EVERY STORY MATTERS
It was purely through laziness to renew my Spotify premium that I was subjected to relentless adverts. One being on behalf of the Covid-19 inquiry seeking stories of those that lived through the UK Covid-19 Pandemic. It took several adverts before I thought I should perhaps submit my story.
As I shared in blog posts 23 Days to HIV and Diagnosis Lockdown I was diagnosed with HIV on 25 March 2020, the day that the Coronavirus Act 2020 got royal assent. This meant my experience of the pandemic was very much hijacked by HIV. I was thankful for the national lockdown and in a way, covid-19 saved my life. Had I not been redirected for STI testing due to pressures on services it may have been a long time before I tested and diagnosed HIV positive.
The inquiry welcomes all stories of your time during the Covid-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom and is submitted on an anonymous basis: Every Story Matters - UK Covid-19 Inquiry (covid19.public-inquiry.uk)
MY STORY
No images could be submitted with my story so this section of the blog post has no images.
On the first day of the UK national lockdown being effective, I was the only person walking through Trafalgar Square, London. I had just been to 56 Dean Street and was given several months of HIV medication having been diagnosed the day prior at 56 Dean Street, Soho.
My clinician shared he wanted to hug me while I was visibly upset in his consulting room as he showed me a two-page spread of HIV medication. But he explained he couldn't as it went against covid-19 guidelines as we both sat wearing medical-grade face masks. Then a short trip to another room I met the pharmacist who said she’d offer a hug but couldn’t due to coronavirus guidelines. With a substantial bag containing HIV medication, she explained my new routine of lifelong medication for HIV. I am someone who never took so much as a headache tablet.
Engrained with a very English DNA I wasn't a 'hugging' type of person with strangers, although I felt in this instance, I needed one. However, 23 days earlier I had been knocked unconscious and sexually assaulted in my own home and this was how I had contracted HIV. Too ashamed and embarrassed to approach a sexual health clinic and despite being a gay man, I was not fully aware of PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis). A drug that can eliminate HIV if taken up to 72 hours after possible exposure. Given some damage he had done to my rectum along with noticing possible signs of an STI I ordered a home testing kit from Sexual Health London (SHL).
I believe this service is managed by NHS Chelsea & Westminster and offers free home sexual health testing kits in London. When the test kit arrived through the post, I sent back the samples required, one being a blood sample. The test results showed I was “HIV negative” and as I had noticed something unusual, I had tested positive for Gonorrhoea on the anus. I immediately made an appointment at Burrell Street sexual health clinic as the only one available.
I was grateful to be seen the next day as this was March 2020 and Covid-19 was starting to stretch NHS services as reported in the news. I attended the clinic and was asked upon arrival if I felt unwell and if I had any ‘cold or flu’ like symptoms. I replied “No” as I hadn’t any. I then sat in a tightly packed waiting room with no spare seats and absolutely no ventilation on a very warm day as around 60 people sat coughing and sneezing. I then started to feel unwell and from my own post-diagnosis timeline, this proved to be the HIV seroconversion taking place. Eventually, around 2 hours later I saw a nurse. I explained what had happened and she could visibly see the bruising on my face where I had been knocked unconscious. I noticed an out-of-date poster on the wall of the consulting room with regard to HIV testing. I asked if she could carry out an HIV test.
Given the date of the assault, she said it was too late in regard to PEP and that I should wait for 3 months and test for HIV then. She gave me an injection in the buttock for the Gonorrhoea on the anus and asked for a swab of the area. Further, the nurse gave me a 7-day prescription for Gonorrhoea. She told me to book an appointment for 7 days’ time which I did on leaving the clinic. I noticed the reception staff being rude and curt with patients, seemingly using “covid-19” as a guise just to be rude to patients. I returned 7 days later and saw a different nurse. She advised the purpose of my visit was for them to take a swab of my anus to see if the STI had cleared. She said given covid-19 and their testing resources being stretched that it would be easier and quicker for me to return home and order another Sexual Health London test kit.
On her advice, I ordered the test kit from the SHL website, which was a standard test. When it arrived as per the leaflet, I took all the samples again, blood, throat swab, anal swab and urine sample. The leaflet stated that if any samples were missing then a test would be rejected. I hated taking the blood myself and understanding the HIV “window period” felt it was perhaps pointless, especially if testing is overstretched. However, I sent the blood sample all the same.
