John Bird: Cut State Benefits, Buy the Big Issue.

July 20, 2010

How to Deal with Ne’re-Do-Wells.

Jobless must earn their benefits says John Bird (MBE)

Monday 21st of June 2010

John Bird, Founder & Editor in Chief of The Big Issue, has written to David Cameron urging him to cut state benefits.

In his letter to the Prime Minister Mr Bird urges him to take measures which oblige the unemployed to become involved in community work in order to improve their life skills and readiness for work.  

It is his firm belief that long term benefit dependency is responsible for a great many ills in society, including the creation of an underclass lacking in motivation or aspiration. 

“That’s not only damaging to individuals, it’s damaging to society. The illegal drugs industry would be lost without the support of the welfare state,” he told the Sunday Times yesterday.

Mr Bird explains that it is more expensive to keep a child in care than it is to send them to Eton – like the Prime Minister.

“He has to move fast: a new government has only six months of goodwill. I reminded him that we have the most expensive poor in the world.”

From Here

Help the Big Issue, use their Job Service: Here.

More on Big Issue Scam (Flexy) – Here.

Posted by Andrew Coates
Filed in Campaigns for Unemployed, Government, jobseekers allowance, Unemployment, Welfare Reform
Tags: ,
23 Comments »

23 Responses to “John Bird: Cut State Benefits, Buy the Big Issue.”

  1. Flexible New Deal Says:

    July 20, 2010 at 6:40 pm

    Thanks for the link…

    The job service is just a way of exploiting a brand to make more money for the Bigg issue founders, owners and management.

    btw leave questions to ask Hayley Taylor from 8.30pm for a chat after 10pm tonight:

    http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-fairy-jobmother/articles/chat-to-hayley-live

    Reply
  2. ken Says:

    July 20, 2010 at 11:03 pm

    crime is more to do with drugs then social security benefits’ the money needed to fiance drug use is beyond benefit claimants as a whole.

    however on new deal as i have mentioned before one member did suggest to me “become a dealer” was one way and drugs were behind the scenes and some found a source of supply,there was a tendency towards porn on the pcs’ also it was abundantly clear from a personal perspective that new deal is or was a complete failure and will be remembered for all the wrong reasons’.the provider displayed signs instant dismissal exe but it was very clear they were unable unwilling to tackle the problem.

    i think those supporting this magazine would do well to walk away,to have someone who is entitled to his views publicising his personal experiences to everyone on benefits is shortsighted and misguided,particularly selling a magazine can somehow change your life to the masses.

    Reply
    • Flexible New Deal Says:

      July 21, 2010 at 8:38 am

      Its a contractual obligation to display those notices hence why all New Deal providers do.

      There are so many “wasters” on New Deal… maybe only 10% total, although they cant get a job outcome for these people, keeping them on get them a service fee (which on New Deal is per person for their attendance)… this is why these people never disappear.

      However, make a comment on a blog before you have even started can get you dismissed. This is due to the very small percentage of people they lose for this. Not saying of course that they didn’t try claiming the full 13 weeks for those people.

      At Dencora House detention centre these major rules (as I call them) are widely ignored however they take a strict view of taking tea and coffee outside the building which can give you “gross misconduct” dismissal.

      Reply
  3. Lowestoft's Finest Says:

    July 21, 2010 at 6:44 am

    Anyone who thinks that state benefits are driving the illegal drugs industry (and not the reality that appalling low levels of benefits, and total lack of other opportunities for a huge section of society is whats driving the illegal drugs industry)Has his head so far up his own arse his views don’t count.

    Successive governments have fought a Class War against the poorest members of society, completely villanising, excluding and alienating them, organised crime has stepped into the vacum to recruit these foot soldiers in the same way as the Taliban stepped into Afghanistan (a country not famous for its generous benefit levels).

    Mr Bird want’s to bring in the same shock and awe tactics used against the Taliban against the Unemployed. These tactics are an utter disasster and have just lost Afghanistan which is why the west is busy running away, mr Bird is clearly a Moron without a clue so should shut up.

    Reply
  4. Andrew Coates Says:

    July 21, 2010 at 9:53 am

    Does anyone know how much Bird gets from his position with the Big Issue etc etc.

