Words of Grace.

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Words of  Grace.

By Octgenarian Grace Robertson.

Edited By Uncle Monty.

Photos of Grace By Alex Albion.

Part 1 of 2.

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My homeless experience was not nearly as bad as that of

most.  Before I left Zimb(abwe) in 1987 to come to UK

(Robert) Mugabe had made our departure essential and

 he'd been in power then since 1980. We couldn't just land

in UK as we were only to bring out £50 per family from

my 30 years of earning. My two elder children would also

 come. I had to find a job with accommodation for the four

 of us. My son and daughter would eventually find their own

 place to live but it would not be immediate as they had to

 find work first. I found a job with a lodge cottage (at

the gate of an estate) where I was going to handle the

 admin for this guy who was a photographer of wild life.

.-.

Landed off the boat (Achille Lauro.......it sank later) and 

my daughter and I made our way to the cottage. Had

many trunks and luggage having come by sea. Moved

into the cottage. Next morning a knock on the door.

A lady stood there. She informed me my employer

had had a stroke and was dead and would I kindly

come with her to Homeless Unit. Can you imagine.

.-.

She dumped my daughter and me at a DSS office in Peckham

one of London's deepest pits. They placed the two of us in a

 hostel..........long room with about 15 beds each side. I

thought we'd landed in hell. Drugs, booze, swearing...........

Thankfully, next day we were placed in a homeless flat in

Peckham. This was a tumbledown ground floor flat in a

three/four storey crumbling villa. My ground floor status

 meant the people in two flats above us all processed

through our flat hallway to reach their flat above.  Those

 people................I didn't know people like that existed.

.-.

Grace When She Doesn't Like What You Say.

.-.

I wrote 125 Housing Associations and only got acknow-

ledgements from I think three. By this time we had been

sorted out financially into Income Support (which we're

on to this day). My son was able to cancel his arrival or

rather postpone it. My daughter couldn't. I had been

told I was not allowed to have either of my elder children

with me in homeless accomm. She duly arrived and I man-

aged to accommodate her for two nights. She found a

 bedsit almost next door so had a rent book proving

 she did not live with us. Being an English teacher

 for A level students she found a job quite quickly.

.-.

Cutting down a long story I was housed after 10 months

 in homeless accomm. Then, I was given a two bed first

floor flat in Grove Park, right opposite a church and near

every facility I could need. I was very happy there for 12

years but then lots of things went wrong. I'll carry on

that tale at a later date.

.-.

Frustration can only ever be the normal state of mind of any

reasonably intelligent person in UK because it is run like a

dog's dinner. Pathetically low education from the age of five

 explains much. I believe we lead the world in almost every-

thing.........from the bottom......and it will never ever

change only to get worse.

.-.

Grace When She Just Sits Back At The Applause.

.-.

I met that guy who runs the Big Issue....I've forgotten his

name. He was originally homeless and he actually started

Big Issue. I wouldn't say I see it exactly like others. At the

beginning the Big Issue was sold solely to people who

were totally on the street. I don't thing it's the same now

 as I see many people selling it with their faces glued to

their mobiles and a heavy smoking culture visible. I

doubt very much anyone is responsible for their own

 homelessness as it is a pretty pitiless place to be.

I blame successive Govts totally for not building

nearly enough affordable accommodation.

.-.

 Also the brain washing, re people who do not own

property being tenth rate........that is one of UK's most

 powerful fictions and it is swallowed hook, line and

sinker by the vast majority of people.

.-.

I am in my 80's and since as far back as I can remember

 I've been aware that accommodation here is treated as

 a weapon. The sheer number of satellite organsations

created around homelessness and the same around mental

handicap which I know all about, is criminal. There are

thousands of people here whose entire careers, past

present and future, are built around homelessness (ie.

the Big Issue guy is one).  No way would they ever want

homelessness cleared up. John Bird is his name I think.

 He's wealthy now....don't know how as he was himself

 homeless (and a criminal).

.-.

Grace When She Is Skeptical of What She Hears.

.-.

