Saturday 20 December 2014

Suzanne Moore Struggles With Basic Concepts (Again)…

Beggars bother us apparently. They bother shopkeepers and residents. They are not good for business. They annoy us when we are only trying to spend our hard-earned money. We know what they need, even if they don’t. They are often difficult people to help.
What’s your next column going to be about, then? How water is wet, and the sky is blue?
I don’t kid myself here, but what is the point of further criminalising them?
What’s the alternative, if they are doing something criminal?
The demand to arrest beggars is said to be because some are aggressive and intimidating. But surely this is an attempt to cleanse and hide the increasing numbers.
No, it might just be because some are aggressive and intimidating. Even Sigmund Freud had to agree that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar…
As we load up for Christmas, it really would be nicer not to encounter these hopeless, zoned-out specimens. They are the cities’ human graffiti, reminding us that inequality is not some abstract notion. But is it really the job of the police to arrest them, fine them and call this “help” ?
Yes, if they are doing something arrestable.

In fact, that’s more ‘the job of the police’ than trawling Facebook for off-colour jokes and trudging round car parks checking people don’t leave coats in their cars, I’d suggest…
Antisocial behaviour is not sitting by a cash machine asking for spare change.
It can be. If people want to use a cashpoint without being hassled for change by a worthless drunk or drug addict.
Are we to accept this, as well as the notion that food banks are necessary in a very rich country? To see this as inevitable strikes me as the most antisocial behaviour of all.
Food banks aren’t necessary. They are a calculated political pressure point and we can all see through them. Mainly thanks to people like you constantly harping on about them.

14 comments:

Ed P said...

I understand there are sufficient "berths" to accomodate all the homeless people on London's streets. But these refuges will not take in drink & drug-addled people - they have to abide by house rules and many will not accept the conditions. So I never give money to street beggars as it will rarely be spent on nutrition, preferring to support the refuges.

Flaxen Saxon said...

Shit. When it comes to beggars, tis best to avoid eye contact. If no witnesses, I give them a sound kicking, just because I can. Afterall tis Christmas. Life is tough and if you can't take advantage of the fucking useless, what is the point?

Twenty_Rothmans said...

Only a Leftist retard like Suzanne Moore would consider the word 'cleanse' in a negative sense. It might just be me, but I 'do' clean.

Pure beggars are vermin. Parasites. One asked me at the checkout in the off-licence the other night if I had 40p.
"Of course I do - I earn that in about 30 seconds". Then I left.

Lest you think that I am mean, I do give to beggars in less fortunate countries, where their circumstances are brought on by disability or age.

But I am not going to voluntarily help some half-caste buy his can of Spesh in a country that denudes me monthly to feed indolent, feckless meatunits like him.

Furor Teutonicus said...

Tell the bastards to go and fuck themselves sideways with a dried walruss prick wrapped in NATO wire, and plugged into the main power supply.

Except 90% of the fuckers do not speak the language of the country they are in.

Therefore a practical, and physical example is preferable.

A shot of NATO wire up the arse, charged with 90 amps of old sparky can say a thousand words. Agreed most of them ar OWWWw... FIZZZZ.... POP!! Which appears to be international.

Brightside Bob said...

"Antisocial behaviour is not sitting by a cash machine asking for spare change."

It's that 'black & white' world again. Here's a 'grey' scenario: Suppose the 'beggar' is actually a mugger & they're not merely after your "spare change"?

Twenty_Rothmans said...

@Furor

Grosse Issue bitte?

(I think it's 'Asphalt' over there. In Frankfurt we get the one-legged greasies rattling a hat or moaning).

There's one near Mansion House who claims he's ex RA. I am very tempted to take my shoe-shining gear and get him to do a decent job of it.

There's a crisp fiver in it if he can - but I doubt it.

(Puts CoE hat on) But if he did, I'd buy him the makings of a shoeshine stall. Then the City of London will tell him to piss off. Back to begging.

Furor Teutonicus said...

Ahh Bulling boots!

MUST be Kiwi, (Cherry blossom is crap.) and a yellow duster!

I have it on permenant order here. You can not buy Kiwi in your general shop in Germany since the Brits left. It is all this "paint in a tube" Granny polish stuff :-(

Twenty_Rothmans said...

@Furor
I still have here an old (2004) tin of Erdal Schuhcreme. It's not that bad, I sometimes use it for the first coat, then go at it with the Kiwi. About two pairs left in it.

Yellow dusters galore, although I am getting the feel of the microfibre cloths.

I use Parade Gloss on the two pairs of relatively inexpensive shoes used in inclement weather (they are not worth bulling).

Anonymous said...

FT,
Kiwi is so passe. The way now is black polyurethane paint. Then you can have a kick about, rub over with a damp cloth (not necessarily a yellow one), and still present yourself on parade. Blessed are the scientists, for they will show the way.
Penseivat

andy5759 said...

Kiwi is the best, whatever you use though, buffing is essential. Shiny boots, smart heel clicks.

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX Twenty_Rothmans said...@Furor
Grosse Issue bitte?
(I think it's 'Asphalt' over there. In Frankfurt we get the one-legged greasies rattling a hat or moaning).XX

Either "Strassenfeger" or "Mötz."

We have both in Berlin. Other citys have their own as well. But those two appear to be National.

Furor Teutonicus said...

XX Kiwi is so passe. The way now is black polyurethane paint.
Penseivat XX

Go on, I bet you sew "creases" into your BDs as well? :-D

Twenty_Rothmans said...

@Furor
"Das Asphalt-Magazin ist seit 1994 eine in Hannover erscheinende und niedersachsenweit vertriebene, soziale Straßenzeitung."

That's where I remember it.

I used to buy the BI in Sydney until they published an article which said, to paraphrase, that executives in suits were arseholes.
As I was (a) an executive, (b) in a suit and (c) an arsehole, my patronage stopped immediately.

Fools.

If the Romanian woman selling the BI in my local high street sold one with the headline "Eject these filthy toothless gypsies now!" I'd buy the lot.

JuliaM said...

"But these refuges will not take in drink & drug-addled people - they have to abide by house rules and many will not accept the conditions. "

Imagine being so wedded to your 'lifestyle' that you'd rather freeze..!

"Only a Leftist retard like Suzanne Moore would consider the word 'cleanse' in a negative sense."

Good point.

"Except 90% of the fuckers do not speak the language of the country they are in."

Oddly, 90% of the Southend beggers are native.

"Blessed are the scientists, for they will show the way."

:D