    I tried to find out but there’s nothing easy to get hold of on the Web.

    In the meantime anyone paying for the mag should realise that some of that dosh is going to him.

    Reply
    • Flexible New Deal Says:

      July 21, 2010 at 10:11 am

      I will see what I can find.

      Reply
    • Flexible New Deal Says:

      July 21, 2010 at 10:51 am

      Latest published accounts up to 29 March 2009…

      Wages: £1,587,054
      Tax & NI: £167,204
      Directors: £198,892

      This was just one of their companies (Big Issue Co). I assume they draw both wages (Editor in Chief) and director salary from the other companies (such as Wales and Scotland subsidiary) too.

      There are 4 directors – not sure if its completely split into 4 or not – probably not.

      They made a £143,687 loss that year and blamed decreased sales and decreased advertisement revenue due to recession. Only made a £20 investment (shares) and no mention of any charitable donations or transfer to the Foundations.

      Please Note: “The Big Issue” is operated under several commercial businesses and a charity.

      The charity latest accounts (http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/ScannedAccounts/Ends77%5C0001049077_ac_20090331_e_c.pdf) show:
      * only £750 was from corporate donations and no evidence exists to show it came from any Big Issue company
      * £53,877 on Governance (Bird probably get a slice from this)
      * £604,255 on Wages
      * One employee paid between £60-70,000 (could be Bird or the CEO, possibly the latter)

      For all the companies, my personal prediction (its only my opinion, no evidence to suggest this) is he is atleast getting £200,000 a year from all the companies and the foundations.

      With the decreased readership you can understand how he wants more vendors on the streets to help his profit making…

      Reply
      • Reverend Green Says:

        July 21, 2010 at 11:38 am

        Good Detective work, FND. Apologies for my language, but this cunt definitely has a hidden agenda. Like anyone else trying to sell shit, he attempts to concoct what on the surface appears to be a plausible reason – a genuinely held concern for the unemployed borne out of the goodness of his heart – but it is never the REAL reason. There is absolutely no rhyme, reason or consistency to his rantings whatsoever, his arguments are all over the place.

        The only other possible explanation is that he is deliberately being put out there to play the part of the buffoon which he appears to do with such aplomb.

        I’m not a gambler you’ll understand, but my money is on this self-serving shit wanting to turn us back to an apocalyptic Thatcherite time merely to line his Ralph Lauren pockets.

        As one of my parishioners says: “It’s an ill-wind that blows nobody any good.”

        If I had my way, this pug-faced cunt would be roasting in Hell.

  5. Flexible New Deal Says:

    July 21, 2010 at 10:58 am

    Oooh check this…

    John Bird, founder of the Big Issue magazine, suits his avian surname. As a juvenile runaway he did bird (rhyming slang ‘birdlime’, time) in various London reformatories. He was lippy, and a school teacher once upbraided him: ‘Bird, you ought to keep your beak shut.’ When the boy was caught shop-lifting, the police thought him ‘bird-witted’, impulsive and daft.

    Bird devotes much of this pungent memoir to his ‘piss-poor’ childhood spent in postwar Notting Hill. This London purlieu was not then the honeypot it is today. Notting Hill was a slumland where Irish ragamuffins bunked off class to burgle posh Kensington houses. ‘Feck off back to school,’ Bird’s Irish mother was forever telling her troublesome son. The youngest of three boys, he was born in 1946. His mother was a barmaid on the Portobello Road, while his father, a Protestant Englishman, worked in a local bakery.

    Mr Bird had a weakness for booze and beat his wife whenever she got pregnant (by him). ‘Another bloody mouth to feed!’ he would exclaim brutally. On occasion the Birds were evicted from their home as they could not afford the rent. As a result the family were crammed together in a relative’s house in Paddington, all five of them in one bed. Skint, the Birds slept where they could.

    Meanwhile as a boy Bird stole money from a priest, started fires and began to sleep rough on the streets. By the age of eight, he and his two older brothers were entrusted to a convent outside London where, it was hoped, the nuns would help put the boys on the straight and narrow. Instead Bird continued in and out of Chelsea Juvenile Court and eventually fetched up in Ashford Boys’ Prison. In the peace and quiet of his cell he began to draw and read books on Van Gogh and the Impressionists. On his release he got into Chelsea School of Art; he was 18.

