The beggars paid by business not to beg...

The other night I watched a program on the “Fake Homeless”.  We’ve all seen them – the ones who cover their face when you walk by.  Ellie Flynn the presenter was of course horrified that a man called Ashley Sims (of Devon) had taken to posting pictures of the fake homeless on the internet.  “How do you know they are fake?” she asked Mr Sims to which Mr Sims replied “The real homeless don’t beg”.  She then interviewed a real homeless man who explained that he did not want to live in hostels because they were unpleasant places – who says beggars can’t be choosers?  Honestly, these are the people who in the 19^th century would have complained about the workhouses.  Those were the days – when there was work.  A lot of the people she interviewed were begging to fund drug addictions resulting in posters from local police forces along the lines of “Give to beggars and Putin will use the money to manufacture Novichok” etc.  Ms Flynn was most shocked by this.  The beggars included a woman who openly said she regarded it as a “job” and informed us that there were not many options for people like her – it was this or “going on the game”.   No point in, as Mr Tebbit used to say, “getting on your bike and looking for work” when you can get paid sitting on the floor.   

Ms Flynn seemed to want to believe that no one would choose to beg but it seemed to pass her by that the reality is it is better paid for many people than working for the NMW.  To be fair none of these people had actually told people they were "homeless" it was simply a conclusion that most people jumped to - you're begging so you must not have a home...?  I would never beg but you can purchase my novels etc...

Meanwhile Mr Sims had been suffering a backlash against his shame the fake homeless campaign and had set up a “2^nd phase” to his plan – setting up his own hostel/BandB.  Ms Flynn interviewed some of the residents and seemed to get rather depressed that many of them seemed to be on drugs and that there might have been a few fights.  She took Mr Sims to task for this and for giving them money to buy their drugs with.  Mr Sims said that he was simply “looking after the interests of the business community” but the meaning of his words seemed to pass her by… She didn’t seem to comprehend that there was no real difference to Mr Sims giving them the cash for their addictions rather than the general public.  All Mr Sims had done was make the problem visibly disappear by inventing professional druggies.  That is ...people who are paid to sit in a house and be out their head rather than sit in the street and be out their head.  There being no real jobs for such people he had sort of invented them – paying people to stay out of sight.  Well, it’s a career…  Sadly the funders of this endeavour of creating reservations for the tribe of the methadone eventually decided they could not condone the endeavour forever... despite the fact it's almost a direct recreation of the systems many homeless charities use...

This being the well meaning BBC Ms Flynn told us that it was not that simple … although to the police it seemed far too simple.  Asked what happened if people continued to stay on the street after being repeatedly warned and moved on and refusing to move on one PoPo said simply “Prison”.  Well, it’s a home … of sorts.