Eight days later I had managed to queue for over an hour at my local Sainsbury supermarket. I recorded on my phone and shared with my social media the empty shelves of the supermarket. As I packed what I could purchase at the self-checkout I received a text message to call SHL as there was a problem with my test results. I called SHL and the woman I spoke with started by questioning when I had last ordered a test and why had I done another. I shared that the first test had tested positive for Gonorrhoea of the anus.
And that I had undergone treatment and when returning to the clinic the nurse advised due to covid-19 and their resources being either stretched or redirected that I do another SHL home test. I was berated severely for ordering another test given they alleged an individual is only allowed one test kit per year. And that if I was only needing to swab my anus for a Gonorrhoea test then I should have called and specifically asked for that test. During her diatribe, I was asking what the result of the STI test was and she shared it was all clear [negative]. She was about to hang up and I asked, “And the HIV test, do you have a result for that”? [The Lost Boys of Soho by William Hampson page 49-50 (call transcript) – I consent not to be redacted].
Again, I was questioned as to why I had done another test which she alleged exceeded an individual’s ‘allowance’. She then said in a flippant and curt tone “It [HIV] was reactive” to which I had no idea what that meant. And when I repeatedly asked her “What’s that mean” she stubbornly and curter than before repeated herself like a broken record before she stated, “[tuts and sighs] The test showed antibodies for HIV”. And that is how I learned I was HIV positive, over the phone, at home, alone, with the chaos of the covid-19 pandemic and someone who clearly is in the wrong job.
This was the day that royal assent was given to the ‘Coronavirus Act 2020’. And that day 56 Dean Street asked me to attend their Soho clinic straight away. As a gay man, it was my preference to travel from Crystal Palace to Soho. The nurse carried out a confirmatory test and shared I was now HIV positive. My response was to quote drag icon Lady Bunny [USA] “I’m way too fat to have AIDS”, as I tried to make light and see a funny side to this incredibly dark news. I was thrust various leaflets on rape, despite being corrected that I had been “sexually assaulted, not raped”. Already, I was rolling my eyes at the political correctness of what had been an act of being knocked unconscious and raped. I was told I could take up to 6 months to process the news before starting ART (antiretroviral therapy) treatment. Pragmatic, I stated I would want to start treatment for HIV straight away, and an appointment was made with the head clinician for the following day. The appointment the following day with the clinician was the day that the first national lockdown came into legal effect.
Having worked in central London my entire life it was amazing how empty Soho, Trafalgar Square and Whitehall were. I was able to walk freely without being bumped nor nudged by gormless tourists. It felt as though the city was exclusively for me and this allowed me to slowly process this ‘life-changing’ not ‘life-ending’ news. I lived in the Crystal Palace ‘triangle’ a heritage area of Crystal Palace. The usually busy streets lined with quaint shops and cafes were empty during the national lockdown. I have always been someone who deals with personal circumstances privately and the national lockdown turned out to be a nightmare for some but was a blessing for me.
As I sat in my lounge window looking at the closed shops on the street and the odd person milling about. I said to myself that ‘Had life been normal and people had their freedoms had it not been for covid-19. I would have perhaps felt resentful that people were going about enjoying their lives while I shut myself away with an HIV diagnosis. I questioned this emotion as I have never been someone who’d perhaps be jealous of someone else’s achievements/enjoyment. And like the nation, time venturing outside my home was limited and I stuck by the restrictions which in a sense gave me a new routine while slowly adapting to my new life of medication and 6-monthly HIV screenings.
The first person-to-person contact I had within my home during lockdown was with Her Late Majesty the Queen. When she addressed the nation on television it felt as though she was addressing me directly. Her words whether written by her or for her, did not resonate with regard to Covid-19 but my HIV diagnosis.
As I had spent years researching my family history which is English c.1348 I got a sense of pride and comfort from her words despite not being a massive royalist. And not a fan of Charles and Camilla I doubt that had he been monarch during covid-19 his words would not have had the same effect as though of the late Queen. Therefore that moment will live with me forever. And in essence, while this covid-19 inquiry will no doubt focus on the negative impacts of Covid-19, for me it had a positive impact.