    In Paris, after art school, Bird mingled with Left Bank bohemians in beads and rollneck jumpers. They listened to LPs of the jazzman Charlie (‘Bird’) Parker and worshipped Jackson Pollock. Back in London, caught up in the revolutionary fervour of the 1960s, Bird lived on skimpy pittances. For a while he worked for Thomas Crapper & Son, a builder’s yard off the King’s Road, and then for a Vaseline baby products factory in Acton. During this time he wrote a novel, The Aspirin Saga, and joined the Workers’ Revolutionary Party. The novel was turned down and Bird’s life appeared to be going nowhere. In 1967, however, he met Gordon Roddick (co-founder of the Body Shop), and the encounter changed Bird’s life. He and Roddick were birds of a feather; they were excited by much of human concern. Two decades later it was Roddick who persuaded Bird to set up a paper for the London homeless. In the intervening years, covered briefly here, Bird set up a print shop and published a sumptuous book on the proto-Impressionist Turner.

    On 11 September 1991, the Big Issue was launched at a church off Trafalgar Square. The magazine was loosely modelled on the New York Street News. At the launch John Bird was heckled by a tramp who piped up from the pews, ‘What d’you fucking know about hunger and homelessness?’ In earlier times, Bird would have biffed the man, he says. Now he feels redeemed by the success of the Big Issue and is apparently at peace with himself. Clearly a man of flinty resolve, Bird does not suffer fools at all, and this memoir amply testifies to his resilient spirit. Despite some lapses into inconsequential detail (one chapter begins ‘My ingrowing toenail had been causing problems again’), Some Luck provides a marvellous documentary of a vanished London and life in the underbelly.

    Ian Thomson’s biography, Primo Levi, is published by Hutchinson.

    Source: http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/20297/from-arson-to-altruism.thtml

    My opinion? He is scum. (Although such 4 letter word is easy to type I dont say that lightly)

    Reply
  6. Flexible New Deal Says:

    July 21, 2010 at 11:06 am

    More…

    Raised in Notting Hill just after the Second World War, Bird was in and out of homelessness and institutions from the age of five up until his mid-twenties. Consequently, finding ways to make money, legal or not, became part of his survival instinct from an early age.

    “I’ve always been an entrepreneur,” says Bird. “I started going down to the market in Portobello and dragging wooden boxes round to people’s houses to sell as kindling.” By 10, Bird was collecting money for refugees – with no intention of actually donating the cash.

    “Begging is very entrepreneurial,” he insists. “I would tell the most elaborate stories. I once advertised a book in newspapers which people sent me money for.” The papers never received their fee or the customers their book – but Bird made a tidy profit. He later transgressed to break-ins, shoplifting, benefit fraud and smash and grab thefts, while he’s previously also admitted to arson and vandalism. Several stints in prison followed.

    Source: http://www.startups.co.uk/6678842908666345545/john-bird.html

    I am very shocked how the Big Issue isn’t widely criticised or Bird investigated for fraud.

    Reply
    • Reverend Green Says:

      July 21, 2010 at 11:12 am

      As the saying goes: “Leopards don’t change their spots.” ..

      Reply
    • Lowestoft's Finest Says:

      July 21, 2010 at 4:25 pm

      Bird’s claims sound like total bullshit try sticking an add in a paper you have to pay there and then before it goes into print otherwise nobody would ever pay. You would also have to fork out more money for a delivery box elsewhere otherwise use your own address or a mates the reality is disgruntled customers come round and give all concerned a kicking or torch your gaff.

      If scams are going to have any chance of working they have to be original not lame like the ones Bird claims that a ten year old could see through. Heres a couple of examples I heard about that made me laugh for there inginuaty based on a similar idea they were light years ahead of Birds Bullshit.

      One was for a free booklet on how to get work as a TV extra, no charge but you had to send the equilvelent of £4.50 in stamps to cover printing and postage, (this was the scam the stamps got cashed and persistant complainers got a letter back saying there would be a delay in sending out the booklet due to unpresidented demand while the booklet was reprinted (never existed in the first place).

