Today I'm happy about......

[jaffka]

Actually, from what he did tell me I very much doubt that his wife's version of events would have differed much, if at all.

It's on an open forum I didn't realise it was a private conversation.

The conversation between me and the guy in question was indeed a private conversation. This is an open forum. Glad we cleared that up.

which is why I commented on it, if you don't want to discuss it any further then that's your prerogative.

[jaffka]

I generally talk about stuff I know summat about - I usually ignore stuff I don't know much about.

I can see you don't share this restraint.

also - well done Bruce!

Well that's debatable.

Do you want to answer the question?

[thebish]

I generally talk about stuff I know summat about - I usually ignore stuff I don't know much about.

I can see you don't share this restraint.

also - well done Bruce!

Do you want to answer the question?

I suspect it is pointless, and I had thought it might be obvious - I overestimated you! (quite easy to do in fact..)

I have known - over the years - a fair number of people who have worked in different local councils - Hartlepool, Essex, East Devon, Oxford - the work I do often leads me into the same meetings that they attend and are part of. Some of them I have known socially also. not surprisingly, they talk about their work - what they can actually do and what they can't... the council housing office is a grim place to work. many of them don't last long.

however - if you really and genuinely (actually) think that there are no "genuine" homeless people (having given no justification for your belief - unless you count a link to a website that doesn't say what you appear to think it does) - then I guess that you have had a charmed life that hasn't involved mixing with people or spending time with people in situations where it is only too obvious that "genuine" homelessness is an all-too-real possibility waiting just around the corner.

that's nice for you! enjoy!

meanwhile (back in the real world).. well done Bruce!

[Beefheart]

I think someone might be conflating 'homelessness' and 'sleeping rough'.

[jaffka]

I generally talk about stuff I know summat about - I usually ignore stuff I don't know much about.

I can see you don't share this restraint.

also - well done Bruce!

Do you want to answer the question?

I suspect it is pointless, and I had thought it might be obvious - I overestimated you! (quite easy to do in fact..)

I have known - over the years - a fair number of people who have worked in different local councils - Hartlepool, Essex, East Devon, Oxford - the work I do often leads me into the same meetings that they attend and are part of. Some of them I have known socially also. not surprisingly, they talk about their work - what they can actually do and what they can't... the council housing office is a grim place to work. many of them don't last long.

however - if you really and genuinely (actually) think that there are no "genuine" homeless people (having given no justification for your belief - unless you count a link to a website that doesn't say what you appear to think it does) - then I guess that you have had a charmed life that hasn't involved mixing with people or spending time with people in situations where it is only too obvious that "genuine" homelessness is an all-too-real possibility waiting just around the corner.

that's nice for you! enjoy!

meanwhile (back in the real world).. well done Bruce!

How have you come to that conclusion?

[thebish]

offering a meal to someone in need - that's well done in my book. a fitting conclusion, I thought.

how I came to it? probably just basic human niceness...

[jaffka]

I wasn't referring to that. Do you want to try again?

[thebish]

You can only get so far by asking questions on a forum and mistrusting other peoples' experience/judgement. There's no subsititute for going out and finding out for yourself. My conclusions and my experience wouldn't be half as "real" to you - until you find out for yourself it's just words on a screen.

If you're really interested in finding out about the genuineness of people who are homeless, I'd suggest that your best bet (that's if you actually ARE interested) is to go out and meet some and talk with them - take a risk, take an open mind with you (most of them don't bite) and see what happens... then you're trusting your own experience and judgement and not relying on someone else's.

let us know how you get on if you ever do venture outside...

[Prufrock]

They have these "Baby on Board" badges for women to wear down here in This That London. Absolute god send. Horrendously British dilemma now got rid of. If she's not wearing one of them, I'm not risking it!

[Gary the Enfield]

They have these "Baby on Board" badges for women to wear down here in This That London. Absolute god send. Horrendously British dilemma now got rid of. If she's not wearing one of them, I'm not risking it!

Plus it stops you accidentally standing up for a fatty on the Tube.

Win Win

[TANGODANCER]

however - if you really and genuinely (actually) think that there are no "genuine" homeless people !

My only contribution isn't very recent, but homeless people are a reality, not imagination. I can add this: Some tidy years back I did three years as a mobile security guard visiting dozens of sites in the dead of night all over Manchester. We were supposed to move anybody along that shouldn't be hanging around premisies at night. After a while you realised that blokes (mainly) huddled in cardboard boxes in doorways in the rain, hail and snow probably had enough problems without being moved along. Whether from choice or no, the fact remained, if not having a home to go to defines it, then they were homeless. There were also a considerable number of them.

[jaffka]

You can only get so far by asking questions on a forum and mistrusting other peoples' experience/judgement. There's no subsititute for going out and finding out for yourself. My conclusions and my experience wouldn't be half as "real" to you - until you find out for yourself it's just words on a screen.

