This is a difficult one. The prisoners I used to visit assured me that they had often begged, pleading homelessness and hunger. They were actually dossing round a mate's, and the money was always for drugs. One or two said they used an old sleeping bag on the street to pretend they slept there. However, I'm too softhearted to walk by. I usually find something for a street beggar, and very often money returns to me in strange ways. Eg a skirt I bought in Primark last week turned out to be £10, not £16 as it said on the ticket. I'd just handed £2 to the Puppet Man (always outside Primark) and £2 each to a pair of E. European musicians who looked hungry and ignored by the passers-by. So Someone was watching! Last winter, the terrible cold must have been a torture for the homeless and the poor.