Tag Archives: homeless

Veterans Aid bookmarks its place in history

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Veterans Aid is featured in a project celebrating 325 years of royal and parliamentary leadership.

Pictured with the VA page On the frontline, Professor Hugh Milroy, CEO of Veterans Aid, and the Charity’s Communications Advisor, Glyn Strong.

Monarchy and Democracy veterans aid book launchThe Charity was selected to appear in a new publication entitled Monarchy and Democracy: A History of Leadership.

An official History of Parliament project, this landmark book was produced in partnership with leading publisher St James’s House – an imprint within the SJH Group – launched on 9 June 2026 in the grounds of Westminster Abbey in London.

Written by a team of prominent academics and award-winning authors, including royal experts Robert Jobson, Russell Myers and Katie Nicholl, this beautifully presented hardback explores the evolving roles of Crown and Parliament in the leadership of the UK and the Commonwealth. Harking back to the origins and impact of one of the most significant pieces of legislation in British history, the Act of Settlement 1701, the book goes on to document the shifts in power past and present, culminating in the transformative political and social changes of the past 100 years.

CEO of Veterans Aid Professor Hugh Milroy said, “Our charity, which was founded in the socio-economic aftermath of WW1, has played a pivotal role in transforming the landscape of veteran care. Its iconoclastic and internationally acclaimed Welfare to Wellbeing© (W2WB©) model is a change process that offers veterans in adversity a pathway towards sustainable independent living, regardless of their age, rank or length of service. W2WB© is an enabling process, based on a philosophy of ‘hand up’ rather than ‘handout’. Its externally verified success rate of 90% confirms its place as a worthy successor to historical philanthropy.

“I am delighted to see the charity that I have led for so many years featured in this watershed publication. To see the paradigm shift that it has effected, in terms of veterans’ wellbeing, recorded and marked in this way – and in such illustrious company – is deeply gratifying.”

Dr Jennifer Davey, Director at the History of Parliament Trust, said, “The book not only explores the history and evolution of UK and Commonwealth governance and the shift to a constitutional monarchy, but also profiles a selection of organisations invited to join the project based on their relevance to the themes of leadership, innovation, sustainability and governance.”

Stephen van der Merwe, a Group Director at the SJH Group, said, “Through in-depth interviews with the leaders of organisations such as Veterans Aid and by spotlighting their work, Monarchy and Democracy provides a compelling, first-hand perspective on how today’s organisational leaders are shaping the future in a wide range of areas, including governance, education, charitable work, enterprise and industry.”

The publication’s launch also incorporated the London Press Club Summer Garden Party, which was attended by more than 300 senior figures from the UK’s leading media organisations and included a celebration of the life of Her late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. “This was a wonderful opportunity to honour Queen Elizabeth II and the historic contribution she made to the nation and the Commonwealth,” said Robert Jobson, deputy chair of the London Press Club. “Hers was a remarkable life, one that continues to inspire generations around the world.”

Available in both print and e-book formats, and distributed on a controlled-circulation basis, the publication will be made available to key political, institutional and educational audiences in the UK, Europe and the Commonwealth, and will be supported by the extensive online promotion of a complimentary digital edition.

See orignal post on Veterans Aid website HERE.

Why giving tents to UK’s homeless is an admission of failure

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AN UNINTENDED ORWELLIAN OUTCOME OF MISGUIDED COMPASSION?

Justin Parkinson’s (BBC News Magazine – 28.04.16) raises the question of whether homeless people should be given tents.

While he nowhere suggests that anyone in the UK is officially advocating this, I’m dismayed that the wisdom of doing so is even posed as a question.

If Britain has reached the point where people think its acceptable to acknowledge that homelessness is so much part of the landscape that it should be ‘accommodated’ (sic) rather than addressed, its politicians should hang their heads in shame.

Tented shelter is provided universally as a last resort, as a short-term reaction to natural disaster or situations where immediate humanitarian relief is the only option.

Homelessness in the UK is unacceptable, but it is a man-made situation that should be addressed – by prevention (ideally) or at least by effective remediation.

The moment we make even a quantum shift from intolerance to tolerance of the social isolation that leads a human being to street homelessness, we have compromised our humanity.

There are officially more than 200,000 empty homes in Britain; 22,000 in London alone. According to latest DCLG figures there are 3,569 rough sleepers in England – 940 in London.

Even the most numerately challenged can work out that this is not a problem about roofs and heads!

There are myriad reasons why men, women and children end up homeless. Existing statutory safety-nets catch only a few of them (i.e. those who ‘qualify’). Of course compassion has its place, but the ad hoc distribution of  ameliorating comforts  is not the answer.

The sophistry employed by those who assign discrete ‘reasons’ for why specific groups are homeless is a distraction. As long as service in the armed forces, mental health issues, lack of education, unemployment, relationship breakdown, residency status, alcohol dependency etc are treated being unique triggers by those with vested interests, the underlying issue will remain unaddressed.

No-one can sustain a home in 21st Century Britain unless they have an income, a support network of some description and good health. A meal, a sleeping bag and a tent may offer transient comfort, but proactively normalising any of those things is abdication of responsibility of the most dangerous kind.

This suggestion is not progress and no amount of smart words and policies will ever make it so.  Housing is the “elephant in the room” for our politicians.  Few it would seem, have the courage to deal with the national housing scandal but if there is a “silver-lining” to this dreadful suggestion of tents it that it may provide a rude awakening to those in power…21st Century Britain must be better than this.

There are solutions. There are models that work – and for the few who will always and inevitably prove to be beyond help, there are better options than handing out tents.  This shocking story makes it hard to believe that Britain has a future as a truly humanitarian nation…need, not greed, must be the guiding principle.  Houses are not a commodity.