Cameron I detest. His youth is no excuse. He'll be the same

 empty headed bimbo at 65 that he is now. If we had to have

 Conservative I would have favoured Kenneth Clark. I went

 along totally with what he said re rape. I do believe some

 rape is different from other kinds of rape in that I believe

many stupid stupid women pracitically invite it with their

 body displays and body language to match. I don't join

any political party either in fact I never join anything. I've

been a church attending Christian since the age of 4 and

have never become a member of any church. I believe

 in God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost and awkward

enough to believe this is enough. membership, it's

just about finances nothing else.

.-.

Grace At Her Happiest When Explaining Her Position.

.-.

Grace Robertson closes for now with

one more of her caustic comments!:

Re the ghastly horrible Mrs. DAME Shirley Porter.

She and Mrs. Margaret Thatcher are a right pair......

.-.

In Part 2, Dear Grace Robertson writes more about

her personal encounter with the disgraced dame

before she was later stripped of her dameship due
to her underhanded selling off of a slew of social
 housing under her watch at Westminster Council.

.-.
Feedback & Comments
allaboutthebigissue@gmx.co.uk
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Above Caption Photo: Uncle Monty With
 Dame Gillian Pugh, DBE. Photo By Gary Day.
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While The White Guy Begs, The Black Immigrant

Woman Stands All Dressed Up Probably At

The British Taxpayers Expense.

.-.

Pret gives homeless taste of new career.

By Jonathan Prynn.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23971878-pret-gives-homeless-taste-of-new-career.do

...

Giving homeless people a chance to turn their lives around.

http://churchhousingtrust.org.uk/

.-.

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The Truly Greedy & Smug Pair!!

The Chairman of The Big Issue Foundation The

Hideous Multimillionaire "Liberal" Muslim James

Caan (l), Who Is Seen With Swaggering &

'Devout Ex-Catholic' Pigface Anthony John Bird.

.-.

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The Big Issue's Own Editor-in-Chief Pigface Anthony John Bird.

.-.

Norway's Anders Behring Breivik.

By Alex Albion.

http://thebiggerissueorg.blogspot.com/2011/07/anders-behring-breivik.html

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"Who then executes the killer's killer,

 inside the Texas execution state?"

Alex Albion.
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{ To Enlarge any image, just click on it! }
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Home From Home.

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Home From Home.

By Caughey Gauntlett.

Edited By Uncle Monty.

A Look At Historic Homelessness.

Graphics By Alex Albion.

Story Images From the Web.

Part 2 of 2.
...
"A lad lying on a parapet immediately above the surface

of the Thames, a few yards from Cleopatra's Neddle,

was shivering. He was in a sleeping bag, but would be

grateful for a blanket as well. 'Anything wrong, son?'

'Yeah, I've just come out of hospital.

Have you got a blanket?'

...

"One of his neighbours volunteered the information that

he had been in a knife fight with another lad a few nights

previously. This chap was badly cut, but had quickly

discharged himself from hospital after being stitched up.

 He was afraid the police would get him for 'causing

an affray' -- perhaps even GBH (grievous badly harm).

Any thought of going to the nearby (homeless) hostel

was rejected out of hand. But he was feverish; how
would he fare? 'I'll be all right. Just leave me ALONE'.

...
Home From Home, Mate?

...

"Under the bridge at Charing Cross were quite a number

of folk, though not as many as there used to be, apparently.

A large area has been fenced off; yet another office

 building is being constructed. The Victoria Embankment

Gardens are locked at night now. They have to be kept

tidy for tourists. Some who formerly made their home here

have moved to the South Bank, especially in the so-called

Bull Ring under the south end of Waterloo Bridge.

We later found some 200 men and women there.

...

"Lincoln's Inn Fields is one of the few parks in this

area not locked up at night. Even with good street light-

ing around the parameter, it was not easy to locate the

forms of yet more who had no roof over their heads that

 night. One chap was stretched out on a park bench.

Would he like some soup? 'No thanks, mate;

thanks all the same'.

...

"As we moved on, there was a courting couple 'necking'

on a bench just south of Regents Park. Funny what

 people will do at 2 am on a winter's morning. Many

 (homeless women) seem to find accommodation

simply by moving in with a man they meet. This is at

least a temporary form of shelter and security. And

 it's warmer tucked up in bad that way. When marriages

break up - so often the beginning of homelessness -

women are usually left with the children, and generally

 manage better than men to keep a home together.
...
Is This Not Home From Home?

