SANJAV II.

SANJAV II:

Who Gets All The Money At The Big Issue?

By Tom Yomogi Yuri ~ Edited By Uncle Monty.

Graphics By Alex Albion. ~ Part 2 of 2.

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Questions By Tom Yomogi Yuri = TYY.

Answers By Sanjav = San.

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TYY: I’m trying to understand how the

 Service Brokerage schemes operate.

San: So am I!

TYY: [laughs] It seems to be that it is supposedly ring fenced

money to provide certain services to vendors for example setting

up a bank account and things like that. Does that happen at all?

San: There was a spate where they were trying to set up bank

accounts for people but…erm…I think if you look at…if there’s…

I don’t know how many vendors there are in London but certainly

 in the Covent Garden area, particularly in the summer, Green

Badges  – that’s people that are brand new badges – they’d come

to us and they were the only area they could come to, we’d have

 sometimes 30 or 40 and I know of maybe in the five years

 or six years that I worked for the Big Issue, they set up

four bank accounts for vendors.

TYY: [laughs] Okay. Err…what about this…err…err… A

notion that…err…the Big Issue is there to help homeless

people…err…what percentage do you think of vendors

are actually…say for a start…are street homeless?

San: What do I think or what…

TYY: How many…how many…err…how many do you

think…I’m not talking about…don’t actually give me a

 number…but…err…but a percentage?

San: No more than 10%.

TYY: And…of…err…the remainding…remaining ones…err…

how many of those or what percentage of those do you think,

as a really rough guess…err…would say be in hostels?

San: [pause] Because I think that about 70% of those…

vendors…people selling the magazine on the streets of London,

 in particular, are housed, and that’s not housed in hostels and/or

 street homeless…it would be about 20% but that fluctuates

because people are in hostels and a lot of the…a lot of…

when I was doing the work a lot of people get thrown out of

 the hostels and then…you know…be in a hostel and then be

 street homeless and back in a hostel…err…About 70% I

believe to be housed, be that vulnerably, but I regard myself

 as vulnerably housed, but I’m not particularly vulnerably

housed unless I make myself vulnerably housed. You know,

none of them come round to my house and throw

me out of the door.

TYY: So you have no issue with people who are now, to

 all intents and purposes, in permanent accommodation…

you have no problem with them selling the Big Issue.

You think that’s reasonable?

San: I personally think it’s wrong but I…I have often thought

that the Big Issue should have some move on policy. I have

 known people who have been selling the Big Issue…it’s been

 going for twenty years here in London…I have known people

to be selling it for fifteen years on the same pitch.

That seems to me to be a nonsense.

TYY: So talking about move on…err…presumably the

Big Issue provides opportunities within its own organisation

 for vendors to move into higher positions and positions

of authority in the organisation like backroom staff.

San: Absolutely none whatsoever, unfortunately, none.

TYY: Has any vendor ever moved into backroom staff?

San: One, though he’s now left, but he was from the Wales

 –  Cardiff or Swansea…Swansea area. He did become

 the actual Outreach Team Leader and then left.

...

It's All  To Do With Keeping All The Money In The

 Greedy Hands & Bank Accounts of Bird & Co.

...

TYY: That seems quite an odd thing considering the policy

 of the Big Issue is about offering…err…a hand up. You’d

think that vendors would be the most knowledgeable…err

…and have the most to offer in running the organisation –

after they’ve established themselves.

San:: I would have thought so but what Mr Bird and others

 in the organisation don’t…don’t reveal to you is it’s

a hand up and a kick down, my dear!

TYY: Why don’t they have them in the backroom…

err…working in the backroom?

San: Because they’re corrupt! [laughs] Sorry, but it seems to

me like they are corrupt and then…they know that the vendors,

a lot of them, are very sassy, especially if they come off the

streets, would pick up on that corruption immediately. If you

 speak to vendors, they will say similar things. I believe a lot

of them would say similar things. They can see the corruption. 

 They can see the Outreach Team do absolutely nothing.

 It’s…it always has been a massive bone of contention.

But I even have problems with people saying helping…

there was one particular vendor who shall remain nameless

 who works on the top of Neal Street [laughs] on a daily

 basis who has been saying for years and years and years

 ‘Big Issue. Read us. Help me. Buy a copy. Helping

the homeless.’ and she hasn’t been homeless for all

that time so that’s just fraud. That to me is just fraud. I’ve

got no qualms with saying ‘Buy this magazine coz I

wanna go on holiday next week’ [laughs] and blah,

blah, blah, blah. I’ve no problem with that but

not the fraudulent aspect – I find revolting.

TYY: What about the question of tax and benefits?

Err…are many Big Issue vendors on benefits?

