23 November 2012 – HMG declares WAR on centuries old Common Law

You may not have realised that all persons above 17 have a common law right that became a statutory right in 1697.

For 315 years the Crown through its authority vested in Magistrates and handed to police has allowed for an application based on good intention and honesty to be granted a certificate to trade on foot throughout the United Kingdom.

This certificate known as the “Pedlars Certificate” describes many trading  “or other” activities allowed in law and these are free from being controlled by the 1982 “Miscellaneous Provisions” street trading regulation set to limit trade to only some few Local Authority static pitches. These pitches are subject to licence conditions whereas pedlars are exempt from this sort of control. This has aggravated some local authorities so much that they have spent huge sums of their charge-payer’s money on complicated extra law which when given review at the High Court is likely to be found unjusticiable and add yet further cost to Local Authorities.

Local Authority response to this has been to campaign in media and through agents in parliament to libel pedlars as rogues and a fearful danger to the public.

The reality is that Lords, Members of Parliament and University Reports welcome the activity of pedlars as do the public without whom pedlars would have no need to exist.

Pedlars satisfy a demand that can be delivered immediately. This sort of initiative is instantly recognised by the amount of custom that pedlars receive, the initiative that pedlars are able to supply and as a result of their professional identity.

Confusion about pedlars is being deliberately fostered to bring in the sorts of restrictive regimes that are outlawed in most free market economies and are absolutely forbidden by advanced international law.

Her Majesty’s Government is intending to abolish a law – the Pedlars Act – for the freedom of an honest individual to enter into a contract based on trust and good intent with another person met while going about and to substitute that law with another with a range of penalties for not obeying a series of prescribed and designated rules for going about out of doors.

This is all part of the “Social Responsibility” drive that government has taken on to continue with its ever increasing need to affect who people are and how they can behave – future prospects are grim: wars have been fought to resist this type of mentality.

The Pedlars Act is perhaps the best example of an ordinary activity carried out for personal and public good given the safety of being made a statute of the British constitution to ALLOW for a person to step out of doors and go about and meet other people in public and trade without making a nuisance – and yes! There is a law about not knocking on peoples’ doors and it’s not the Pedlars Act. If a person is a nuisance there’s prosecution available but pedlars need to exempt themselves from being a nuisance because their Certificate entitles them to be honest and of good intention, other than that they are not “genuine pedlars”.

A Pedlars Certificate enables a pedestrian street trader to trade in any goods, any place, any time. It enables budding entrepreneurs access to the public and the free market economy to launch new ideas, products and services directly to consumers. The low cost entry of £12.50 enables the smallest start-up to research, develop and grow into a more prosperous potential of a high street shop or a business premises. This simple act is now under threat.

This certificate is the earliest and cheapest form of i.d. a form of identification that may be inspected by any other person to ensure that the pedlar has a declared intention to act in good faith whilst trading as a pedlar.

• The government through BIS began consultation in 2009 to amend the Pedlars Act – to modernise it… pedlars “bought in” to the idea.

• In 2011 BIS decided, without consultation, to alter policy to repeal the Pedlars Act… pedlars “bought-out” of that idea.

• Certain selected Civil Servants are now enforcing their own agenda and reject any genuine consultation with those most directly affected by this disastrous agenda: pedlars and now the wide-spread media also rightfully “reject” it as overly complex, hard to understand, difficult, expensive to administrate, likely to be overturned and probably will cause chaos and confusion.

If its agenda enthusiasts manage to whip parliament into submission to get abolition of the Pedlars Act and to introduce into UKGB a law that is so far an intolerant and badly constructed slab of legislation then HMG can expect to be held to account for failing to apply The Small Business Act of “Think Small First” whose principle aim seeks wherever possible to exempt micro-enterprises [pedlary] from all EU legislation.

Here’s the anomaly, the paradox and what pedlars consider is the unfunny joke: according to BIS the European Services Directive (the SD) is the only substantive reason for repeal of the Pedlars Act – not terror and knocking on doors, that BIS could bring about, but that actually with a few less expensive and costly amendments than repeal and introducing new law: the Pedlars Act fully complies with the SD.

The consequence for street traders, enforcement officers, police, public and courts is obvious… BIS/HMG is about to introduce a situation predicted by media – an outbreak of chaos caused by rogues, villains, vagabonds, rascals and criminals who do not see the need or require themselves to abide by any form of authority or identity.

Today’s candid response from a lifelong certified pedlar considers that the future only holds criminal prospects…

“God we have got an uphill task! After reading Annex A Draft Regulations we are being chased off the streets. Not being able to return to a location within 50 meters of a previous location occupied within a time of 3 hours! F***ck its exactly what the c***ntsills have been longing for. In effect you will be able to trade in an average street for 30 minutes in 3 locations and thats your lot! No way, if thats the way they are going to tie us up we might as well throw the towel in and starting dealing in crack on shady street corners. Havent read all of it [URN12/605] yet and like you need time to digest. To me that is the most onerous part of their proposals.”

link to latest government agenda 23.11.2012

link to Spitafields Life of retired pedlar Tony Hawkins 24.11.2012

link to the source of spurious misinformation by the Local Government Association BBC News 24.11.2012

link to pedlar’s briefing to Minister Cable upon refusal of civil servants to consult with stakeholders concerns 29.09.2012

Please let pedlars.info know if there is any other EU recognised profession that HMG/BIS targets with such restrictive practice, unfair competition, socio-economic and repressive cultural engineering mixed in with inversion and denial of all principles of good public governance.

watch this space