In that, had it not been for the pressures on the NHS with regard to testing facilities in March 2020. And the nurse advised me to order a home test kit from SHL to check if the treatment for Gonorrhoea had been successful. It would have been no doubt a very long time before I would have learnt I was HIV positive. As a gay man, I had not been sexually active for around 5 years prior to contracting HIV from this single encounter. And it could have been for many years not being sexually active meaning HIV would have been at work depleting my immune system. When I share how I was directed to SHL for a second test I say to friends “In the midst of a Covid pandemic, it was Covid-19 that saved my life”. In that, it was the presence of Covid-19 that steered me to a second test which identified I was HIV positive.
And the national lockdown as I mention allowed me to ‘reset’ and process an HIV diagnosis, recalibrate and find my new ‘normal’. It was English Artist Greyson Perry that got me back into a routine with television and his channel 4 program ‘Grayson’s Art Club’. This gave me a focus every Monday to sit down and watch both him and his wife Phillipa. Although my initial HIV medication termed ‘nukes’ were giving me all manner of side effects. Meaning the psychedelic colours/pattern on his opening titles made me feel incredibly sick and I had to shut my eyes until the opening titles passed. This changed when I was put on a more friendly HIV medication and my HIV viral load had fallen from 2.3 million copies/ml to 142 copies/ml. Lockdown television was pleasant except for the news channels relentlessly repeating the word “virus” when referring to Covid-19. And while I irrationally found the excessive use of the word frustratingly annoying as it conjured up images of the AIDS pandemic of the 1980s, I soon got used to it. I used lockdown to reconnect with my 13.4k tik tok followers although it took a while as I saw my previous videos, a moving image of me without HIV in my body.
I assisted my 84-year-old neighbour Mrs B’ who lived below me for 37 years in this converted Georgian terrace. What started out as a few bits from the supermarket given she was a “shielder”, according to her due to age as she had no underlying health concerns. Soon turned into consulting me about her minor ailments and health concerns. I tried to avoid Google, but she stated she could never get through to the doctor’s surgery where we were both patients. I found myself at one point laying back on her sofa with my legs in the air demonstrating, as per the instructions, how to inject medication into her vagina. It was a blue plastic gadget similar to a biro pen and it held a tablet on the end and she had to insert it quite a way inside her and press a button to release the tablet.
As a gay man, she had no qualms approaching me and I didn’t mind helping but this should have been assisted by a nurse/doctor either at the surgery or at her home. I then found she became lonely despite printing out word searches which she said she enjoyed. She’d often call with issues within her home. In one instance she shared that her cooker had stopped working. I entered her home and found her cooker in a hundred pieces. She shared she was bored and decided to clean it. Initially, I took her for her word and after about an hour I found she had removed the fuse from the wall socket meaning the gas hob didn’t ignite and that was the issue.
Clearly, she had removed it herself and not the fuse fairy and I assume, so that someone would enter her home for company. But we had fun times together as we’d buy ice creams on our 1-hour exercise in Crystal Palace park. She often told me off for being too funny as she’d say “I’ll wet myself” given her age. But towards the end of lockdown, she became a rebel and over our nightly phone calls she’d confess she’d broken the law and had friends’ round, visited friends or had been out longer than the permitted 1 hour.
And with these mini adventures and breaches in law, she seemed to come alive again and I feel was truly beneficial for her mental health and independence. Although some nights she’d call to report the neighbour had done something they shouldn’t have done yet she was doing the same.
The covid-19 virus seemed to be a concern with other people living with HIV [PLWHIV] as I had by this time joined a UK online HIV forum run by Terrence Higgins Trust. And it seemed many major HIV organisations and authorities were establishing what effects if any, covid-19 had on people with “compromised immune systems” – HIV. And while it was not a concern for me, it was conflicting given I was being told my HIV medication meant I could live my ordinary life as before. Yet, there was panic about PLWHIV contracting a virus and that their immune system might not be able to fight off. I was nervous about the vaccination. Despite being 38 years old and previously a bit of a daredevil I didn’t find any comfort that I was about to be injected with something ‘new’. And while Jenny Harris sat on TV along with other scientists trying to convince us all it was safe. I thought I’d do my own homework, to satisfy any outcome I may face down the line in that, I had done everything I could. But in short, what homework could I do? I wasn’t a scientist nor qualified to understand all the jargon.
