High Noon at Highbury Magistrates Court on Thursday 13 July 2017! Show solidarity for civil disobedience vs fiscal policies bad for health

Guest blog post by Revd Paul Nicolson, founder of Taxpayers Against Poverty, writing in a personal capacity

CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE in solidarity with everyone in UK suffering mental or physical ill-health due to inadequate incomes and debt 

I have been summoned to appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court, 51 Holloway Road, London N7 8JA at 13.30 on Thursday 13th July.  There will be a demonstration outside the courts from 12-1.30. 

I am refusing to pay my council tax, as an act of civil disobedience, in solidarity with everyone in the UK suffering mental or physical ill-health due to grossly inadequate incomes and debt in work, self employment, unemployment  or zero hours contracts; particularly those who have been forced by national and local government to go to a food bank. 

​TWO UNPRECEDENTED RISES IN DEATH RATES.  

How many more infant deaths, how much more diminished life expectancy, do there have to be before UK national and local governments accept the overwhelming and undeniable evidence that low incomes impact on mental and physical health? Some 52,400 more deaths were reported by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to have occurred in the year to June 2015 as compared to the same period a year before,

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Nine blogs on health equality 

Dr Angela Donkin Institute of Health Equity, Profs Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson Equality Trust, Maddy Power University of York, Carl Walker University of Brighton 

​​I will be asking the Highbury Corner Magistrates when and how they checked the costs of £115 they award this year against, mostly impoverished, council tax defaulters, 27,270 times in 2016/17.  ​

The bailiffs were dispatched by Haringey council to the doorsteps of Haringey residents 11,492 times in 2016/17​

There is a comprehensive description of how  £73.10 single adult unemployment benefit has been reducing in value since 1979 on the TAP website.  Its increases were frozen in 201I. It cannot afford 20% of the council tax, let alone court costs and bailiffs fees, introduced in 2013.  It also has to pay rent dues to the bedroom tax and the benefit cap.. 

OBJECTION TO HARINGEY'S COUNCIL'S  ACCOUNTS

I have raised an objection to Haringey Council's 2016/17 Accounts asking the auditors BDO, LLP 55 Baker Street, London W1U 7EU to audit the council tax costs awarded to Haringey Council by the Magistrates. 

​I have told the auditors that there is a profound public interest in the council and the magistrates ceasing to impose mental and physical ill health on the poorest ​Haringey ​tenants by enforcing an unpayable tax against grossly inadequate incomes adding court costs and bailiffs fees​, and failing to collect over £2million every year.  

Camden and Westminster Councils have already exempted benefit claimants from the tax. 

​Haringey's auditors BDO LLP  are authorised and regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales 

I have reminded the auditors that ​BDO LLP is authorised and regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales ("ICAEW") under registration number C001055835. .May I remind you of the ICEAW code of ethics. "ICAEW members are expected to demonstrate the highest standards of professional conduct and to take into consideration the public interest. Ethical behaviour plays a vital role in ensuring public trust in financial reporting and business practices and upholding the reputation of the accountancy profession".

HARINGEY COUNCIL TAXES BENEFIT INCOMES OF ITS 
POOREST RESIDENTS OF UK'S MOST DEPRIVED WARDS WITH 
LOW LIFE EXPECTANCY AND HIGH RISK OF LOW BIRTH-WEIGHT.

Ten blogs on affordable housing by 

Stephen Hill MRICS Churchill Fellow, Prof Danny Dorling University of Oxford, Fred Harrison Land Research Trust, Alison Gelder Housing Justice. 

Nine blogs on health equality 

Dr Angela Donkin Institute of Health Equity, Profs Kate Pickett and Richard Wilkinson Equality Trust, Maddy Power University of York, Carl Walker University of Brighton