...

(As of 1988) "There were virtually no Black or Asian

people either - at least, not in that part of London. I

was told that their (UK immigrant) communities tend

to look after their own people in difficulty. If that

is so - and later experience in other kinds of social

relief has persuaded me it is - we ought perhaps to

feel ashamed. Have we, as a norminally Christian

nation, at least, so far lost sight of bibical principles

and teachings to the extent we no longer care for

each other? Am I not still my brother's keeper?

...

"A variety of men live in Blackfriars Hostel. Some

 thirty have mental problems, while a similar number

are frail , elderly pensioners. Quite a high percentage

are homeless and unemployed. Even some of the

 older residents are eventually rehoused in coop-
eration with the local authority.

...
He's Taking The Mickey Out of The
Other Guy's Home From Home, Isn't He?

...

During the eighteen months to the end of 1988,

no fewer than forty-two men were about to begin a

new life this way. A little more than half that number

were able to set up homes of their own, while the

rest went to 'group homes' or places of more per-

manent residence for otherwise homeless people.

The Young Single Homeless Section of Southwark

Borough's Housing Department has proved very

 helpful, though their resources are limited.

...

"Booth House includes hostel accommodation for

 170, many of whom must be defined as homeless.

Most of the residents receive income support of over

 $80 per week while at the (Hopetown) Centre.

Of this, $70 will be paid for full board. If preferred,

(they can get) the bed-and-breakfast rate (which)

is $49 weekly. There are no limits on the age or

length of stay. There is rarely a vacancy, and
applications always exceed the number of

available rooms.

....

"Among the care staff is Mark (or Marc) - he is in

 fact the Marquis St. Leger***, of the well-known

 French-Irish family. His own tragic experience in life

(after he lost his wife and two daughters in a car

accident) helps him to identify with others in deep

emotional distress. Mark (or Marc)  gave his opinion

 to the effect that poor family background and long-

term unemployment are major contributory factors

(regarding homeless persons).

...

"They quite often engage in anti-social behaviour as

a form of protest against their lack of independence.

Some display strong anti-authoritarian attitudes.

Occasionally Mark or one of his colleagues may

be threatened by a psychopath. Certainly this is no

 easy task, nor are there any simple solutions to the

 plight of the very many who pass through the

 centre -- which is nevertheless home

(from home) to them.

...

"The many difficulties of homelessness cannot be

 resolved quickly. That is true of other forms of social

and moral blight in a present-day society; such as un-

employment, the breakdown of family life, and poverty.

Even if the necessary number of dwellings could some

how be produced by waving a magic wand, there

would still be homeless people.

...

Home - and Dry? "Throughout history people have re-

sorted to the use of alcohol or other drugs to achieve

certain moods. In some instances they aimed to create

some oblivion, particularly if their lives were harsh. For

 others, the resultant state of euphoria meant temporary

 liberation from taboos and conventions. This some-

time led to anti-social behaviour, often involving wild

forms of promiscuous sexual activity. The name of

Bacchus (or Dionysius), the Greek god of wine, has

given us the word 'bacchanalian' to describe

such behaviour.

...

"In one chapter in his book 'In  Darkest England' in

 1890), William Booth wrote a chapter on homeless-

ness consisting broadly of three concentric circles.

They were (he stated)) inhabited respectively by 'the

 starving and homeless, but honest poor', 'those who

 live by vice' and 'those who exist by crime'. He

(Booth) then commented that all three circles

were 'sodden with drink'.

...

Caughey Gauntlett's chapters 'Home From Home'

 and 'Home - and Dry?' from 1989, have been tran-
scribed, abridged and edited by Uncle Monty.

..

***Court told of fake peer's life of lies.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/court-told-of-fake-peer-s-life-of-lies-1.241768

From the archives - 4 Apr. 2000.

...

Enjoy mid-summer, Uncle Monty.

+Bartolomé de las Casas,

Apostle to the Indies, 2011.

