-mud

A film Passchendaele was based on the life of a previously medically exempted combatant highlights the bullying for the sake of 'nation' and 'empire', alongside whipping up of hatred toward the 'foreign enemy' that was used to marshal people into the military at that time.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1092082/

Having seen that film on more than one occasion, it struck me that

1. the DWP's making poor people mentally ill at great cost to the nation as well as the individuals concerned and
2. the WW1 recruitment methods of the British Empire

are linked by the assumptions of 'authority' that go to create an unhealthy society.

By Dude Swheatie of Kwug

Reminder: Support nonviolent revolutionary Revd Paul Nicolson on trial for Civil Disobedience against unjust laws that exacerbate poverty and mental health problems

The place: Highbury Corner Magistrates Court, 51 Holloway Road, London N7 8JA location map (1)
Date: Thursday, 13 July 2017

Demonstration of support for Paul

Outside the court, 12 Noon till 1:30pm

The Court Hearing

From 1:30pm

Further details

http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/news/civil-disobedience-media-release-rev-paul-nicolson-summoned-to-court-for-no

See also
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/11/stop-making-poor-people-mentally-ill
regarding the bigger picture of the threats DWP benefit claimants have imposed on them even without their being imposed upon by Council Tax demands by LB Haringey, etc.

Paul argues that cessation of such State brutality would relieve the NHS budget of unnecessary strain. Public spending cuts, anyone?

Notes

http://streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?x=531464&y=184830&z=0&sv=N7+8JA&st=2&pc=N7+8JA&mapp=map.srf&searchp=ids.srf

High Noon at Highbury Magistrates Court on Thursday 13 July 2017! Show solidarity for civil disobedience vs fiscal policies bad for health

Guest blog post by Revd Paul Nicolson, founder of Taxpayers Against Poverty, writing in a personal capacity

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE in solidarity with everyone in UK suffering mental or physical ill-health due to inadequate incomes and debt 

I have been summoned to appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court, 51 Holloway Road, London N7 8JA at 13.30 on Thursday 13th July.  There will be a demonstration outside the courts from 12-1.30. 

I am refusing to pay my council tax, as an act of civil disobedience, in solidarity with everyone in the UK suffering mental or physical ill-health due to grossly inadequate incomes and debt in work, self employment, unemployment  or zero hours contracts; particularly those who have been forced by national and local government to go to a food bank. 

​TWO UNPRECEDENTED RISES IN DEATH RATES.  

How many more infant deaths, how much more diminished life expectancy, do there have to be before UK national and local governments accept the overwhelming and undeniable evidence that low incomes impact on mental and physical health? Some 52,400 more deaths were reported by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to have occurred in the year to June 2015 as compared to the same period a year before,

​

Nine blogs on health equality 

Dr Angela Donkin Institute of Health Equity, Profs Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson Equality Trust, Maddy Power University of York, Carl Walker University of Brighton 

​​I will be asking the Highbury Corner Magistrates when and how they checked the costs of £115 they award this year against, mostly impoverished, council tax defaulters, 27,270 times in 2016/17.  ​

The bailiffs were dispatched by Haringey council to the doorsteps of Haringey residents 11,492 times in 2016/17​

There is a comprehensive description of how  £73.10 single adult unemployment benefit has been reducing in value since 1979 on the TAP website.  Its increases were frozen in 201I. It cannot afford 20% of the council tax, let alone court costs and bailiffs fees, introduced in 2013.  It also has to pay rent dues to the bedroom tax and the benefit cap.. 

OBJECTION TO HARINGEY'S COUNCIL'S  ACCOUNTS

I have raised an objection to Haringey Council's 2016/17 Accounts asking the auditors BDO, LLP 55 Baker Street, London W1U 7EU to audit the council tax costs awarded to Haringey Council by the Magistrates. 

​I have told the auditors that there is a profound public interest in the council and the magistrates ceasing to impose mental and physical ill health on the poorest ​Haringey ​tenants by enforcing an unpayable tax against grossly inadequate incomes adding court costs and bailiffs fees​, and failing to collect over £2million every year.  

