{"id":6314,"date":"2018-01-04T10:25:46","date_gmt":"2018-01-04T09:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=6314"},"modified":"2018-01-04T10:53:53","modified_gmt":"2018-01-04T09:53:53","slug":"the-prince-and-the-paupers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/6314\/","title":{"rendered":"The Prince and the Paupers"},"content":{"rendered":"

I heard this story<\/a> being discussed by two idiots on the BBC this morning:<\/p>\n

A council leader has called for action to tackle “aggressive begging” in Windsor, ahead of the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.<\/p>\n

Simon Dudley, of the Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead, has called on the Berkshire police and crime commissioner (PCC) to address the issue “urgently”.<\/p>\n

Mr Dudley said street begging created a “hostile atmosphere” for both residents and tourists.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The BBC talking heads declared that Harry and Meghan would be very unhappy about this, particularly her because she is committed to tackling humanitarian issues. They’re not even married yet, and already the media are buttering her up as a spokesperson for right-on progressive causes. Joy oh fucking joy.<\/p>\n

Windsor Homeless Project described the comments as “abhorrent”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well they would, especially if they’re only going off what the BBC is reporting. The full letter is here<\/a>:<\/p>\n

In the Royal Borough we believe homelessness is completely unacceptable in a caring, compassionate community such as ours. We are working to create the necessary housing for our residents. We are in the process of finalising our emerging Borough Local Plan (BLP) that will provide the necessary housing for our whole community, including social housing. The BLP will be submitted to the Department for Communities and Local Government in late January 2018.<\/p>\n

Our work on the SWEP has provided us with the evidence that a large number of adults that are begging in Windsor are not in fact homeless, and if they are homeless they are choosing to reject all support services to beg on the streets of Windsor. In the case of homelessness amongst this group, it is therefore a voluntary choice. Recently, council officers secured emergency accommodation for every individual begging and rough sleeping in Windsor, through making contact with each one.\u00a0 A significant number of the adults chose not to turn up and use the accommodation that we had purchased for them, instead choosing to remain on the street begging. This is creating a concerning and hostile atmosphere for our residents and the seven million tourists who come to Windsor each year.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The BBC does tell us this, however:<\/p>\n

He went on to describe how “vagrancy and begging” meant people were “marching tourists to cash points to withdraw cash” – although Thames Valley Police\u00a0said it had received no such reports.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Is this proof that it’s not happening, or that the people affected know that reporting anything to the police is a complete waste of time?<\/p>\n

Windsor Homeless Project manager Murphy James said it was “sickening” that Mr Dudley had cited the royal wedding as a reason for his concerns.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dudley should have known better than to try to talk sense around morons like this. He should withdraw his letter and issue another suggesting Windsor’s homeless be invited to the royal wedding and permitted to live in the castle afterwards. It’s what Meghan would want, isn’t it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I heard this story being discussed by two idiots on the BBC this morning: A council leader has called for action to tackle “aggressive begging” in Windsor, ahead of the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Simon Dudley, of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[42],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6314"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6314"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6317,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6314\/revisions\/6317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}