by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
I am sure that this is but one of many and if not already more of them will be turning up of that we can be sure, and soon, more than likely also in other locations such as on the pavements outside of shops in Oxford Street – I know I shouldn't give them any ideas – and under bridges.
Homelessness has, in some areas of the British capital and also other areas, already been designated as a crime under one or two public order acts and, considering that under the regime of Cameron and Clegg the prison system has been all but privatized (much like adoption and foster care; more about that in another article) we can, I am sure, see why homelessness is being criminalized. Somehow the prisons for profit have to be filled.
While some of the media have taken up the issue of these spikes they do, for the obvious reasons, have done so rather lightly.
Homelessness is not a crime, it is a disgrace, but not one caused by the homeless people but by society which allows this to happen.
The USA and the UK, some of the richest countries on this Planet, have some of the largest numbers of homeless people in proportion to population and this is the disgrace. And in parts of both of those countries it is now becoming a crime to feed the homeless.
We are being told that we have a homelessness crisis and a housing crisis but we have neither. We have an empty homes crisis and Britain alone has enough empty homes – please note I stress homes and do not even want to talk about buildings that could be, like many squatters used to, converted into homes – to house all the homeless of the UK and those of Ireland and some other EU countries combined while the US has enough empty homes to house the homeless of most of the EU, including the UK, and their own homeless.
The US State of Utah has realized that it is by far cheaper to give apartments to the homeless than to have them sleep rough. What a novel idea but then this is a state where, even though I do not agree with the ideology, the Mormon faith rules and from that faith, I assume,, comes also the vision to house the homeless. It can be done and in Britain there are enough homes, not to speak of other buildings, where those currently homeless, and many others, could very well have a home of their own.
But the system needs to be fed, not the people, and thus those empty homes, such as the Ocean Estate in Stepney, and the Robin Hood Estate in Poplar, both, incidentally, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, and many others, are run down, then everyone moved out, closed, and even removed from the empty homes register, in order to redevelop, not the homes but the area, into housing for the rich and into offices in the Docklands.
People count for nothing in the capitalist system and anyone who has not, as yet, understood that best wake up and that in a hurry.
© 2014
