#PLUK – Peasant Life UK – Life In Perspective

So I have been taking pictures and putting them on Flickr, should I be updating this site at the same time? Probably!

So here are some of the photographs I’ve taken in recent weeks of rough sleepers, homeless people, campaigners and such and such. You can find the rest on Flickr here or on Facebook here and follow on Twitter using the hashtag #PLUK.

: This is George. George is a firefighter who has seen the less fortunate and taken to assisting where he can and started a new initiative this Christmas. He said: “Quite by chance, my Scottish girlfriend mentioned that in Glasgow, there was a rucksack collection for the homeless. Each rucksack would be filled with a sleeping bag and a torch and given to rough sleepers. I thought that if it could work in Glasgow, it could work in Cambridge. I set up page on Facebook and informed all my friends that I was looking for any unwanted rucksacks, sleeping bags and torches. They were brilliant. I managed to assemble 15 complete rucksacks (all with a sleeping bag, torch, hat and gloves) and accepted donations of coats, hats and other clothing. “

: Monty – 83 – standing outside parliament on a freezing cold, mid November afternoon. Monty was campaigning for Greater London Pensioners rights. A delegation of Greater London pensioners were lobbying their MP for pension justice. Monty said we deserve better than the people residing within Westminster today.

: From left to right: John A, 46 and John B, 50. John and John were huddled under a shelter near a train station in Milton Keynes. A stranger had approached them as I passed to see if they wanted a hot drink and bought them both coffee, so I bought them dinner. They told me that they felt there were more homeless than ever on the streets this year and that it gets particularly bad in the run up to winter.

: Craig – 48, Milton Keynes. Put onto a rolling one month rent contract, his landlord asked him to leave so as to sell the premises and capitalise on artificially inflated house prices. Sleeping rough, with nowhere to go and recently made redundant, Craig hopes to find I.T work using the internet facilities at a nearby library. Craig says that homelessness in Milton Keynes is reaching epidemic proportions. Something supported by local shop owners at a local market who told me about the increasing numbers of people sleeping rough.

: Charlie, 37. On my way to a meeting I saw Charlie sat outside whilst I waited in line at Costa buying a coffee. I picked him up a tea and sat for a few mins whilst I waited for my train. Addiction is one of the most misunderstood problems in society, yet one that drives the biggest negative reactions from people. Addictive tendencies reside within us all but manifest themselves in different ways, depending on our environment. We are taught that first impressions count but there is always a hidden story beneath, don’t judge a book by its cover – we are all human.

: #PLUK in Manchester again earlier this year. The number of homeless people, rough sleepers and others was staggering. According to figures from Shelter, there were 2,225 families accepted as homeless last year in Greater Manchester. A further 2,438 were living in temporary accommodation, 429 were intentionally homeless and another 2,332 people were found to be homeless without priority need.

: Early morning in town, a man in his early 30’s is gently woken by two women shopping to see if he needed help. I had seen him the afternoon before and bought him lunch from bakery, a bakery which has previously threatened to call the police on me for buying homeless people food.

: Early morning in town, a man in his early 30’s is gently woken by two women shopping to see if he needed help. I had seen him the afternoon before and bought him lunch from bakery, a bakery which has previously threatened to call the police on me for buying homeless people food.

: Early morning, saw this young man (early 30’s) shivering and bought him breakfast from a nearby bakery. They had previously tried calling the police on me for feeding homeless people.

: Met Mark on Waterloo Bridge, I had walked past him on my way to Covent Garden. He was just sat huddling, reading a book. I went back with a cup of tea and sat with him for half an hour or so. Mark began to cry after 10 minutes or so because he said more than the tea, or any change given to him, he appreciated the company. Mark explained he had been on the streets for some time and how people view him like dirt, less than human, making every effort to avoid any semblance of contact with him. To have someone to talk to made him feel human.