...
Caption Image:  Showns Uncle Monty at
 The Stables. Puzzle Photo By Gary Day.
...
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Words of Grace.
By Dear Grace Robertson.
Coming Next at allaboutthebigissue.

An octogenarian with a great mind and great writing

 skills, Grace Robertson writes intensely about the

issue of homelessness to which she and her daughter

 suffered under Robert Mugabe and on their return to

the UK; she writes about the Dame Shirley Porter

 scandal that robbed homeless people of a chance to

 have a home and her personal encounter with the

 dame himself; her intense political disliking of Mar-

garet Thatcher and David Cameron comes from

her sharp pen; the "War on Want" is also some-

thing Grace writes about; and other questions

about the homeless. Grace Robertson's "Words

of Grace" are personal messages between her as 

the vunerable and venerable Scottish lady and The

 Big Issue's victimized vendor Uncle Monty, who has

edited the lengthy written exchanges between them for

posting next week at allaboutaboutthebigissue.

They also lunch together each month, they do.

...

Upcoming soon is a revealing feature about Francois

Greeff and his so-called homeless disabled charity

called "GOOD4YOU." One of his ex-volunteers

 spills the latest beans about Greeff in "Good Greeff."

 Greeff's surname is pronounced like the word "grief."

Three years ago, Uncle Monty wrote about his

suspicions regarding "GOOD4YOU" after first

meeting Greeff at the Boris Johnson keynote

speech on rough sleeping at Westminster

 Central Hall in 2oo8.

...

Anthony John Bird - As Cold As Ice!

...
Read All About The Big Issue's
Own Pigface Anthony John Bird Himself.

^ To Read The Text, Simply Click On Image To Enlarge ^

...

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Feedback & Comments.

allaboutthebigissue@gmx.co.uk

...

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Zoo or Show?

By Uncle Monty.

http://thebiggerissue.org/

...
The Big Issue's
 Own Prickhead Peter Bird.

...
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In light of the ongoing UK's scandalous scandal of
"Hacking Gate" and the top Met police resignations
of Sir Paul Stephenson and John Yates,
the question has simply become this:
"WHO THEN POLICE THE POLICE?"
Alex Albion.
...
And, do we need any more concrete evidence that
"Bloody Broken Britain" is now truly bloody broken?
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No Place.

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No Place Like Home.

By Caughey Guantlett.

A Look At Historic Homelessness.

Edited By Uncle Monty.

Part 1 of 2.

Images from the Web.

...

"The subject of homelessness has attracted enormous

public attention in recent years. The media has revealed

horrifying details. So much has been written and said that

 there is a good deal of uncertainty as to the true facts.

...

"One reason for this confusion is that 'homelessness' can

be defined in various ways. For many, the word conjures

up a certain mental image: people who sleep out in the

 streets, mainly tramps, vagrants and alcoholics. For others,

more closely aware of the problem, these are simply the

visible homeless, a small minority of the real army of the

 homeless. Not all of these inhabit 'cardboard cities'. It is

also true that some of the homeless in our midst are to

some extent responsible for their own plight.

...

Author Caughey Gauntlett.

...

"It has to be acknowledged that in some respects at least

little has changed since the Victorian day of (William)

 Booth's 'Darkest Engand.' For instance, the following

report by a Salvation Army officer in 1890 has a

strangely contemporary ring about it::

...

There are still a large number of Londoners and a con-

siderable percentage of wanderers from the country in

search of work, who find themselves at nightfall destitute.

 These now betake themselves to seat under the plane

trees on the Embankment. Formerly they endeavoured

to occupy all seats, but the lynx-eyed Metropolitan

Police declined to allow such proceedings.

...

Horrible Near Death For The Rough Woman Sleeper ...

...

"(Such led to) the first Salvation Army shelters being

established. The dossers (soon learned) where to lay

 themselves down at night without being moved on by the

 police.  A similar form of astuteness is still discernable

today among those who sleep rough:

Here I found the poor wretches by the score [today on

the South Bank it would be hundreds!], some men, some

 women, reclining in various postures, and nearly all fast

asleep ... the moon ... brings into relief a pitiable spect-

acle. Here on the stone abutments, which afford a slight

protections from the biting wind, are scores of men ly-

ing side by side, huddled together for warmth ... some

have laid down a few pieces of wastepaper, by way

of taking the chill off the stones.