Camden and Westminster Councils have already exempted benefit claimants from the tax. 

​Haringey's auditors BDO LLP  are authorised and regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales 

I have reminded the auditors that ​BDO LLP is authorised and regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales ("ICAEW") under registration number C001055835. .May I remind you of the ICEAW code of ethics. "ICAEW members are expected to demonstrate the highest standards of professional conduct and to take into consideration the public interest. Ethical behaviour plays a vital role in ensuring public trust in financial reporting and business practices and upholding the reputation of the accountancy profession".

HARINGEY COUNCIL TAXES BENEFIT INCOMES OF ITS 
POOREST RESIDENTS OF UK'S MOST DEPRIVED WARDS WITH 
LOW LIFE EXPECTANCY AND HIGH RISK OF LOW BIRTH-WEIGHT.

Ten blogs on affordable housing by 

Stephen Hill MRICS Churchill Fellow, Prof Danny Dorling University of Oxford, Fred Harrison Land Research Trust, Alison Gelder Housing Justice. 

Nine blogs on health equality 

Dr Angela Donkin Institute of Health Equity, Profs Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson Equality Trust, Maddy Power University of York, Carl Walker University of Brighton

The real-terms economics of DWP helplines

Kwug Blog editor — citing the reader's letter published this week in Camden New Journal(1) and which formed the basis of subsequent Kwug Blog post (2): It has struck me over the past few days on reading e-mail from a friend who is going through Universal Credit registration, that perhaps "Telephone calls [to the Universal Credit helpline] can cost up to 55p a minute from pay-as-you-go mobile phones, which are commonly used by people with lower incomes," is less illuminating than saying that the call charge is £33 per hour.

Rev Paul Nicolson of Taxpayers Against Poverty(3): Dear Alan - I wrote a similar letter to Guardian Society in 2003.. It was published with the following cartoon. -  good wishes - Paul

Guardian Society cartoon, 2 July 2003, of JSA call centre recorded message stating, "All our operators are busy just now .... Why don't you just go out and buy another top-up card?"

Kwug Blog editor notes: In the recent Camden New Journal news story about a report by Camden Council regarding the damage done by Universal Credit processing delays and the extortionate call charges of the Universal Credit 'helpline', it was pointed out that the Council report had cited waits of "up to six weeks" for claims to be processed.(3) KUWG members realised that that seemed a far-too-conservative estimate, and waits of "up to six weeks" are nothing new.

I commented in response by e-mail that perhaps the gross under-estimation of the wait for claims to be processed and the assumption that waits of up to six weeks and resultant resorting to extortionate DWP helplines is something very new indicates how cushioned the report's authors are? A Camden Council source said that that was a peculiar reaction from me, as I should have been grateful for the report's existence rather than begrudging of the under-stating of the waiting period.

What do you think, dear Kwug Blog reader?

Notes:

1. http://camdennewjournal.com/article/benefit-related-suicides-will-be-highlighted-on-april-3
2. http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/is-dwps-under-resourcing-of-universal-credit-helpline-a-means-of-torturing-poor-people.html 
3.  http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/
4. http://camdennewjournal.com/article/universal-credit-claimants-stealing-food-to-eat-due-to-benefit-delays

Revd Paul Nicolson proclaimed the housing crisis, London Live reported it

"No room at the inn" is a very topical theme for this time of year. 'Public houses' at the heart of communities have been sold to property developers while those who cannot afford to live in supposedly 'affordable homes' are evicted and left on the streets rather than council waiting lists.

And Revd Paul Nicolson of Taxpayers Against Poverty (TAP), alongside Haringey Unite Community colleagues, proclaimed 'The Twelve Shames of Parliament' yesterday as 'key decision-makers' responsible prepared to spend a festive season with family.(1)

For more details, go to the TAP blog post Sound the alarm bell for the housing crisis,(2) and the London Live photo story Ringing the alarm bell for the housing crisis.(3)

(London Live is part of the broadcasting and news corporation that owns: the i newspaper that has developed out of The Independent:(4) London Evening Standard:(5) and London Live broadcasting channel.(6) Fortunately for us, it is not owned by Rupert Murdoch who wants full ownership of Sky Broadcasting.(7))

And Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group wish all a more enlightened festive season and New Year 2017.