If you're really interested in finding out about the genuineness of people who are homeless, I'd suggest that your best bet (that's if you actually ARE interested) is to go out and meet some and talk with them - take a risk, take an open mind with you (most of them don't bite) and see what happens... then you're trusting your own experience and judgement and not relying on someone else's.

let us know how you get on if you ever do venture outside...

I get out alright, just choosy who I associate with. I leave the interfering to professional nosey god botherers. Make them feel important you see.

You like giving those little digs, do you give them face to face?

[thebish]

however - if you really and genuinely (actually) think that there are no "genuine" homeless people !

My only contribution isn't very recent, but homeless people are a reality, not imagination. I can add this: Some tidy years back I did three years as a mobile security guard visiting dozens of sites in the dead of night all over Manchester. We were supposed to move anybody along that shouldn't be hanging around premisies at night. After a while you realised that blokes (mainly) huddled in cardboard boxes in doorways in the rain, hail and snow probably had enough problems without being moved along. Whether from choice or no, the fact remained, if not having a home to go to defines it, then they were homeless. There were also a considerable number of them.

good for you, tango..

when I worked with the Bondway night-shelter in London we used to go out with soup-runs. during my time there the Westminster Council got more and more antsy about rough-sleepers - to the extent that at one popular spot - the bridge outside embankment underground station - they occasionally came and actually hosed them with water... there was an entire cardboard city underneath the bowels of the South Bank... Lincolns Inn Fields, also a popular space...

back then, many of the homeless blokes were ex-military service with mental health problems (often post-traumatic stress disorder...) the other largest category - other than mental health (by far the biggest) was/is divorced men who have had to leave the family home - then sunk slowly through rented accomodation/ B&B / then run out of friends sofas to sleep on - maybe the wife moves to the other end of the country with the kids and the bloke follows to be near - and sleeps in the car - then ends up on the street... there are a good number of people now who live in cars... met one in Redcar a few months ago - he lives in an old transit van with 2 dogs.. must be freeeeeezing in winter...

[clapton is god]

Remember the passport panic from last year where applications were taking up to three months and people were missing holidays? We applied for a renewal last Saturday and it was hand delivered today. 3.5 working days is good going by anyones standards!

[Bruce Rioja]

You've just reminded me, Clapton. Cheers. Though I must write in the angry thread about mine not being either a claimable expense nor tax deductible.

[clapton is god]

You've just reminded me, Clapton. Cheers. Though I must write in the angry thread about mine not being either a claimable expense nor tax deductible.

Well mine was very nearly in the angry thread too. After months of asking our lass for sight of her passport she finally retrieved it from her dads on Friday and I found it expires in June four days before we go away.

[Lord Kangana]

Are there genuine homeless now?

Yes, I was talking to one such chap the other week. His Mrs had kicked him out and as such he's nobodies priority by way of giving him shelter. Ultimately he was a regular guy like you or I. I bought him a meal because I'm a sanctimonious c*nt.

In the midst of all the too-ing and fro-ing thats going on in this thread, this genuine act of human kindness seems to have gone largely unremarked. May I say that I think thats an absolutely, thoroughly decent, human thing to do. Hats off.

[Bijou Bob]

Are there genuine homeless now?

Yes, I was talking to one such chap the other week. His Mrs had kicked him out and as such he's nobodies priority by way of giving him shelter. Ultimately he was a regular guy like you or I. I bought him a meal because I'm a sanctimonious c*nt.

In the midst of all the too-ing and fro-ing thats going on in this thread, this genuine act of human kindness seems to have gone largely unremarked. May I say that I think thats an absolutely, thoroughly decent, human thing to do. Hats off.

Absolutely. Well done Bruce. Claimable and tax deductible?

[Salford Trotter]

Are there genuine homeless now?

Yes, I was talking to one such chap the other week. His Mrs had kicked him out and as such he's nobodies priority by way of giving him shelter. Ultimately he was a regular guy like you or I. I bought him a meal because I'm a sanctimonious c*nt.

In the midst of all the too-ing and fro-ing thats going on in this thread, this genuine act of human kindness seems to have gone largely unremarked. May I say that I think thats an absolutely, thoroughly decent, human thing to do. Hats off.

Absolutely. Well done Bruce. Claimable and tax deductible?

Bruce for PM

[Gary the Enfield]

Are there genuine homeless now?

Yes, I was talking to one such chap the other week. His Mrs had kicked him out and as such he's nobodies priority by way of giving him shelter. Ultimately he was a regular guy like you or I. I bought him a meal because I'm a sanctimonious c*nt.

In the midst of all the too-ing and fro-ing thats going on in this thread, this genuine act of human kindness seems to have gone largely unremarked. May I say that I think thats an absolutely, thoroughly decent, human thing to do. Hats off.

Absolutely. Well done Bruce. Claimable and tax deductible?

I assume he got a receipt. Well done Bruce.