...

"In his his critique of Booth's scheme, (Lord William) Beveridge

comments (in 1942) that the number of people sleeping rough

in London was 'probably greater than ever before.' A census

taken by the London County Council (LCC) in January 1904

 showed 1,797 such persons; a later count in February 1905,

showed 2,181. In one night, in November 1988, a Salvation

Army sponsored preliminary survey within a very limited dis-

 trict in Central London showed 531 such (homeless) persons.

...

Pictorial Posters Publicly Displayed of All The

Known Homeless People in one single US Town.

...

"Further research (in July, 1989) has shown that about

75,000 people are homeless in London. They comprise

more than 18,000 in hostels of various kind, a 'guest-

imate' of 30,000 in squats and about 25,000 in bed-

and-breakfast hotels. The total for London as a whole

 is obviously much greater than it was even in the

'bad old days' (of) a hundred years ago.

...

"Beveridge commented sharply on 'the gratuitous distri-

bution of meals at midnight on the Embankment and

elsewhere.' He went on: 'The Vagrancy Committe in

 1906 came unhesitatingly to the conclusion that both

 free food and free shelter were 'demoralising to the

recipients and a source of danger to the community.'

...

"It is an open question whether 'soup runs' are morally

justifiable. They were revived some years ago (in the mid-

1980's) during very cold winters. (On) The Strand, dossers

can regularly be found huddled in the doorways of prestigious

employment or travel agents and other businesses. They

include parts of theatreland, Lincoln's Inn Fields and

certain small parks in the West End.

...

Soup Runs.

http://allaboutthebigissue.blogspot.com/2011/04/soup-runs.html

Soup Runs: Good or Bad For The Homeless? By Uncle Monty.

Anti-soup runs advocate Maff Potts and pro-soup.

 runs supporter Alastair Murray.

...

Is This What Life Is Meant To Be?

...

"The bitterly cold winter of January 1987, (saw) media

reports of dozens of homeless people dying of hypothermia.

What happens in London is repeated in other large cities

in Britain (like) Glasgow, central Birmingham, Edinburgh.

 (And also) even in such seemingly quiet and respectable

 places as Norwich and Bath. (And) similarly in

 Wrexham, North Wales.

...

Drugz Are NOT a many-splendid thing ...

...

"(Of about 4,000 people that the Salvation Army can

accommodate) most of whom have to be considered as

homeless, (comprises of) both men and women whose

 marriages and homes have broken up. There are the job-

hunters who leave their families in areas of high unemploy-

ment. (While others) have been released into the comm-

unity from mental institutions of one kind ot another, and

they have no home. An increasing number of adolescents,

sixteen and seventeen years old, are being turned out of

 their homes by parents, or step-parents, while others of

similar age and with the same degree of vulnerability, can

 no longer live with the tensions and conflicts of their family

 life. They too are now part of the floodtide of rootless,

 homeless, and often hopeless people who constitute

 the flotsam and jetsam of our (British) nation.

...

5 FREE THINGS IN LIFE!

1. Unemployment. 2. Homelessness.

3. Starvation. 4. Lonelyness.

5. Death. Thanks For Caring!

...

RIP for all the homeless dead.

...

"The invisible homeless are those who may have a roof

over their heads, but who have no real home. They are

 far more numerous than  those who sleep rough, and

 they represent a wide cross-section of society. We have

seen that family conflict and marriage breakdown are

 major causes of homelessness. Alcohol or drug abuse,

 associated with many homeless people, is much more

 likely to be the consequence of one or other of those

main factors, than the direct cause. The shadowy

world of squatters is a relatively uncharted area of

 homelessness. The great majority seem to be men,

 who live in abondoned or derelict buildings.They

 are actually an extenton of the community of street

sleepers. They are often withdrawn, and do not

usually want to relate to other people in the comm-

unity. They represent a subculture, many have

virtually dropped out of society.

...

"(Of the overall hidden homeless population there are those)

who spend a night or two (in a range of hostels) while others

 find an institutationalised form of security over periods of

several years (inside an hostel.) For them, such a place

 represents home from home.

...