Reference link Web addresses

1. http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/files/Taxpayers_Against_Poverty_3.pdf
2. http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/news/sound-the-alarm-bell-for-the-housing-crisis 
3. http://www.londonlive.co.uk/news/2016-12-20/ringing-the-alarm-bell-for-housing 
4. http://www.independent.co.uk/ 
5. http://www.standard.co.uk/ 
6. http://www.londonlive.co.uk/
7. https://speakout.38degrees.org.uk/campaigns/1705

Revd Paul Nicolson: Restoring 100 percent maximum Council Tax benefit is best

In LB Haringey, Taxpayers Against Poverty founder Revd Paul Nicolson has launched a personal campaign of civil disobedience over his Local Authority's insistence on levying Council Tax on those "too poor to be taxed.
"http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/news/it-is-beyond-the-comprehension-of-national-and-local-law-makers-that-73.10- 

Thus he has been dubbed 'The refusenik reverend'.
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2016/jun/08/vicar-dibley-paul-nicolson-council-tax-refusing-benefit-cuts-jail-prison

He has written me regarding Camden's current Council Tax Reduction Scheme consultation:

I suggest as many people as possible respond to the consultation to support Camden's preferred Option 2 restoring the 100% council tax benefit by clicking the following in paragraph 2 of the consultation  - "Increase the maximum Council Tax reduction to 100% - Maximum CTRS support increases to 100% with no changes to eligibility"  - ....

When Camden reports on the consultation they will report the numbers supporting each option,

All good wishes, 

Paul

Alan Wheatley

Revd Paul Nicolson appeals against Tottenham Magistrates under Equality Act 2010. Couldn't hear Haringey

Guest blog post by Revd Paul Nicolson of Taxpayers Against Poverty

Dear all, I am nothing like as deaf as national and local government to the damage done to the health of the worst off by benefit cuts, caps and council tax causing hunger and debt. All good wishes, Paul

MEDIA NOTICE

Rev Paul Nicolson

07961 177 889

020 8376 5455

TO TOTTENHAM MAGISTRATES COURTAN APPEAL UNDER THE EQUALITY ACT 2010 DUE TO THE DISABILITY OF DEAFNESS

I will be applying to the High Court for case stated under the civil procedure rules but am unable to do so without a copy of the judgment in Nicolson v Haringey on the 4th August at the Tottenham Magistrates Court, for which I applied to you on the 4th and 9th August.

In addition to the details related to the charging of corporate overheads, and other expenditure,  to council tax summons and liability order costs by Haringey Council I shall be seeking a judgment under the Equality Act 2010 on the grounds that I informed the court four times that was unable to hear Haringey's witness.

1. I asked the clerk before the case started if there was a hearing loop; she pointed at the loud speakers which, it later transpired, were not turned on. 
2. I informed the judge twice while the witness was giving evidence that I could not hear her.
3. The judge claimed in his judgment that everyone had heard the witness; I reminded him that I had told him twice while the witness was giving evidence that I could not hear her therefore was unable to cross examine her. 

There were witnesses in the public gallery who can testify to all four protests. 

HARINGEY COUNCIL TAXES BENEFIT INCOMES OF ITS POOREST RESIDENTS 

OF UK'S MOST DEPRIVED WARDS WITH 

LOW LIFE EXPECTANCY AND HIGH RISK OF LOW BIRTH-WEIGHT.

from the Reverend Paul Nicolson

Taxpayers Against Poverty

No citizen without an affordable home and an 

adequate income in work or unemployment. 