San: [Laughs] about 98% and the 2% who aren’t…who

 knows why! I have only known of two vendors in the

 entire time of – literally it would be running into thousands

of vendors – who did declare their incomes, which there is

a proviso as a get out that we supposedly…are supposed

 to encourage people to do so – to my knowledge nobody

 ever did do so and I would estimate that…98% might be

 a bit high but I’d be…I’d be comfortable with 95%!

TYY: It doesn’t seem like a very successful [laughs] policy

on the part of the Big Issue then if people just feel there are no

sanctions to be suffered for basically benefit fraud and tax fraud.

San: [pause] I agree.

TYY: Are the Big Issue aware that this is a major

problem with vendors?

San: I have never heard it spoken of. Never heard it spoken of.

TYY: But presumably they are aware of it.

San: Oh fully aware. I mean everyone’s aware of it but it is

not an issue and…if there is corruption going on elsewhere

 then it’s obviously incumbent on those who are corrupt

to not point out corruption [laughs] in the organisation…

it’s self-defeating.

TYY: Are you aware, like the first thing that we talked about,

 about the money not going back to the depot – you said a

conservative estimate of about 20% – are you aware

that that basically is an allegation of tax fraud, at least.

San: Now that you’ve pointed it out, then, then perhaps

 but if a District Auditor got involved then, then it might

 be…it might…feathers might be ruffled but…is it tax

 fraud? I don’t know. If it is then, then yes it is.

TYY: What about the salaries of people that work at

 the Big Issue? Are you aware of any particularly

interesting high salaries that any individuals are earning?

(John Bird: 150,000 Quid+ Salary! So, It's alleged! Ed. UM)

San: I couldn’t say, other than hearsay, I really couldn’t.

TYY: Okay, give me an example of any hearsay.

San:  I’m sorry to mention coz he’s a lovely man, (John

Duffy) he really is…err…he’s now left the company after

 going round to all his distribution points and stealing the

money and fled to Glasgow with £46,000 [laughs] but

 he was on a very decent package. I know they offered

him £35,000 a year as a whole package and he turned

it down as not being enough so that’s not uncommon.

TYY: Err…and the London…

San: Don’t mention his name.

TYY: No I won’t. You can remove the whole section if you want.

San: No, keep the whole thing but not the actual name.

TYY: The…err…err…so you said, err, you worked at

 the Covent Garden distribution point…erm…presumably

 the London head office erm is in charge of several other

 distribution points. To your knowledge, is that system of

err supposedly voluntary workers actually receiving cash

remuneration and that money not making it back to

head office, are you aware of that being replicated

 anywhere else.

San: It’s replicated everywhere. The only discrepancy

 is that we in Covent Garden…err…would get paid more

 than all the other distribution points primarily because we

 do more work but they have…you know there’s much more

 footfall but there is some disgruntlement, say in the…the

 Oxford…Oxford Street distribution point, the Liverpool

Street distribution point, the Angel distribution point…there

s some disgruntlement amongst other Voluntary Coordinators

who are essentially I think getting sometimes, not quite half,

but maybe 60% of what we were getting in Covent Garden,

but it happens…it’s standard right across the board.

...

NEVER BUY The Rotten Big Issue, 1991-2011.

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TYY: How many distribution points are there?

San: There used to be six. Err…I believe there still are six.

There’s Victoria, Covent Garden, Angel, Liverpool Street,

 Oxford Circus and I believe they opened one, there also

used to be also one in Notting Hill. I believe there are six.

TYY: And there are others…err…I mean there are different

branches of the Big Issue aren’t there but there are others also

 that are within the domain of the London office of the Big Issue.

San: No. No, that would be it.

TYY: I mean the company, under the same company.

San: Oh yeah, absolutely they are countrywide, all different

divisions but they sort of opened up at various other distribution

 points for a long long time and far be it for me to say the reason

 they can’t, because the Outreach Teams do absolutely nothing.

They can’t give them less for them to do nothing with that, can we?

TYY: And who are these Outreach Workers?

San: What do you mean who are they?

TYY: I mean…err…what’s the kind of…what are

the qualifications for the job?

San: I don’t know. I just know one chap who was given

the post. He’s a very young chap, he’s never been homeless,

 I’m not saying he’s not a decent chap. I know his name. But

he was given the post on…purely on the recommendation that

 his father’s the…err…Police Commander for Wandsworth.

(Gerry Campbell is the present Acting Borough Police

Commander for Wandsworth. Is he the same man? Ed. UM.)

TYY: What does an average Outreach Worker make?

 Do you know?

San: A damn sight more than they would declare, my dear!

