chriswhodrawsstuff

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

Tents and Teslas

I just came back from an aborted walk along the sea front because at the end of April, at midday, it was seven degrees and blowing a gale… and in my local park, people were living in tents. If I turned the camera around from the above photo you would see a line of fancy cars, Teslas, Range Rovers and even a four by four Porsche, many of these also had personalised number plates too. Behind the…

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#cost of living crisis #generation rent #gentrification #homelessness #housing crisis

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

Freedom from fear.

I was listening to tax expert Professor in Accountancy Richard J Murphy speak this morning (I am that rock and roll) and he was talking about the notion of ‘freedom from fear’ and how this applies to the United Kingdom’s poor and vulnerable today. It was a concept introduced by President Roosevelt in his ‘four freedoms’ speech in 1941 along with freedom from want, freedom of speech and expression…

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#abuse #bullying #disability #disability abuse #disability rights #economics #four freedoms #Politics #richard j murphy #rishi sunak #Roosevelt #un charter

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

Well that was a waste of time!

After five years of delays and persistent watering down, the amendments tabled today to the Renters Reform Bill have made it effectively worthless, meaning that it will provide no extra security or stability for tenants. As of today, all the major housing charities in the UK, including Acorn and the Renters Reform coalition, have withdrawn their support and cooperation from the government’s…

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#acorn #housing crisis #Politics #renters reform bill #renters reform coalition #shelter

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

Work will not set you free.

I’m still in shock after listening to Rishi Sunak’s latest word vomit regarding those with mental ill health and one question has been running through my head ever since, “How does he face his children?” How does a man as wealthy as he is look his children in the eye each day and come to terms with the fact that he is an utter monster? Depending on which figures one chooses to use, austerity…

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#actually autistic #austerity #Autism #Human nature #Life #Mental health #pip #rishi sunak #wca #work capability assement

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

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#Art #drawing #hypocrisie #hypocrites #Illustration #satire #virtue siganalling

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

5 Years

Five years ago today the Renter’s Reform Bill was introduced to Parliament with a view to sorting out the utter carnage that is the United Kingdom’s rental sector. It’s primary focus was to redress the power imbalance favouring landlords that happened in 1997 when section 21 of the housing act became law… The infamous ‘No fault’ evection legislation brought in at the request of the banking sector…

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#cost of living crisis #housing crisis #Politics #renters reform bill #roof less #section 21

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

The not so great but secret show.

On the 20th of May 2023 I decided that I really needed a painting to hang over my bed. I wanted something recognisable, not too cliched, or too weird, just something pleasant that should any woman be foolish enough to go out with me ever again, it won’t send them running screaming out of the door. I went through all the genres and artists and nothing seemed right and I also realised that I had…

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#Art #big eyes #books #classical art #drawing #fine art #modern art #painting #portraits #religious art #renaissance art #watercolour

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

Here we are again...

I have developed a somewhat detached relationship with the seasons (and the planet in general) as where I live has a seemingly endless cycle of human made events that have been created for purely financial motivations. From the pale imitation of Mardi Gras, through the Whicker Man boozathon and motorbike invasion to the well past it’s ‘enjoy by’ date arts festival; the whole year is marked out by…

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#bluebells #nature #seasons #silence

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

The best sort of best sort of day

Sundays are the best day of the week. There is no post, which mean no nasty letters from the Department of Work and Pensions which means no four hours of anxiety waiting for the postperson to pass over my home like the angel of death, A Sunday like this is even better as it is bright but still too inhospitable for the interlopers to jam up the seafront. It’s ‘a bit blowy’ today, which means…

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#anxiety #austerity #gentrification #neurodiversity #ptsd #sea #sundays

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

Feet on the ground, eyes down and breath.

This is a sad admission but I don’t know how to handle good news. I am to be featured in the magazine The Big Issue next week. It’s only a little piece with a bit more online but it means a lot as I’ve found it impossible to get any interest in the local press. I think it’s because the book doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to either letting agents or a certain demographic of people that…

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#actually autistic #Art #Autism #book #housing #housing crisis #Human nature #Illustration #my book #neurodiversity #the big issue

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

Is there anybody out there?