So, when called with the 70-year-old cohort, I attended. I queued at a Church with a load of old pensioners and felt highly embarrassed as people in the queue and onlookers looked on. It was likely they were ogling the line, but it felt as though I was being stared at as someone clearly too young to be eligible for the vaccine. And my only purpose for being vaccinated looking back was the threat of having my liberty and/or restrictions being imposed on me for not being vaccinated. I was invited for the second vaccine and had no issues with receiving that. Both were AstraZeneca and neither had any side effects at all.
In February 2021 I moved home given that I could not stay in the home where I was raped and contracted HIV. Mrs B’ my neighbour, was so upset that she refused to open the door on the day I was moving although I saw her net curtain twitching. I moved into another Georgian property in Barnsbury and absolutely love it here. With that, I got a job in a gay bar in Soho. It was a step-down career-wise, from Operations Manager in the hotel sector [£44k pa]. But I had a renewed outlook on life now I was living with HIV. It is only a 20-minute walk into Soho where my HIV clinic is located so I guess it was nice to be close to the clinic that is assisting me to live a long and normal life. The gay bar in Soho was an eye-opener in regard to both Covid-19 and the HIV/AIDS pandemic of the 1980s.
The level of mistrust in the gay community, mainly those that survived the AIDS pandemic of the 1980s was incredibly profound. This mistrust centered around the government’s handling of the AIDS pandemic compared to the Covid-19 pandemic. Patrons that were considered a ‘priority’ for the vaccines openly shared that they had refused to take up a vaccine. With the majority citing there had been no rush for an HIV/AIDS vaccine, yet the world came together for covid-19 which essentially is a treatable virus. And as we were told mortality with Covid-19 was only considered high due to comorbidities. And while every single covid death is tragic, I believe covid-19 did not see the number of deaths compared to the AIDS pandemic.
And while society and attitudes change, I believe the sentiment with these patrons was those hospitalised with covid-19 had the means to be treated with a chance of survival. Whereas with HIV/AIDS there was no treatment, only palliative care with the additional ‘HIV/AIDS stigma’ leaving many to die with nobody by their side, some locked in a solitary room and believing they deserved a miserable and undignified death.
And while many with Covid-19 passed away alone due to visitation/isolation restrictions. There was/is little sympathy from those that survived the AIDS pandemic. Given what they shared openly in my Soho pub was that many who died of AIDS, died alone. And not only alone but in many instances had family and loved ones turn their back, disown them meaning they also died unloved by their loved ones due to HIV stigma.
And 40 years on, PLWHIV such as those with the contaminated blood scandal are still fighting for justice. I myself was torn in sharing my story here with the Covid-19 inquiry given I am unable to find any similar inquiry having taken place on the AIDS pandemic. A pandemic where around 84.2 million people were infected with HIV/AIDS globally, resulting in around 40.1 million AIDS-related deaths [WHO]. Compared to 6.9 million covid-19 deaths globally [WHO – 20 June 2023] with only 227,871 deaths with Covid-19 mentioned on a death certificate [GOV.UK 26 May 2023] here in the UK. I appreciate this inquiry intends to share the stories of Covid-19 but where has there been an opportunity for friends, family and loved ones to share their own stories or the ones of their loved ones during the AIDS pandemic? Unless I die of misadventure it is highly likely as a PLWHIV my death certificate will state I died of “AIDS-related complications” and I ask, who will hold an inquiry or want to hear my/our story?
And as I live with HIV thankfully there is little HIV stigma given, we now have a society with vicious and sharp tongues that get a kick out of ‘weaponising’ a person’s HIV status. And I experienced this with a colleague at the gay bar who attempted to blackmail me with threats to reveal my HIV status to my colleagues. When I left, I shared this experience in detail by writing and publishing a book: The Lost Boys of Soho.
Within it, I talk about what life was like working during Covid-19 restrictions and living with HIV. How customers compared the HIV/AIDS pandemic to the Covid-19 pandemic. Along with customers who nonchalantly declared they were covid-19 positive but were refusing to isolate. I shared how the blackmailer was abusing the Covid-19 test and trace department by reporting false covid-19 results and sharing only my details in order to have me isolated as a ‘close contact’. Several chapters within my book are titled: “I Haven’t Got Covid”, “I’m Positive, I’m Negative”, “To Isolate, or Not To Isolate”, “The Burner Phone” and “Last Four Digits”.