TYY: I was told that it was around £18,000 or £19,000

 but you mentioned a figure closer to £28,000.

San: I think £18,000 or £19,000 would be ridiculous

 because…[pause]…I couldn’t say. 18 or 19 just seems

to me to be a paltry amount…but a…well it’s not

actually a paltry amount for doing very little but…

TYY: How hands on is John Bird in the running of the Big Issue?

San: As far as I am aware, he’s not hands on at all at present.

TYY: So who really runs it, then?

San:: I’ve been out…outwith it for about eight months now so

I couldn’t really say. Err, the CEO, Stephen (Robertson), has

a big say and Mr James Caan ( a so-called Liberal Muslim!),

 I believe, has a huge amount of influence, but John Bird now

 just does all the sort of mad media work. He is supposedly

still the Editor-in-Chief but I believe he has actually

relinquished that position.

TYY: Okay, we’ll end it there.

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Piles and piles of cash is going to Bird & Co, but

 little if any is going to the vendors or the homeless!!

...

TYY: Last question. Your thoughts on corporate

 hospitality at the Big Issue [laughs].

San: It’s just an absolute jolly. It has no basis…err…

I see it having no…no material benefit to any vendor

whatsoever. It’s just a jolly and it could be networking but

 they all fly off to Paris and fly off to Berlin and jump up

 and down the Himalayas, drink huge…stupid amounts of

 champagne in various locations around London and pat

 each other on the back and contemplate their next fraud!

TYY: Erm…can you give me an example of an event that

you’ve attended where you’ve been kind of astonished

at the amount of monies…amount of money being spent?

San: There are…there are too many to mention. Really

too many to mention. Say at the Big Issue’s 14th or

15th birthday Big Walk night out we were just over

 there actually, in the national film theatre, film thingy…

what’s it called?

TYY: The British Film Institute?

San: Thank you. The BFI. But then we all converged on

 St Barnabus in Soho at about 4o’clock in the morning and

 there were 250 bottles of champagne there waiting for us.

TYY: Would that…does that money come from the Big

Issue or does it come from the Big Issue Foundation.

San: I believe that was all paid for by the Foundation but

when I was there the Head of the Foundation or the head

of corporate fundraising was a chap called who, who

 would take us all out for jolly jollies but…

TYY: Coz I’ve had a look at the accounts for the Big Issue

Foundation and they’re really quite extraordinary, the amount

of money that goes on pure costs, pure fundraising costs, it’s

about 50/50 split. And in terms of actual money that goes to

vendors, what they term ‘vendor support’, only £27,000 of

over £1 million actually makes it to the vendors.

Does that sound about right?

San: Well if you buy [laughs] if you buy the occasional vendor

a pair of gloves and give him a glass of orange juice and a

slice of toast in ten years that sounds about right [laughs].

TYY: Do you think that the sums of money that are

 spent on fundraising are justified?

San: No. No.

TYY: Err…the err…does the Big Issue Foundation sublet

 Big Issue offices? Are they based in the same office block.

San: They are indeed.

TYY: And what proportion of the building do they take up?

San: I always see them roam but there’s one section that’s

 like sectioned off. The Outreach Team has the basement

 area, which is quite a large area, err…

TYY: The actual fundraising team…err…I’m assuming

they’ve got a static area for telephone use…though they

curiously don’t use the telephone very much according to

their accounts…but presumably that team needs a static

 area. What proportion of the building does that take up?

San: I’d imagine…as far as I knew it was only and in that

team and I couldn’t say for but certainly spends his entire

time getting drunk on accounts so who knows? [laughs]

TYY: Because the Big Issue Foundation currently – it used

 to pay a lot, lot more – but it currently pays half of the rent

 for that building. Do you think that’s justified in terms

of the amount of actual space they take up?

San: I couldn’t possibly comment on that, sorry…

TYY: Okay.

- End of Interview -

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My Thoughts on The Sanjav Answers.

By Unce Monty.

HAND UP, KICK DOWN

Here then are some of my own thoughts on Sanjav's 

comments in Tom Yomogi Yuri's Interview. When

Sanjav said that the reality and attitude of The Big

Issue sods is akin to "a hand up and a kick down," I

 immediately saw that has exactly what happened to me

 by The Big Issue's vile Peter-Bird-The Prick. He arbit-

rarily and capriciously suspended me for "bringing The

 Big Issue into disrepute." What the prick did to me

was a  kick down! He did that with the full backing of

his pigface brother Anthony John Bird and his little

paid lackeys at London's Big Issue HQ. As a result

of that, I have come to detest everything to do with

the vile Bird Brothers and their rotten Big Issue ...

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A LOUSEY 27,000 QUID!

