Revd Paul Nicolson's Council Tax case against LB Haringey over their taxing of already inadequate state benefits through unfair levying of Council Tax on the poorest has been deferred until 4 August.
Three Kwuggies (Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group members) attended Tottenham Magistrates Court in support of Revd Paul Nicolson today along with a host of other supporters. Together with the 'Refusenik Reverend' we formed an unorthodox angel host.
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| 1. Kwuggies find Revd Paul Nicolson tweeting at the bus stop |
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2. Revd Paul — pausing from tweeting — joins us at Kwugging.
"He's a double sided natural," says our Kim |
Tottenham Magistrates Court, by contrast, did not prove to be such a great enough host to welcome as many as half those present to the proceedings in the Court Room, or to have a coffee vending machine working — though radiators blasted out hot air to add to global warming. Lack of refreshments though was not the reason that the case was adjourned till 4 August, but Revd Paul announced to all who had not heard today's court proceedings and to those who had, what the situation was.(1)
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3. Taxpayers Against Poverty: Benefit levels are too low
to tax |
He also produced a pack of A5 double-sided leaflets for the prelude where we assembled at a bus shelter outside on what turned out to be a fine day. We also distributed 10 KUWG leaflets in which we shared the billing with Unite Community who generously printed the leaflets for us on fine quality, pretty weather resistant paper.
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4. Revd Paul Nicolson's supporters starting to assemble for a photo call
at the bus stop |
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5. The Court officials had told us that no photographs
were to be taken on the grass in front of the Court House |
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| 6. We gradually got a little more organised in our assemblage |
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| 7: Another photographer intervenes |
Those present of Dude Swheatie's acquaintance or otherwise identifiable among the score or so supporters present included:
- Claire Glasman from WinVisible (Women with visible and invisible disabilities),(2)
- Gill Thompson whose brother David Clapson was 'sanctioned to death'(3)
- Haringey Unite Community and Haringey Green Party member Gordon Peters and friend
- a local housing justice and anti-gentrification campaigner;
- a Socialist Worker distributor; and
- Revd Paul Nicolson's son — who helped find Dude Swheatie's hat when it was mislaid
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8. Revd Paul conferring with Claire Glasman of WinVisible
who had supplied the hand-scribed placards |
He had said to his supporters at the outset today that his great inspiration for the day as he was heading out alone was a newspaper photo of an elderly lady in Paris standing up to paramilitary police and in defiance of viciously anti-trade union laws. He said that that sort of thing is where this country seems to be headed.
One of my KUWG comrades observed to me that she was really surprised at the declaration on the A5 leaflet that a proper diet should require about £43 per week — not something that those who set benefit levels seem to acknowledge, while benefit claimants become inured to insufficient nutrition.
We concluded as we waited outside the Court Room, regarding the legal hoops and hurdles he has gone through in search of economic justice, that Revd Paul Nicolson's motto is more, "Never attend anywhere official alone," than, "Anything for a quiet life."
Technical note about the taking of the photos
As stated in caption 5, the Court officials had given the instruction that no photos were to be taken of us on the grass in front of the Court House. Thus for photos 1 and 2, the taking of the photos was subject to the vagaries of a very narrow pavement as outside Kilburn Jobcentre where we do manage to get the building's branding in the background.
The real stunt people at a Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group action are generally the persons taking the photos at the risk of being knocked down by oncoming traffic; but Dude Swheatie extracted the face of Revd Paul's A5 leaflet as a 'selection' from photo 2 and reduced the 'noise' in that image to make the writing appear less jagged and much clearer. (That was achieved with the aid of Serif PhotoPlus X4 photo editing software for Windows.(4) PhotoPlus X4 was also used to apply a 'diffuse glow' to the image of Revd Paul in photos 1 and 2.)
Photo 1 was taken by CJ, photos 2 to 8 by Kim, and photo 9 by Revd Paul Nicolson.
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9. When we did find coffee in Tottenham, it was not at
the Magistrates Court! |
Links
- http://kilburnunemployed.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/media-release-from-revd-paul-nicolson-vs-haringey-grant-thornton-tottenham-magistrates-court.html
- http://www.winvisible.org
- https://www.crowdjustice.co.uk/case/david-clapson/
- PhotoPlus X4 has since been superceded by PhotoPlus X8 http://www.serif.com/photoplus/