Within the book, I shared how three colleagues all came to work after testing positive for covid-19 and had serious symptoms that I had noticed days prior. But they refused to self-isolate given they could not afford to do so. And I was accused of not taking covid-19 seriously by the manager. Which left me having to declare I was HIV positive so was not only taking covid-19 seriously but also afraid of catching covid-19. And in one day, to prove my covid-19 status I did six lateral flow tests, one in front of a manager to verify I was covid-19 negative.
During this time, I had heard that the booster was coming and mentally prepared for a covid-19 booster. I was invited by the NHS and booked online and was in receipt of a booking reference number. I attended a UCL vaccination centre at Kings Cross as I pass it daily for work. I was refused entry despite having an email booking with a booking reference number. It was cited that I was not the “cohort” being called for the booster which was 50+ years old. I shared I was not presenting myself with a confirmed booking on the eligibility of age, but a medical condition. But I was turned away regardless. I called the dedicated NHS covid-19 hotline and shared I was HIV positive and had received an invite by several means. A text message from my GP, a text message from the NHS, an email from the NHS and a letter from the NHS – for a booster vaccine for covid-19.
The call handler stated the fact I had a booking reference number was proof I was eligible. She shared when I shared my NHS number and personal details on the website link I’d been encouraged to book on. Were linked and would only allow me to book if I had been marked as eligible, hence how the system was able to produce a booking confirmation. I booked again, this time for a branch of Boots, a chemist on Fleet Street. I arrived and again, they were adamant I was not eligible despite having a booking reference. By this point, I thought I wasn’t going to stress myself any further and decided not take a booster.
I received another invite shortly after and booked, again I was in receipt of a booking confirmation email and a booking reference number. I went to my local Library in Barnsbury, London. A large hall with a wooden floor where even a whisper echoed. A very plain and sensible-looking man with grey hair took my details. I shared I had a booking reference number and he said he had no means to check and/or use the booking number.
When he took my date of birth along with my name, he said I was not eligible for a booster. I asked why and he stated I was not old enough for the 50+ years old cohort currently being called. I shared that since covid-19 we have all relentlessly heard the phrase for people being prioritised for the vaccine as having “underlying health conditions” and therefore he was not to make an assumption on my eligibility solely on ‘age’. Extremely pompous and curt he stated I didn’t qualify and needed to leave. 24 years as a hotel manager with many of those years cut in guest relations management I have a very calm, pragmatic and diplomatic approach to situations such as this. But by this point, my patience was being well and truly tested. I said firmly, but politely that I was not leaving as I had been invited to book a booster and had a booking reference number that confirmed my eligibility.
I asked if he could not see my medical condition on his screen. He stated he does not have access to my medical record despite giving him my full name and date of birth. I asked to speak to a manager. I was passed to the lead clinician, Miriam. She stated that based on my age I was not eligible. I shared with her that my age has nothing to do with it given I have an underlying health condition. Given I could hear the conversation bouncing around the hall and with other people waiting, having or had their vaccines. I was not keen on sharing my HIV status so pulled up my NHS medical record on my phone. Miriam stated she would not be looking at my phone so given all could hear I said, “I have AIDS, that’s why I have been invited to book”. This made her take notice and from that moment on she changed her tone and was more conciliatory. She then agreed to look at my phone to verify my medical condition which was listed as “HIV – chronic illness, significant”. She confirmed if I had “AIDS” to which I stated, “as you were making me openly declare my medical condition in front of all these people why would I not go with the worst possible diagnosis”.
She understood I was being facetious, but it clearly worked as it allowed her to step away from the “50+ cohort” narrative. However, she stated it was her professional opinion having had 2 AstraZeneca vaccines that I have a full dose of Moderna. I asked what this meant, and she explained a full dose was measured at 0.5/ml and a booster was a dose of 0.25/ml. I insisted I was happy to have Moderna but I only wanted a booster and not a full dose as I had mentally geared up for a booster. Miriam stated that research now showed that AstraZeneca was a ‘softer’ vaccine and geared to the older population with a weaker (older) immune system.
