THE BIG RETORT

  From extractor fan to existential fight. How Lewisham Council’s prosecution of Meze Mangal spiralled from a planning notice into a multimillion-pound Proceeds of Crime case — and how our discovery of one forgotten court document may change everything for the Gök brothers. The Big Retort… In chess, a pawn captures by moving diagonally one square into the space the enemy piece once held. In this analogy, Lewisham Council is the queen: powerful, overreaching, convinced of its own invincibility. We — the citizens, the pawns — advance carefully, one square at a time, playing by the rules. But when the board is blocked and process bends, there remains one move the powerful in their Catford tower never anticipate: The quiet capture.  We recently reported the Meze Mangal case — following two Turkish brothers, Ahmet and Sahin, hard-working British citizens, whose passports have been seized. Persecuted by officialdom and juggling day-to-day restaurant lif...

From Borough of Sanctuary to dystopian world — Lewisham Council places landmark restaurant on the POCA grill.  THE BIG RETORT… Some days, when I pass the grimy windows at Laurence House in Catford, I swear I can hear the sound of someone desperately singing from the floors above: “You’ve gotta pick a POCA or two, boys…” Lewisham once styled itself a Borough of Sanctuary. But today it feels more like a borough for bounty hunters — where local businesses and good neighbours aren’t nurtured, but criminalised for profit. The game is called POCA . In plain English, the Proceeds of Crime Act  works like this: after a criminal conviction is secured, a prosecuting authority can ask the court to treat unexplained money or assets as “criminal benefit” unless proved otherwise.  The trawl through the person’s past can prove costly, both mentally and financially, as it stretches back six years from when proceedings commence .  The court then sets a “benefit” figure and an amount ...

The HMO trap: tenants in the crossfire How a dormant lease clause, licensing whiplash and POCA risk are squeezing homes out of the market. The Big Retort… An email from Lewisham’s Private Sector Housing Agency about an Additional HMO licence landed like a brick. More than a year after the council invited me to apply, it now says my application is rejected. It’s the freeholder’s doing. But—who’s the freeholder? “Lewisham Council… have confirmed that renting your property as an HMO would put you in breach of your lease and therefore put your lease at risk which can lead to forfeiture.” Then came the Hobson’s “choices”: Option 1: Withdraw and apply for a Temporary Exemption Notice (TEN) to “regularise” matters—i.e., kick out the sharers—avoiding enforcement for an unlicensed HMO. Option 2: Press on and risk forfeiture of the lease. Wait—what? This is the same council that extended licensing to my area and invited me to pay £1,500 to license three sharers—whose only offence was being...

Death scene at Albaraka Mosque   On 4 July 2025, Adam Rae Ursell , a 38-year-old actor, choreographer, and movement artist from South-East London, plunged from the roof of Albaraka Mosque in Lewisham. Despite the desperate efforts of ambulance crews, paramedics, and London’s Air Ambulance, he died at the scene. And since that day, a veil of silence has been drawn around the tragedy. TheBigRetort... Silence at the Scene It was a fine, sunny Friday afternoon when a body hit the pavement on a busy Lewisham Way. Despite the heavy police presence and paramedics battling to resuscitate the victim, it was all to no avail.  Police officers at the scene discouraged filming of the tragedy — and bodycams, which are usually on by default, were not recording. In the hours and days that followed, no media reported the death. The silence was almost total, as if a D-notice had been imposed. The Metropolitan Police responded to  The Big Retort : “For clarity, we proactively ...

When the council inspector first visited my tenanted property, they paid me the ultimate compliment. "You're just the sort of landlord we like," they told me. "This is the best property we have ever seen!" They even mentioned wanting to rent from me themselves. This didn't surprise me. I've always believed in providing high-quality homes for my tenants. My rooms are so large that, by the council's own calculations, I could have housed as many as eight people. But I resisted, knowing it would erode the flat's condition, disturb my neighbours, and create an uncomfortable living situation. My priority was for my tenants to have a great place to call home. This sometimes meant accepting a significant financial hit. When my previous tenants left, my new tenant was a family. The change in tenancy meant a considerable reduction in my potential income. My new tenant, a single mother, was struggling to afford the growing London rents and was facing ...

CONFIDENTIAL BRIEFING 3i ATLAS: PROJECT HELIOS REASSESSMENT – TOP SECRET TO: J. Carter, Director, Project Helios FROM: Dr. Anya Sharma, Lead Analyst, Anomaly Division DATE: 22 August 2025 SUBJECT: Re-evaluation of 3I/ATLAS Trajectory and Dr. A. Loeb's Hypothesis 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Initial observations of 3I/ATLAS (C/2025 N1) have been re-analyzed in light of a persistent, subtle anomaly in its trajectory. Data from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) now suggest a non-gravitational acceleration that is inconsistent with outgassing from a cometary body. The trajectory is not merely hyperbolic but appears to be actively, albeit minutely, correcting its path. This finding lends significant credence to the "technological artifact" hypothesis put forth by Dr. Avi Loeb. This paper recommends an immediate, highest-priority re-tasking of all available assets to observe and characterize 3I/ATLAS, with a particular focus on its behavi...

What’s happening in Labour-run Lewisham today has left me thinking. I once believed in the ideals of the Labour party: justice, fairness, and accountability – but, not now. These are just the empty sloganeering of an elite few in Lewisham's town hall and Parliament. In truth, Lewisham is not a borough of sanctuary but a place for Pocaneering . Ordinary residents—entrepreneurs, good Samaritans, and hardworking immigrants—are being treated not as part of the community, but as financial targets . All in the name of planning enforcement. All under the guise of legality. And all tied to the toxic incentives of the Proceeds of Crime Act (POCA) . The sand and cement storefront scandal – Criminalised Let’s begin with local DIY shop owner Kevin Bottomley, reported here under KJ Building Supplies and our successful campaign Save KJs. He was selling small quantities of sand and cement from his shop's driveway – the kind of side hustle long part of Lewisham life, helping neighbours avo...