My Home.

Story & Photos by Uncle Monty.

http://thebiggerissueorg.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-home-story-and-photos-by-uncle-monty.html

She was an American madame was Polly Adler

when she said, “A house ain't necessarily a home.”

How right she was!!

...

Where Does He Go From Here? To His Deathbed?

...

Always Remember: NeVeR BUY The Big Issue.

But, Always Give To Vendor!! All that The Big Issue

does is to rake in more and more money off the backs of

 the homeless, unemployed, vulnerable, and marginalized in

the UK. Marking its upcoming 20th anniversary in Septem-

ber, vile and greedy John & Peter Bird, who own and

control the weekly magazine and their 5,000+ street vendors,

are set for another money kill at the expense and exploitation

 of the homeless who get peanuts while the Bird Brothers

always run to fatten their ever fat bank accounts yet again ...

The only celebration for many a vendor, and also for many

an ex-vendor like me, will be the day The Big Issue goes

bust just like The News of the World did last Sunday!!

Good riddance to NOW and next to TBI and the ever foul 

Bird Brothers and their venomous Vauxhall HQ gang  ...

...

Then we have The Big Issue's Prickhead Peter Bird

 (shown below) who is the younger brother of Pigface

Anthony John Bird. The pair are vile and as brothers they

have treated me rotten, yet they don't give a bugger!! After

 5 years as a street vendor for them, they just got rid of

me based on the evil stories given to them by the odious

 and fake US  'bishop" Joseph Colin James, III, of Love-

land, the well-known Colorado cunt and old Internet troll

who has for years sought to destroy and abuse me and

many others with his malicious leaks. The Bird Brothers

never gave me a chance to defend myself against such

a callous cunt who contacted them and they then just

arbitrarily and capriciously did CJ3's dirty work. As a

result, the UK pigface and UK prickhead just deliber-

ately killed off my Covent Garden pitch - and also killed

off all of my many good and loyal customers - that was

 a success by any yardstick. All the Bird Brothers'

 talk of "helping the homeless" is hollow and is tanta-

mount to a con game of their's! I have the proof of that

 by how they have treated me like a piece of  shit, but

the true shit is them! John & Peter Bird will live

forever in my mind and I will do whatever I can to

show everybody what kind of shit they really are ...

Peter Bird is so base and banal, I will never trust

 him as far as I can see him nor his big mouth and

big greedy asinine brother John Bird. I pray the

Good Lord will strike them down in poetic justice

 against them and their ilk. I have no doubt He will!!

...

Here's the un-holy brother of the prickhead -

Pigface Anthony John Bird, 65, is shown below.

He's as phoney as they come, he really is at The Big

 Issue. I'm told they have dismissed my blog. So what!

I don't give a bugger what they think. All I care about

 is how they have treated me and so many other ven-

dors over the years and gotten away with it like they

 are a law unto themselves. Shakespeare said it all:

"Lawless are they that make their will their law."

 Look no further than the vile Bird Brothers for such

a perfect example of such Bird lawlessness ...  They

stink like The Big Issue, that's how I feel like so

many others who have contacted me since start-

ing my blog - allaboutthebigissue.blogspot.com. 

...

Continuing next week in Part Two, Caughey Gauntlett makes

further astute observations on UK homelessness in his 1989,

 256-page, book entitled  - "Today In Darkest Britain." I

have transcribed, abridged, and edited Gauntlett's chapter

 "No Place Like Home." I will do the same for his next

 chapters "Home From Home" and "Home - and Dry?"

...

Truly, Uncle Monty.

+Common of the Saints (BCP), 2011.

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Feedback & Comments

allaboutthebigissue@gmx.co.uk

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Ah, Yes! Welcome To The American Dream.

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"POWER TO THE VENDORS,

NOT TO THE BIG ISSUE."

Alex Albion.

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O Canada. By Uncle Monty.

When William & Kate Took Canada By Royal Storm.

http://thebiggerissueorg.blogspot.com/2011/07/oh-canada.html

No Wonder Her Majesty Was So Pleased With Them!

Of the few people today who make me proud to be

English, William & Kate most certainly do.

Big Bravo, O Canada & O Blighty!!!

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