I thought it would need a change in the law to do that so I was surprised to be told that all

I thought it would need a change in the law to do that, so I was surprised to be told that all it needed was a more flexible practice from the council. “So when the circular came out it seemed to be something worth pursuing.”Ruth Stevens, editor of the north-west Big Issue, explains how she became involved. And many, like Jeff, who has been homeless for five years, disenfranchised themselves when they dropped off the electoral roll to evade the poll tax or council tax.In February 1994, the Home Office published a circular which stated: “If someone can be regarded as having established their residence in a particular place, the absence of bricks and mortar is not a handicap for qualification [to vote].”"For the past five years we have been fighting a battle against a declining electorate,” says Graham Stringer, leader of Manchester City Council. Homeless people, they said, could legally register the doorways of Boots, McDonald’s and Sainsbury’s as their place of abode, provided they could prove that they had been sleeping in the same place for a period of time.
Although the Representation of the People Act makes no reference to excluding the homeless from the democratic process, and no sinister Thatcherite legislation exists to cut them out, many homeless people believed they were not eligible to vote.

They run the council and they’ve done nothing for me, so I’m going to vote Liberal next time.”

This week, Manchester City Council and the Big Issue launched a campaign to get the homeless back on to the electoral register. It’s just a way for them to keep tabs on us anyway.” “I think it’s really good news because they’ll have to listen to us now, so I am going to vote, but I’m not sure who for yet.” “It’s only right that we should have it, but I’m not voting Labour. The knot of Big Issue vendors are deep in discussion. “What’s the point? I voted for years and look where it got me. Nearby is an elegant brick hut which contained the Jewish ritual bath.The synagogue remained in use until the Twenties when it was sold off because of the declining congregation.

It is now owned by King’s School and used for music recitals.Inside, yet more obelisks support the gallery where women were segregated during Jewish services.The Old Synagogue is in King Street, Canterbury, sandwiched between Mill Lane and Knotts Lane.. Its Egyptian style was chosen by Canterbury’s Jewish elders because they associated the prevailing Gothic style with “recollections of persecution”. Or maybe it is a bingo hall put up in order to stress the links between God and Mammon.In fact, this is a synagogue, completed as long ago as 1847. Many places, therefore, still have a Jewry Lane or Jewry Street. Canterbury is no exception.Close by is King Street and here, within a stone’s throw of the cathedral, is one of the most unusual buildings in Britain.At first sight, its obelisks, columns and jazzy Egyptian decoration suggest that this is a cinema built by someone who has seen too many Cecil B de Mille Biblical epics.

The Jewish community, for instance, has been here for almost 1,000 years.
The Catholic church traditionally discouraged adherents from engaging in usury, so that it was usually members of the Jewish community who set themselves up as money-lenders This was never the most popular, or safe, occupation. And after the Jews had been expelled from the country in 1290 – Oliver Cromwell allowed them back- they understandably preferred to live near to each other on security grounds. But, as the current debate about religious instruction in schools shows, Christianity is not, and never has been, the only faith practised in Britain. To walk around Canterbury is to be reminded how indelibly the Christian faith has stamped itself on the landscape. Quite apart from the cathedral and the sturdy remains of the abbey founded in 598 by St Augustine, the city is full of medieval churches, towers and mementos of the pilgrims who once journeyed here to pay obeisance to the martyred Thomas Becket. He’d finesse them if he dared, but doesn’t want to chance his hand. He figures if he plays it right, they’ll finesse themselves – that’s the game plan..