Miriam continued that I was not yet 40 years old and that AstraZeneca was a very soft option for me and that I’d benefit from something stronger. That’s how it was sold to me. She sought my consent and I several times joked that I didn’t want a full dose of anything, just a booster dose. But she was firm and there seemed to be no alternative, so I took it, although right up to the last minute I wanted to decline and leave without a jab. I had the Moderna and it made me incredibly ill. I didn’t feel cold, but my body for several days shivered as though it was extremely cold, so much so the chattering of my teeth chipped my tooth. I said then, and since, I will not take up another vaccine and despite around eight letters and several emails from the NHS to date. I have decided not to take up any vaccine.
And should there ever be a need for me to take a vaccine in similar circumstances I have to say my mind is made up that I will decline/refuse. Just as we have experienced in previous decades, cohorts have mistrust over medical intervention due to past blunders. I went on to complain to NHS England who referred the matter to NHS Camden, and they responded by stating there was no evidence of my experiences. There was allegedly no CCTV available for the venues I attended and miraculously they were unable to find the individuals I interacted with despite giving specific dates, times, and descriptions.
And if I needed confirmation that I was right not to stand on my steps clapping for the NHS in a narcissistic and pointless manner this was it. I am not saying for a second that the NHS didn’t work incredibly hard and in very difficult and challenging situations. But as a native, I have heard from family, friends, and even comedians poke fun at how useless the NHS has been my entire life. Now all of a sudden they were heros. I think it was Joan Rivers who once joked ‘They weren’t lovely in life so why are they all of a sudden lovely in death’. Highlighting how mankind can dislike someone when they were alive but all of a sudden love them once they’ve died. But when I saw these acts weekly on the news it appeared to be those that were not native nor live by British cultures and customs that felt or stated them clapping in the street was a ‘very British thing to do’ and believed it made them feel more ‘British’.
I tested positive for covid-19 six times by PCR and had varying symptoms. Nothing was so bad as having covid-19 during the Omicron variant of December 2021. My colleague working in a pub in Soho shared he had tested positive by both lateral flow and PCR. He was also informed he had the Omicron variant of Covid-19. I received an NHS instruction to self-isolate for 10 days. I was given a reference number and supplied my employer with a letter confirming I had been instructed to self-isolate for 10 days. The hours I was scheduled to work meant I was out of pocket £1,042.00p and not including Christmas/December customer tips and service charge.
I therefore applied for the £500 covid isolation payment with Labour run Islington Council. Within days they refused to make the payment despite qualifying and having received the payments in the past. They citied they needed a CTAS number. This was the fifth time I had isolated as either a contact/positive so knew what a CTAS number was. But the NHS had not provided me with one. Labour run Islington Council told me the legal instruction to self-isolate was “advisory” and that I was to go to work in order not to be out of pocket by £1,042.
I contacted the NHS and later the UK National Security Agency who all confirmed it was a “legal requirement” to isolate and I was “legally bound” to isolate as instructed. As a contact, I was led to order and take a PCR test which came back as covid-19 positive but no confirmation of any covid-19 variant. And yet Islington Council still refused to make the £500 isolation payment that was funded by the central ‘tory’ government. I found it extraordinary and still to this day despite being politically homeless that the Labour Party, including Keir Starmer, my MP Emily Thornberry, and other Labour MP’s. We’re claiming to be outraged and appalled at the, then alleged parties in 10 Downing Street that they dubbed ‘party gate’. Yet here was labour-run Islington Council telling me not to self-isolate despite being instructed to do so as per ‘the law’ [December 2022].
A law that had been updated on 12 December 2021 in light of Omicron. I complained to Islington Council who stated I should have gone to work and not isolated despite ordering, taking, processing and receiving a positive PCR test for covid-19. I escalated with an appeal, and they came back with the same bizarre statement. I emailed Keir Starmer the leader of the Labour party and my MP Emily Thornberry, both who were unresponsive. Or refusing to answer my concerns about why they were alleging Downing Street [party gate] had broken the law yet they were telling me to break the law for the sake of £500? And as I was covid-19 positive spread the virus? As I am aware nobody involved in Party gate was positive for covid-19 but the Labour party whipped up outrage?