93 Campbell Road, Tottenham, London N17 0BF, 0208 3765455, 07961 177889, 

https://www.facebook.com/Taxpa yers-Against-Poverty-299911526 728884/

https://twitter.com/taxpayers_ a_p www.taxpayersagainstpovert y.org.uk, 

www.z2k.org, www.prohousingall iance.com

PLEASE HELP FUND TAP

Civil debtor Revd Paul Nicolson not backing down. Discussion with Nimco Ali and Sami Chakrabarti, Millennium Grn, Waterloo, Thurs 18 Aug, 2016, 18:00 to 18:45

Ex UK diplomat Craig Murray now blogs largely about the UK as Vauntie Cybernat, Former Ambassador, Human Rights Activist while he is based in Russia, judging by his email address craigmurray AT mail DOT ru (1) (2)

His latest blog post focuses on the disparities between how the law in the UK treats benefit claimants found guilty of fraud and how members of the Royal Family and other members of the landowning classes are treated when they engage in fraudulent activity, and is entitled The Dysfunctional United Kingdom.(3)

Murray concludes:

The political class have a deliberate will not to enforce inheritance tax on the super wealthy. They have a political will not to tackle landlordism, which as it affects both residential and commercial tenants is a fundamental malaise of the British economy. Neither problem is technically difficult. The problem is that the political class as a whole are in the pockets of the super-wealthy, promote their interests and ache to join them.

Which is why in the UK it is important that the threat to them posed by Corbyn is maintained, and why in Scotland it is essential that the SNP membership now push their own leadership into bold action on fundamental land reform and Independence. To call the current SNP approach to both issues desultory would be excessively polite.

Meanwhile, Scottish-based welfare rights activist Tony Cox was recently found guilty on trumped up charges of "'threatening behaviour' when attempting to insist on accompany a vulnerable woman to her Work Capability Assessment" and sentenced to 150 hours of unpaid work.(4) Tony's conviction can be largely attributed to the prejudices of a Sheriff — Scottish equivalent of a judge in England — against benefit claimants.

In England, Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group's friend Revd Paul Nicolson in defiance of Tottenham Magistrates Court and LB Haringey is refusing to pay the Council Tax:
I am refusing to pay the Council Tax. (It is not a crime it is a civil debt); I will be talking about undertaking that civil disobedience.(5)

He will be talking about that on Thursday 18 August at Millennium Green, Waterloo with Nimco Ali and Sami Chakrabarti at a discussion about How to Change the World.(6) The theatrical production called Rise that the 'How to Change the World' discussion precedes is sponsored by Bloomberg Philanthropies. (6) (7) (8)

Though the 'philanthropic' nature of the sourcing of the sponsorship money for Rise might be suspect, Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group has great faith in Revd Paul Nicolson and his action. Paul, like Tony Cox, has previously supported benefit claimants in their cases. Not paying Council Tax is civil disobedience and so discouraged by the establishment that Paul has been 'hauled up in front of Tottenham Magistrates Court and has yet to be sentenced. 

Yet however much jobcentre and disability assessment companies' security guards and management like to pretend that accompanying people to interviews is not legal, imagine the challenge to the dysfunctional United Kingdom if Craig Murray could apply the skills of a former diplomat in escorting vulnerable people to interviews and living in the UK to become liable for — and refuse to pay — Council Tax etc!

Link addresses

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/contact/
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2016/08/dysfunctional-united-kingdom/
https://scottishunemployedworkers.net/2016/07/21/no-justice-no-peace/
http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/news/old-vic-discussion-about-how-to-change-the-world
http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/news/old-vic-discussion-about-how-to-change-the-world
http://www.oldvictheatre.com/oldvicnewvoices/community/the-old-vic-community-company/rise-2/
http://www.bloomberg.org
Bloomberg Philanthropies founder Michael Bloomberg is the eighth riches person it the world https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bloomberg

Lack of disability access at Tottenham Magistrates Court impedes justice and inclusion

Revd Paul Nicolson's 'Media Release' expanded last night after it was quoted in a Kwug Blog posting last night.(1) (2)

The expanded content starts with the words:

​My ​colleague​  Paul Burnham was in the court with me and wrote the following comment

and focuses on 

• Corporate overheads
• Orders made in bulk without any assessment on the impact on vulnerable people
• Lack of due process in Court

The latter addresses the absence of any reasonable adjustments made for Revd Paul Nicolson's hardness of hearing. I have commented recently about councils levying taxes and fines that those councils cannot collect from the poorest people for services that people do not actually receive.(3) So it is clear that Tottenham Magistrates Court as one of the supposed services for LB Haringey residents is a contributing feature of the services that vulnerable people are being charged for but not receiving.