It’s been a rough couple of months; It’s been a rough decade, truth be told. This, though, is something I can’t really solve (although someone pointed out a pattern to my current problem that might solve itself, given time) Anyway, one thing you learn after going through years of trauma and that is, if you want to keep your friends, you need to make use of mental health services from time to…

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#actually autistic #Art #austerity #Autism #cost of living crisis #covert narcissism #gaslighting #Human nature #insights #Mental health #narcisism #neurodiversity #nhs #wisdom

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

The Myth...

I’ve been reading the new book by housing lawyer and activist Nick Bano, rather obviously titled “Against Landlords”… Can you guess what it’s about? I was listening to Nick speak on ‘Politics Joe’ and learnt a few things, not enough to make me want to update my own book but enough to make me stump up the cash for a copy. I keep thinking how one of the leaders of my local tenant union is close…

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#buy to let #exploitation #flea #housing #housing crisis #Human nature #hypocrisy #insights #landlordism #Life #parasite #tenants union

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

The hole story

From the moment I moved into my last flat, it leaked. It was one of those intermittent things where the wind had to be blowing in a certain direction for the rain to get in. Every now and then a ‘handyman’ (well at least the gender bit was accurate, I guess) went up on the roof and poked about a bit and pronounced it ‘fixed’. It was to do with the victorian chimney stack waggling about in the…

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#absurdity #Autism #bureaucracy #housing #housing crisis #landlords

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

The question I keep asking myself.

This one is a bit of a two parter as questions go… I think it’s best to start with the first part and I suspect you may know what the second part will be by then… I have asked myself this question constantly since March 2003 but it’s only over the past 7 years that it has become much more personal and more nuanced. “Do bad people know they are bad? Do evil people know they are evil?” I gave up…

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#actually autistic #Autism #Conservative party #do-gooders #evil #good #good and evil #housing #housing crisis #Human nature #hypocrisy #insights #Life #Mental health #morality #neurodiversity #philanthropy #tories #virtue signalling #wisdom

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

Dances with Avatars

Two of the highest grossing films of all time are about something I am experiencing now… So why do I feel so out on a limb? Both James Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ and Kevin Costner’s ‘Dances with wolves’ were tales of how someone realised the horrors of colonialism and made the drastic decision to side with the colonised. It’s the bloody autism innit? I look at something and see the wrongness and out it…

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#acorn #actually autistic #Autism #autistic honesty #avatar #colonialism #controversy #dances with wolves #dfl #down from london #gentrification #Hastings #James Cameron #kevin costner #landlords #na&039;vi

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

Nuts!

The problem with concepts of sanity is that they are context sensitive. When I was a teenager in Edmonton and I saw someone muttering to themselves, I would cross the road in case the person had escaped from St Anne’s (where I ended up) but now I would think, ‘mobile phone’ and just walk past. In one culture, hearing voices makes you the village shaman and in another you get heavily medicated or…

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#acorn #acorn union #activsim #actually autistic #attention seeking #Autism #confirmation bias #cost of living crisis #dfl #down from london #gentrification #herd mentality #housing #housing crisis #Human nature #insights #Life #Mental health #morality #neurodiversity #nuts #vanity #vanity project #virtue signalling #wisdom

[chriswhodrawsstuff]

The conversations we can never have.

I was never that good at chess, I would get distracted by the figures; the shape and heft of them in my hand and all the edges. I would stair at the grain of the wood, the bone or the veins in the marble and get fixated; I’d probably also give them a sniff (I’m weird like that). While someone else is dragging down the memories of previous games in their heads and thinking x moves in advance, I…

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#actually autistic #Art #Autism #chess #conflict resolution #deception #housing #housing crisis #Human nature #insights #Life #Mental health #neurodiversity #wisdom