Baron Tents Corporation Ltd

George and Diane's shrine at Baron Homes's Windsor Court

"Welcome to Baron Tents, here at Baron Tents we supply only the finest camping equipment to our clients in parks and cemeteries around Brighton and Hove..."

Well. That is George and Diane's situation, except neither The Baron Homes Corporation Ltd or Brighton and Hove City Council provided them with a tent. It was Jason who did that, helping them to pitch up last night with a passer-by and a friend of mine, Mister Paul.

Since George and Diane's eviction from Arundel Court, under KEM Properties ownership, they have been to the absolutely diabolical 17/19 Grand Parade, the Wardleigh Hotel, a bed and breakfast in Eastbourne and had ended up in Windsor Court, which appeared as if it was being used for the set of Les Miserables.

I have, for a few weeks now, being doing my best not to allow my Catholic blog to morph into the George and Diane show, but I have meanwhile been doing what I can to support them - hence less blogging.  As it stands now, Brighton and Hove City Council have abandoned them totally, renouncing their statutory duty to house them and so they are in a local park. George and Diane were assessed to have breached their licence agreement and because the Council "uses KEM properties for all of our self-contained properties in Brighton and Hove," there is nowhere else for them to go. In other words, after they had been barred from KEM Properties, being barred from Baron Homes properties means that there is nowhere for George and Diane. Things have spiralled downwards quickly for them.

Abandoned by the Council: George and Diane

Of course, at the park, park rangers come round to tell them to take their tent down because they cannot stay there. I've reported before how park rangers of the Council do their best to close down any tents in Preston Park, lest the Council have to admit that the homeless problem in Brighton and Hove City Council really is spilling out from houses into streets and parks. I'm sure it doesn't look good for tourists, but ultimately, if the Council has renounced its own duty to house George and Diane then surely the same local authority cannot turn around and tell them they are unable to live in a tent in a park. After all, where are they supposed to go?

I asked Brighton and Hove City Council to produce a letter stating that they had renounced all duty of care to one of their mental health service clients so that I could take it to the local press. I waited a long time only to be told that they will produce it Monday. Today I was busy helping a friend move so I couldn't get that letter. Shame on them, they are cowards! They couldn't even come down from their offices at Priory House or Bartholomew House to confront George and Diane and tell them they were washing their hands of them and that they were on the street! They did it by phone in one of their phone kiosks! Vipers!

And this is what I am seeing a lot of in Brighton and beyond. The prejudice that the poor face is extreme and diabolical in nature, deadly, poisonous and unflinchingly cruel.  In the services, whether it be housing or social services, substance misuse services or whatever, they all hide behind desks and phones in offices. Rarely do they ever step outside of their comfort zone to begin to understand the sufferings of the poor and even more rarely do they lift a finger to help them. They get their paychecks and return to their more comfortable abodes, living off the plight of those who they do not care about.

When George and Diane went to the Wardleigh Hotel, the manager told George and Diane that they "belong in a cardboard box". Nice, eh!? And that is where the Council are placing vulnerable homeless 'clients' just so they can provide these emergency hostel operations with extortionate rates of housing benefits. Yet, even the Wardleigh Hotel cannot compare with the extortion of Baron Homes! The Director, I see from the internet, sold her house in Beverley Hills for $6million before returning back to the United Kingdom. Alright for some isn't it! What vile racketeers they are!

If you would like to help George and Diane in any way, let me know, my email is on the sidebar. Now that the Council have abandoned them to the streets they are considering Scarborough or somewhere else up North. If you can do nothing please pray for them. George can rough it but Diane doesn't belong on the streets or in a tent.

Hyde Martlett Housing Association

Riddled with damp, but the tenant is not "worthy" of help

Today I assisted a friend's move from another town to here who has been given a place to live in Moulscoomb an area on the outskirts of the city. I was terribly shocked to see that in the really rather quaint little cul-de-sac where she had been living, the living conditions of her home.

As you can see from the image left, Hyde Martlett Housing Association managed to do rather nicely out of my friend's housing benefits of £94 a week, but, scandalously, didn't think that the tenant was "worthy" (their words not hers) of having the damp in her house sorted out. Her property stank of damp. She had been sleeping in the front room because her bedroom was so noxious with the stench of damp that she rarely entered it. I could not believe that the Housing Association, Hyde Martlett, had said that they would do something about it when they deemed that she was "worthy" of it, but I believe that it underscores much that I have written about the perceptions of living conditions of those who are most scorned and looked down upon in society.

Hyde Martletts: Available, but not willing to help "unworthy" tenants

The kind of prejudice faced by the poor would be all over the front pages of the press if the same outrageous hypocrisy was levelled at the LGBT community. She, like George, was raised Catholic, though she claims that her Catholicism was beaten out of her by nuns at a convent school when she was young. She has a past of drugs but she is looking forward to "a new chapter" in her life, in Brighton.

She believes that people in Brighton are less judgmental and more open-minded than where she lived. I hadn't the heart to tell her that Brighton is no different. Many of her neighbours loved her and were sad to see her go even though it was obvious she had had many difficulties. A couple of neighbours came out to tell her "good riddance". I hope that Brighton shows her more compassion and kindness that did her neighbourhood, but wherever they go, the very poor will find the same prejudice. It is as old as sin itself, but it is vicious and this vile prejudice should be utterly condemned wherever it is found.

Amy Winehouse RIP

She would have fitted in quite well in Brighton, I think.  I always found it sickening that no matter how talented and inspiring was the music of this woman, many within the press called her and Pete Doherty "scum" and the rest. I always find that the "dregs" are at the bottom of a glass. "Scum" only rises to the top of society, usually the top of newspaper empires, governments, Councils and companies.

Certainly, many souls in Brighton who know what she went through are praying for her because they understand her and have known so many who have died similar deaths in similar circumstances, in alleyways, in hostels, in public lavatories, in 17/19 Grand Parade, in their homes. Whenever I saw pictures of her and her friend Pete Doherty, I thought they appeared much as many of the homelesss appear: lost, broken, desperate, in great afflication and pain - men and women bleeding like unto the pierced side of Our Blessed Saviour. Such souls are usually more honest than most and most who criticise them, much less so and with much more shameful things to hide.

May she and all who die at the hands of drink and drugs find rest in His pierced Heart. May the soul of Amy Winehouse rest in peace.