Tube Finessers- General responses

Living in London, relying on public transports as a service we manage to use it every day but not realise the importance of our everyday encounters on the tube. 2 middle-aged men in the middle of the day lock eyes with a noticeable but desperate soul looking embarrassed to have to courage up the voice to plead with someone to even just acknowledge him and not treat him as if he is another nuisance on the underground. It's just like an advert that comes on for WaterAid that shows Third World countries suffering from drought and instead of feeling guilty, we look away and flip the channel and hope we are sold something shiny and bright instead of facing a reality, a harsh one.

From being warned to constantly keep all belongings to ourselves after the rise of pickpocketing on public transport in recent years, to reporting things we deem suspicious following threats to terror to now hearing regulated announcements not to give money to homeless people or individuals begging underground. Constantly being conditioned on how to behave, act and engage has encouraged me to further notice more and more things underground that I would not usually.

An extreme right-wing message appeared over the summer outside Waterloo station on behalf of the metropolitan police service who are known under the Vagrancy Act 1824 to move on beggars when they see them sleeping rough or occupying corners on busy streets affecting the "visual pollution" of the city.

One of our Goldsmiths Labour Women's officers made comment on this vile warning message referring to it being "criminalising and demonising" those who are genuinely struggling by any means that they turn to use a form of everyday life like transport and the close engagement underground as to make gains.

Lambeth Police stations stance on this, however. has claimed to beg in the area; has become a community and policing priority for local authorities with many of these individuals actually finessing their way on the underground to fund their "history of drug use".

Using the tube as a means of defying the system and avoiding the police from moving and disrupting them constantly above ground, the underground being a service associated with barriers and tickets to be infiltrated by a problem which they do not seem to regulate or enforce means they deal with this issue through antisocial behaviour means.

- Hanna

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