So, I made a legal claim to the courts (claim number: 276MC813) given I was being told to break the law by a labour council despite following a legally binding instruction to self-isolate as confirmed by both the NHS and UK Security Agency [public health] in writing. The defendant, Labour Islington Council failed to respond to the claim, and I sought a default judgement by completing a N225 form and submitting it to the court. Nobody considered/responded to my N225 and the judge permitted the defendant to respond over 2 weeks late of the response deadline [order].
Then the defendant stated it had shared evidence, a single witness statement with me when it had not. I wrote to the judge stating I was not in receipt of this evidence to consider before presenting my case. This usually would see the hearing date suspended/delayed as it is not’ just’ in British justice that one party is not in receipt of any evidence that the other party intends to rely upon. But the judge ignored my requests/concerns. Aggrieved at this bizarre behaviour I did a little investigating and found photographs of the judge playing guitar in what looked like pubs and bars. And material that showed he was a labour party supporter. I, therefore, made a request to the court for my case to be heard in another court where a labour-leaning and labour-appointed judge was not giving the labour local authority preferential treatment.
My request was merely ignored. By the time the matter came to court, it had been well over a year and a half with no covid vaccination. I had repeatedly asked the court to make adjustments in light of my HIV with a remote hearing given it was documented online that Clerkenwell court was not “clean”. But the labour-leaning judge failed to respond. I wore a medical-grade face mask as I passed through security at Clerkenwell Court on the morning of the hearing. I was asked to remove it and I asked for what purpose given the agent had no means to verify my identity. My refusal to remove my facemask, unless he put one on, saw me ejected from the court despite not breaching any law on facemask wearing. The judge made a judgement in my absence to dismiss my claim on the basis of my non-attendance. I complained to the court who have to date not responded. I asked for CCTV of my time at the entrance of the court but no CCTV exists according to the government Department of Justice.
I appealed the judgement on the grounds that the defendant had not provided me with the evidence it stated it intended to use. And that the court did not meet my reasonable requests to attend my hearing virtually/remotely and to refuse such was an act of discrimination on the grounds of my disability. The appeal was submitted the day after the hearing and well before any deadline, and it took several months for the court to reply citing the appeal had not been lodged in time. This was incredibly disingenuous, and I have proof given the appeal was sent electronically the day after the hearing date.
But it was at this point that I decided I would never assist the legal system and would merely, exhaustedly give up. I will remain a law-abiding citizen but I will endeavour never to help the authorities. An example of this; I recently saw a tree surgeon upset that an Islington Council van had been parked in an area marked as ‘no parking’ pending tree works. As the tree surgeon was there to cut the trees along the street. I sat with a friend on a bench, we observed the street surgeon repeatedly run and jump-kick the side of the Islington Council van. He made several large dents and damage to the wing. The police arrived citing someone from one of the houses had called them. Me and my friend were asked if we had seen anything, and we both agreed we’d seen nothing although we had. I was not willing to help neither the police/justice system nor help Islington council given they themselves did not have ‘clean hands’ when telling me to break the law.
In regard to the courts and the justice system. I have just been “summoned” (oh please, how out of touch) for Jury Service to which I have responded in a bid to be excused. I stated that I had no interest in assisting the courts or the justice department and will be defiantly refusing to take part. I understand this may come with a £1000 fine which I feel is a small amount to pay to refuse. However, should I feel aggrieved in being fined £1000 I may attend Jury Service with a deliberate outlook no matter how serious the case, to find the defendant(s) ‘not guilty’ as a sign of protest regardless. And while I would have happily assisted the police in the past and relished taking part in Jury Service. It is clear that covid-19 and my experiences with the Labour Party have had me reconsider my attitude when it comes to justice and what it means to be a ‘decent’ member of society. Someone that acts with honesty and integrity, or lack thereof as has been my experience with the Labour Party and its position on covid-19 in luring me to break the law.
Of which I did not but given the financial impact I wish I had! I have no negative opinion on how the conservative government handled the covid-19 pandemic. While individually they may have breached guidelines or in some cases broken the law. They did not tell me to break the law as the Labour Party did and that will live with me for the rest of my life.
And I urge this inquiry not to solely focus on the mistakes of the Conservative Government but also hold the Labour Party to account for the mistakes they made as the late majestys opposition government.
