I remember him. Punky looking guy, hung around Rose Street, Mound. Obnoxious he was. I think he ended up with an ASBO if not in jail. I don't remember if they ever got the by law passed or not. I do remember them having a clampdown on aggressive begging.
I suppose it's a plus that the fake women are not wasting the resources of the church/charities.

I remember reading of a woman in London who offered a beggar a few quids worth of Luncheon Vouchers some years ago, and was told to stick them up her a**e.

I remember that too. Obviously, only cash will do for the black economy.

It's definitely better IMO to give to a charity than to give to individual homeless people.

As you say, you don't know if they will spend it on booze or drugs.

The only other thing I've done is bought food for someone, but he seemed more like a tramp type homeless person rather than a druggie begging for money.

I buy food and drink.

What do you expect a homeless person to buy, a wall unit? a suit? I wouln't judge them for 'wasting' it on drink and drugs, that what I do with my money.

I bung them a couple of quid most nights in the winter when they need hostels, in the summer sometimes I am envious of them as they all sit around having a sing song, but in winter they need more if they end up having enough for some booze or a bit of gear then good luck to them

Great idea. There was a "kindness kills" campaign saying the same thing. A number of beggars aren't actually homeless and spend all their begging money on drugs and booze. I've seen beggars openly smoking crack and injecting on the streets. Giving donations to a homeless charity is a much better idea rather than feeding a drugs habit. The other day in central London I saw a beggar with a Spaniel puppy. How did he afford a pedigree dog? I knew of a beggar years ago who stole dogs to beg with and was very cruel to them. I was thinking, when I saw the Spaniel that the RSPCA with the police should scan "homeless street dogs" for microchips to see who they really belong to. It's not the first time I've wondered how beggars, buskers or other homeless have got hold of pedigree dogs. Of course there are genuine people who did own a dog who've been made homeless but I'm sure a lot of dogs with homeless people begging have been stolen. Poor dogs.

Not noticed more beggars, just an increase of beggar threads.

exactly, I was talking to a 17 year old who was kipping around the back of the Corinthia Hotel because that was the best place to keep out of the wind, he had one of them foam hands as a pillow I think he deserves a few Super Ts to warm him up

I just give them cash and let them spend it how they please. Food alone doesn't get you off the streets.

Crikey Kaiser now that's a blast from the past used to do his bit for tourism at the mound, very nasty individual, I have no problem helping genuine British folk who are homeless and in need but there has to be a crackdown of the begging as it's only a matter of time before one of these so called beggars from foreign climes takes humbrage at being told to bolt and launches a violent attack against a member of the public.

I will give wiling to charities that help me he genuine British homeless but I do not give to beggars on the street.

It's not too bad around here, mostly just the drunks begging for cash these days. A few years ago though there were Romanian beggars everywhere. In the town, in the supermarket car parks trying to take your trolley back for a quid. Even at the boot sales.

It's not a very affluent area though so I reckon they gave up an moved on after a few Months.

A fair few in my city. Most are housed but have experienced homelessness in the past. They make a good whack so keep on doing it. Even people buying them food or drink means they have more money to spend on their vices.

The best way to help is to refer them to local services. A lot will be well known by outreach teams though and will be getting some form of support.

I'll be reserving a place for a homeless person this Christmas, especially as it includes a healthcheck and future support. https://community.crisis.org.uk/chri...paign=homepage

Self-righteous git!

when I read that I thought everyone was giving two grand

I'll stick to handing out some coinage, it seems that crisis don't provide special brew, so for that is where I come in

Funny, most of the beggars where I live in Kent are Scottish!

The sooner we have Scottish independence, the sooner we can deport all the scrounging foreigners!

/s

Not near as bad as the chuggers, big issue sellers or the knocks at the door followed by "Hello, I'm Dean from Middlesbrough".

Not many where I live but we get a few regular faces at my local shopping centre. It always makes me sad to see them as im sure this is not what they planned out for their lives and there must have been a point at which maybe someone could have stepped in and helped them earlier on before events spiralled to leave them living in such a chaotic way. I don't give to individual beggars but I do give to charities who try and support homeless people in a productive way.

It is often illegal to feed pigeons. Why is it not illegal to buy beggars drugs or drink ? As that is what people who give money to beggars are doing.

Yep it's really shot up over the last couple of years in Luton.
After seeing with my own eyes quite obvious examples of it being gang run,I'm now very reluctant to give any money.

Ive just had a vagrant type call in my shop politely asking for £1 to add to his £2 to 'top up his oyster card' to get to his destination. Probably conned but it was only £1.

In town on Saturday, I was surprised to see gypsies handing out heather in a bit of tinfoil and basically leading people to the cash machine! It's worse than begging really because the invade your personal space and target people, usually the old. I thought that kind of begging had died out.

This does more harm than good. They could be drug addicts or alcoholics.