begging where it is causing a public nuisance, such as by a cashpoint, in a shop doorway, on public transport, approaching people in their cars at traffic lights, and any broader incidence that cause harassment or distress
I’d personally say that’s ok to try and get people to move along from - it’s completely anecdotal but at least in Central London it’s often the most aggressive beggars who you also see doing hard drugs come night, having honed their techniques after years due to the even higher difficulty of getting out of homelessness while addicted as well as the increased difficulty of building a support structure or getting temporary accommodation while addicted. That means just enforcing this law would do little other than probably increase pickpocketing, as the government needs to intervene at the root cause rather than symptoms, however it’s still generally not people who are being honest who are doing what is defined here as nuisance begging so even if support structures were in place it should be a crime, while begging and sleeping rough aren’t.
Better than illegal, which it currently is
Also nuisance begging is defined as:
I’d personally say that’s ok to try and get people to move along from - it’s completely anecdotal but at least in Central London it’s often the most aggressive beggars who you also see doing hard drugs come night, having honed their techniques after years due to the even higher difficulty of getting out of homelessness while addicted as well as the increased difficulty of building a support structure or getting temporary accommodation while addicted. That means just enforcing this law would do little other than probably increase pickpocketing, as the government needs to intervene at the root cause rather than symptoms, however it’s still generally not people who are being honest who are doing what is defined here as nuisance begging so even if support structures were in place it should be a crime, while begging and sleeping rough aren’t.