      The other sceme that I recall was a giant dildo offer advertised in selected adult magazines at a discount price, the scammers would only accept cheques, they never had any dildos but if people complained enough they sent them back a cheque with “giant dildo offer refund” stamped all over it..and nobody is going to que up at their local back to try to pay that in their bank account.

      Reply
      • Big Fish Says:

        July 21, 2010 at 4:35 pm

        For all we know, as in so many cases, his “bio” is just birdshit. For all we know, he could be just another middle-classer who has found a niche.

      • Andrew Coates Says:

        July 22, 2010 at 9:41 am

        Yes Lowestoft, it struck me as one of those tales. They begin with “we were talking about how to make money for nothing down the Pub” and twenty years later it’s become a fact. Or, makes him sound more interesting.

        Now when I was the importer of puzzle-rings down Berwick Street Market, and had a gang of twenty illegal street traders under me, and we were importing gold, Red Leb and Uranium, hand-in-hand with the Maronites and the PLO, all run from my Mayfair Mews, I knew many a story like that one.

      • Lowestoft's Finest Says:

        July 23, 2010 at 8:54 pm

        Andrew I used to do the markets as well sounds like you tumbled Bird for the same reasons, the moment anyone tells you a “All you have to do to get rich is”…. story involving markets you know they have never done any.

        In hindsight there must have been one occasion where everything went to plan and everything was staight forward over my years of market trading but for the life of me I can’t remember it and I certainly would have it deffinatly would have stood out like a shinning light in comparison.

        My old man used to say “If it’s got tits or an engine it’s bound to be trouble” to which he should have added “or is in any way even remotly connected with market trading “.

      • Andrew Coates Says:

        July 24, 2010 at 10:35 am

        In fact Lowestoft I did them only for a Xmas.

        My mate Graham who got me onto this, and did work them for much longer, never, as you say, made anything out it.

        I lost touch decades ago but the last I heard he had a regular job.

  7. Cheese n Onion Says:

    July 23, 2010 at 12:11 pm

    The Big Society. From the people that brought you “there is no such thing as society”.

    Reply
  8. ken Says:

    July 23, 2010 at 9:46 pm

    this character looks like he should be in a gangster film,him along with hayley taylor would make a fine pair.

    he’s lucky he had a break unfortunately many have not,and to expect everyone to have the same luck is misguided,a turncoat at the first opportunity to stick the knife in on benefit claiments’.

    the government is all to aware that jobs are not grown on trees’ and is all to aware of damaging unemployment,if the unemployed are forced into this they should be given a decent fair wage and a job created as a result,that way mr bird and ms taylor would have no alternative but to stop bleating on.

    Reply
  9. abu Says:

    July 24, 2010 at 7:27 am

    can’t believe it – had my benefits suspended – have to sell one of my cars, cancel sky and the internet and cancel my holiday – where will it end I ask you..

    Reply
  10. Duncan Contracts - Builders Says:

    September 27, 2010 at 12:58 pm

    If you are in the process of hiring a general contractor – or currently managing one – here is a list of the things for which they should take full responsibility. Remember, a contractor is there to make life easier for you, and should be more than qualified to handle a renovation or new construction project from start to finish.
    DUNCAN CONTRACTS

    Reply
    • Lowestoft's Finest Says:

      September 27, 2010 at 2:07 pm

      Surely you need to work on your product placement a bit more? How many people on this board are in the position of hiring a contracter? You would be better off hiring Comrade Coates to do you a website with a talkboard on say holliday lets and barn conversions in Suffolk then ease it in on the punters that way.

      My advice on promotion is also available but were talking crossing my palm with large denomination folding money here….but as you say in the building trade Lowestoft’s Finest = “Pricey But Good”.

      Reply
  11. Prince’s Trust: Are they actually helping young people? « Ipswich Unemployed Action. Says:

    February 4, 2012 at 10:44 am

    [...] Previously we have criticised charities such as the Papworth Trust and YMCA Training; and those that people think are charities (when they are not) such as The Big Issue… [...]

    Reply

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