“The English Tradition of the Plucky Dickensian Dodger”

We’ve been hearing lately of the airport mess at London’s Heathrow airport, given that they just opened their $8.5 billion airport terminal. Thousands of lost baggage and delayed flights have overwhelmed Europe’s busiest airport.

We now hear that hidden in the middle of the airport’s busy-ness are homeless people (the British call them “rough sleepers”) seeking to find a place to sleep while posing as tired passengers waiting for their next flight.

Here’s the beginning of the article:

FIVE OR SIX HOMELESS PEOPLE have flocked to London's Heathrow airport, camouflaging themselves with tacky floral shirts and bum-bags to blend in with the stranded tourists in order to get a good warm night’s kip on one of the airport’s benches.

According to Time Magazine, the phenomenon has become so prominent that last month Heathrow was forced to hire a local homeless outreach organisation, called Broadway, to go on regular patrols in the airport to try to wheedle the Hawaiian shirt clad homeless into temporary accommodation.

Apparently the homeless (or “rough sleepers”, as we Brits supposedly call them), have come up with a whole host of clever ruses to avoid being chucked out by airport security. Some hide behind open newspapers, whilst others sleep under coats in departure lounges. The really resourceful even manage to pick up the odd duty free bag to blend in.

So taken was Time by the ingenious efforts of the British homeless, that they even speak of their embodiment of “the English tradition of the plucky Dickensian Dodger”. Yes, British homeless people are infinitely more charming than American ones. It must be their adorable soot stained faces and rickets.

(Pic from www.airport-technology.com)