A letter a day to number 10. No 1,531
Tuesday 23 August 2016.
Dear Mrs May,
Another homeless person has been attacked on the streets of Britain and is now in a coma, fighting for his life.
I cannot accuse your government of doing nothing when it is doing so much to create such fragile existences.
Homelessness is the embodiment of fragility on the public stage of everytown, shame on those who are offended and angered by this very public display of precariousness and assault those who unwillingly and unwittingly force it upon their attention, exposed, as they are, without privacy, dignity or security. Shame on all those who persecute those less fortunate than themselves.
I feel this insidious rise of precarity, at 65 I fear homelessness, it is not something I can ignore in an ever more insecure world, but I do not fear the homeless, for they are me in one twist of neoliberal driven misanthropy.
If I attacked them, I would be attacking myself, my own psyche, but as if this very public display of abject loss were not bad enough, councils are making homelessness and begging illegal and even impose fines for begging. Fining people for having nothing is a particularly twisted kind of perverse and sadistic cruelty which actively increases the danger of assault because ‘society’ has legislated against and criminalised homeless people.
The bedroom tax, benefit delays and sanctions, enforced pension delays, the Universal Credit system and benefit caps are all policies which put people in danger of homelessness to which many have already fallen victim.
Fragile and precarious living is the new normal for millions of people in Britain today as are the increasing attacks on those living in enforced vulnerability. Homelessness, like poverty, is a political issue and not the individual personal failing of those afflicted. Such people are the economically excluded as Britain’s safety net is demolished. You pledged that, “The government I lead will be driven, not by the interests of the privileged few but by yours.” I have only one question. When?
https://www.rt.com/uk/248625-homeless-criminalize-oxford-council/
Fear and Loathing in Great Britain 
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