Green Party Work & Pensions Spokesperson Jonathan Bartley has observed that inclusion is not assimilation. (He is also a Green Party of England & Wales Leadership candidate on jobshare basis with Caroline Lucas MP.) Tottenham Magistrates Court, in failing to allow reasonable adjustments for Revd Paul Nicolson's disability in Court seems to be demonstrating an orientation toward the assimilation by conquest of disadvantaged people, rather than full inclusion.

Link addresses

1. http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/news/media-release 
2. http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/revd-paul-nicolson-says-he-will-stop-protesting-aginst-his-local-authority-when-they-stop-taxing-benefit-incomes.html
3. http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/96k-levied-in-litterering-fixed-penalty.html

Revd Paul Nicolson says he will stop protesting against his local authority when they stop taxing benefit incomes

Kwug with Revd Paul Nicolson, Haringey Unite Community, and Disabled People Against Cuts

Today at Tottenham Magistrates Court, members of Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group joined other supporters of Revd Paul Nicolson in his case against LB Haringey levying Council Tax on people on State Benefits. 

Tottenham Magistrates Court and Haringey Council put on notice about the errors of their ways

Haringey Council's 'hounding the poor' practice, as he has argued, leads to debt-induced evictions where the Council chases people too poor to pay. His supporters today included members of Haringey Unite Community Branch, Disabled People Against Cuts, Winvisible (Women with visible and invisible disabilities) and SOAP (Speak Out Against Psychiatry). There was also a reporter from London Live News on hand to interview Revd Paul.(1) [Link to today's interview currently pending]

Revd Paul with London Live interviewer

Empathising with Revd Paul's stand, Kwuggies attending our Burnout Workshop on Tuesday 2 August signed a 'thank you' card for Revd Paul for his role as a 'great teacher'. That card was hand delivered to his Tottenham home on Wednesday afternoon and greatly appreciated by the recipient while his local authority and Tottenham Magistrates did not appreciate the basic arithmetical lessons that he was trying to teach them, nor the value of life and what debt does to people in council wards marked as being 'low birth weight capitals' of not only Britain but also the Western World.

So as our friend Paul notes:(2)

Haringey taxes poorest residents of most deprived UK wards with low life expectancy & high rate of low birth-weight

HARINGEY COUNCIL TAXES

BENEFIT INCOMES OF POOREST RESIDENTS

OF UK'S MOST DEPRIVED WARDS

WITH LOW LIFE EXPECTANCY AND

HIGH RISK OF LOW BIRTH-WEIGHT.

MEDIA RELEASE
Rev Paul Nicolson
020 8376 5455
07961 177 889

I lost my council tax case against Haringey Council's court costs today and await a another summons to court at which the Tottenham Magistrates can jail me. 
I am refusing to pay £2831.42 council tax in solidarity with and because of the damage the tax is doing to the health of​  very badly off residents of Haringey some of whom have had their income stopped by a benefit sanction.
Meanwhile Haringey council continues to tax the benefit incomes of its poorest residents, adding court costs, sending in the bailiffs, ignoring mental and physical ill health, the short life span, the low birth-weight, food and fuel poverty,in some of the most deprived wards in the UK.
The Tottenham magistrates have rubber stamped over 60,000 council tax liability orders, 100s and 1000s at a time  adding court costs of £115​, against Haringey resident over the past three years on council print outs totally ignorant of their vulnerable circumstances. That adds to the mental health risks ​of ​unmanageable debt in the deprived wards on the court's doorstep ​, where average life expectancy is low and the risks of low birth-weight high. ​

I will stop protesting when Haringey stops taxing benefit incomes.

