The Big Issue's Award Winner Richard Mortimer

Richard Mortimer, 42, was voted the winner of The Vendor Award Scheme, which was presented by Cadbury's chairman Sir John Sunderland at the Oct. 15th, 2oo7, special ceremony that was held at the company's London HQ.
The first award of its kind, Richard is a Big Issue volunteer co-ordinator at Victoria Station. Prior to this,
he was a regular vendor at London's Farringdon for around five years.
On a personal and street level, Richard Mortimer has now kicked his heroin habit and has been clean for the
past three years. Good for him ... Known for his friendliness and politeness, Richard sported his clean shaven head at the award ceremony that also saw Big Issue's Paul Joseph and John Duffy lapping-up the happy event.

Congrats to Richard from "The Vendor's View," too. The next quarterly winner will be announced this December, 2oo7, at Cadbury's Birmingham Home Office and at where the next awards ceremony is set to
take place ...

Ironically, almost two year ago, I had suggested to Big Issue's Mark Brennan at the January 14th, 2oo6, Vendors' Party, that a "Vendor of the Year Award" would perhaps be a nice idea to implement for the street
vendors to compete for such an award. I even wrote the idea down at the prompting of Mark. I think he thought it was a neat and useful idea for The Big Issue to consider. Nothing came of my idea after their so-
called "street expert" John Duffy told me it wasn't good for the vendors since it wouldn't work for most of them ... He wasn't enthused with the suggestion, obviously, for whatever reasons best satisfied his "expertise."
Then lo and behold, there I suddenly see the grand announcement of the "Vendor Award Scheme" in The
Big Issue of two weeks ago ... And, almost two years after my award suggestion had been nixed by Mr. Duffy
himself to me ...

>>> Now let me go from the good news of Richard Mortimer to the bad news of vile 44 year-old scumbag Steven Gordon ...
This is the black bloke and scumbag who savagely attacked and blinded a white 96-year old pensioner on the Croydon tram last December. He was found guilty was Steven Gordon of causing grievous bodily harm and was expected to be jailed for his vicious attack. Instead, the Croydon Crown Court sentenced him to three years of supervision but no jail time or monetary compensation for the elderly pensioner was imposed on
the scumbag Steven Gordon .

So the 96 year old pensioner is still blind in one eye based on the deliberate and unprovoked attack by the
criminal, who lashed out because he couldn't get by the very old man to grab presumably a tram seat.
One wonders if the attacker had been a white 44 year-old bloke attacking a 96 year-old black guy on that tram
that all hell would have been let loose demanding the "racist attacker" be severely punished and imprisoned.
As the research shows, black minorities are always given the benefit of the doubt by the courts no matter whatever their crime (s). I think the scumbag should have been put in solitary confinement for him to think
about his dastardly outburst and have been made to publicly apologize to his victim. I don't care if Steven
Gordon is black, white, pink or blue, he should have been clobbered by the court. But no, he wasn't. While some other poor devil who shoplifts is shipped off to jail for pennies at the drop of a hat ...

STEVEN GORDON, I hope they ship you off to where you came from so that you can never attack another
old man like you did in England. I suspect it wasn't the first time the scumbag has lashed out to get his own
way. Looking at his ugly face, I am almost certain he will use violence again on someone else who cannot
defend themselves like that fragile 96 year-old gentleman ... I only wish, too, that I could have been a magistrate for an hour again, like I was a few weeks ago, so that I could throw the book at the bastard. I would have sentenced him to six months behind bars where he belongs, impose a 1,000 pound fine, make him pay all court costs, and made sure he was ordered to make compensation of another 1,000 pounds to his victim who is only four years off being 100 years old ... By the Croydon Crown Court's leniency towards the thug Steven Gordon it says it didn't want to make an example of him to prevent other like-minded thugs doing exactly the same thing to some else. We hear of black-on-black crime, but black-on-white crime seems to be
hushed up or treatedly lightly by the Crown Prosecution Service and/or the Croydon Crown Court ... at least if the sentence outcome is any guide in this case ... What a pity? And what luck for the scumbag, who should also have been ban from riding any public transport while under his three-year supervision order ...

As for the Big Issue trek to The Himalayas by John Duffy, Sam Woolock, et al, to raise
£50.000- or $US100.000- for the homeless, the trek is now underway from Oct. 25 - Nov. 4, 2oo7. Also, I have been told that John Bird is now going to fly away from The Big Issue according to one of my customers who says she saw John on TV explaining his departure. So
far I have heard nothing official about such an odd story. But, if I hear anything to confirm or deny such a story, I will update whatever the facts are one way or another ...

On a more positive note, I have just received official notification from the Homeless World Cup head-
quarters stating: "The Melbourne 2008 Homeless World Cup will take place from 1-7 December 2008. "
I will be there for sure, like I was at this year's 2oo7 Copenhagen Games ...