As for only 27,000 quid out of ONE MILLION
quid going to serve the Big Issue vendors, that
speaks volumes about the moral and ethical bank-
ruptcy of the The Big Issue, John Bird, and his
 Fat Catz toward their vendors and the larger
 homeless community. Indeed, such may bor-
der on corruption and financial irregularities
big time!! If not that, then certainly it sounds
like deliberate and contemptuous abuse of
their charity status which they have milked
and milked to benefit themselves for years and
years and gotten away with it thus far without
as much as a murmur from their supporters
and donors or being subject to a official in-
vestigation by The UK Charity Commission
to establish once and for all what The Big
Issue is really upto!!

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NO LOVELY DUFFY
When Sanjav described John Duffy as a "lovely
man" I almost fell thru the floor! Duffy was too
cosy with the vile Bird Brothers to begin with,
but worst he was literally hated by the majority
of Big Issue vendors that I knew during the
course of my own five years as a so-called
 badged vendor at Covent Garden. John Duffy
was a bully, too. That aside from being a failed
business operator who was then hired by pigface
 John Bird to be his "International Business Manager"
 at Vauxhall HQ. A three-legged rodent could have
done the job better. One of Duffy's constant refrains
 was how The Big Issue was always there for him
at whenever he hit hard times yet again.  I was
sick of him brown nosing pigface at every turn.
Aside from that, the most egregious of Duffy's
 acts was his disgusting comment that he stated
in The Rotten Big Issue that it was better for
 vendors to sell Big Issue ''instead of going
around robbing old ladies." I was absolutely
livid to read John Duffy's callous comments
and put down against vendors, especially since
he himself was an ex-homeless person and an
ex-Big Issue vendor, too! I promptly emailed
him and told him off. My letter to The Big Issue
criticising Duffy was never published, of course!
The Big Issue is censored from beginning to end.
 ...
WHO GETS ALL THE MONEY?
But the biggest question of all - "Who Gets All
The Money At The Big Issue? - remains to be
 answered fully in due course either by an out-
side investigation by The UK Charity Commission
 and/or HM Tax Revenue or even the Met Police
 Fraud Squad. It's all coming sooner or later the
way things stand right now with so many unans-
wered questions about what is really going on
behind-the-scenes of the rotten Big Issue. Sit
pretty and dig deep and then wait and see what
eventually happens - it's only a matter of time
 before the sour milk is spilled for us all to see.
***
Keep questioning, Uncle Monty.
+St. Micheal & All Angels, 2011.
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Feedback & Comments
allaboutthebigissue@gmx.co.uk
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MOZART

Concert in Aid of The Passage.

Tickets Are 15 Quid Each.

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World Homeless Action Day, 10/10/11.

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ABBEVILLE:

Life & Death of Rita & Arthur Bixby.

By Uncle Monty.

http://thebiggerissueorg.blogspot.com/2011/09/abbeville.html

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GOOGLE PHOTOLOG

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=abbeville.+by+uncle+monty.&hl=en&sa=X&qscrl=1&nord=1&rlz=1T4ADFA_enGB449GB450&site=webhp&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&sout=1&biw=971&bih=542

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If U Recognise the baby, U'll recognise her mum.

MOTHER LOOTING WITH HER BABY at

Lewisham during London Riots last month. She's

an unfit "thing" to be called a "mother," I think!This Is

What Vile Tony Blair's Hideous Third World Mass

 Immigration Has Brought to the UK. Sod Him!!

...

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As advertised at Guardian Jobs:

DO YOU WANT TO HELP PUT

AN END TO HOMELESSNESS?

If so, then we want to hear from you! - London -

BIG ISSUE COMPANY LIMITED.

Sorry, this job is no longer live ...

http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/expiredjob/4307795/do-you-want-to-help-put-an-end-to-homelessness-if-so-then-we-want-to-hear-from-you-/

..

WHAT A JOKE?

But there's yet another 1,229 career Charities jobs in the UK!

It's an outrageous case of too many charities just playing the

"charity game" for all it's worth. We're overload with too many

 worthless and useless charities, just like we are with way too

many unwanted immigrants, menacing Muslims, and figid

foreigners, all having now swamped and flooded the UK

under odious New Labour & The British Labour

 Party's socialist gangsters and leftist loonies. Coupled

with the constant intrusion of the ogre and vicious

 European Union (EU) with all its mindless law making.

...

Talking of UK Charities, I'll soon take a closer look

 at the so-called disabled homeless charity called

GOOD4YOU, which is operated by a very iffy

 bloke called Francois Greeff.  Is it yet another

UK charity scam or what?

 Find out soon ...

...

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{ To Enlarge any image, just click on it }

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