'Rubber stamping tens of thousands of Council Tax liability orders indicates that Haringey Council is not operating with due scrutiny regarding the  basic well-being of the poorest LB Haringey residents. Do they care?

Haringey Council continues to 'know the price of everything' in terms of the charges they levy against Council Tax debtors, and the 'value of nothing' in terms of human life of vulnerable people. Yet as an exemplary teacher, Revd Paul is clearly not giving up on such unwilling students as Haringey Council and Tottenham Magistrates Court. He exemplifies caring with his stance of continued defiance to injustice by the State.

Or has Conservative & Unionist Party Government so muzzled the judiciary that they dare not make any decisions that threaten the prospects of a wholesale return to debtors' prison society?

Who will report Haringey Council and Tottenham Magistrates to UN human rights investigators?

When is the next demonstration? The next lesson for those who really lack legitimate authority?

Link addresses

1. Link to today's interview currently pending http://www.londonlive.co.uk/search?keyword=paul+nicolson
2. http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/news/media-release

Revd Paul Nicolson says he will stop protesting against his local authority when they stop taxing benefit incomes

Kwug with Revd Paul Nicolson, Haringey Unite Community, and Disabled People Against Cuts

Today at Tottenham Magistrates Court, members of Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group joined other supporters of Revd Paul Nicolson in his case against LB Haringey levying Council Tax on people on State Benefits. 

Tottenham Magistrates Court and Haringey Council put on notice about the errors of their ways

Haringey Council's 'hounding the poor' practice, as he has argued, leads to debt-induced evictions where the Council chases people too poor to pay. His supporters today included members of Haringey Unite Community Branch, Disabled People Against Cuts, Winvisible (Women with visible and invisible disabilities) and SOAP (Speak Out Against Psychiatry). There was also a reporter from London Live News on hand to interview Revd Paul.(1) [Link to today's interview currently pending]

Revd Paul with London Live interviewer

Empathising with Revd Paul's stand, Kwuggies attending our Burnout Workshop on Tuesday 2 August signed a 'thank you' card for Revd Paul for his role as a 'great teacher'. That card was hand delivered to his Tottenham home on Wednesday afternoon and greatly appreciated by the recipient while his local authority and Tottenham Magistrates did not appreciate the basic arithmetical lessons that he was trying to teach them, nor the value of life and what debt does to people in council wards marked as being 'low birth weight capitals' of not only Britain but also the Western World.

So as our friend Paul notes:(2)

Haringey taxes poorest residents of most deprived UK wards with low life expectancy & high rate of low birth-weight

HARINGEY COUNCIL TAXES

BENEFIT INCOMES OF POOREST RESIDENTS

OF UK'S MOST DEPRIVED WARDS

WITH LOW LIFE EXPECTANCY AND

HIGH RISK OF LOW BIRTH-WEIGHT.

MEDIA RELEASE
Rev Paul Nicolson
020 8376 5455
07961 177 889

I will stop protesting when Haringey stops taxing benefit incomes. 

'Rubber stamping tens of thousands of Council Tax liability orders indicates that Haringey Council is not operating with due scrutiny regarding the  basic well-being of the poorest LB Haringey residents. Do they care?

Haringey Council continues to 'know the price of everything' in terms of the charges they levy against Council Tax debtors, and the 'value of nothing' in terms of human life of vulnerable people. Yet as an exemplary teacher, Revd Paul is clearly not giving up on such unwilling students as Haringey Council and Tottenham Magistrates Court. He exemplifies caring with his stance of continued defiance to injustice by the State.

Or has Conservative & Unionist Party Government so muzzled the judiciary that they dare not make any decisions that threaten the prospects of a wholesale return to debtors' prison society?

Who will report Haringey Council and Tottenham Magistrates to UN human rights investigators?

When is the next demonstration? The next lesson for those who really lack legitimate authority?

Link addresses

1. Link to today's interview currently pending http://www.londonlive.co.uk/search?keyword=paul+nicolson
2. http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/news/media-release