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.
...
Questions By Tom Yomogi Yuri = TYY.
Answers By Sanjav = San.
...
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.
...
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.
...
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 -
...
...
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 ...
...
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!!
...
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.
...
Feedback & Comments
allaboutthebigissue@gmx.co.uk
.
MOZART
Concert in Aid of The Passage.
Tickets Are 15 Quid Each.
...
.
World Homeless Action Day, 10/10/11.
...
.
ABBEVILLE:
Life & Death of Rita & Arthur Bixby.
By Uncle Monty.
...
GOOGLE PHOTOLOG
.
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!!
...
.
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 ...
..
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 ...
...
.
{ To Enlarge any image, just click on it }
.
