Commenting on the decision to ban a beggar from begging anywhere in Manchester city centre, Liberty spokesman, Barry Hugill, said:
Leonard Hockney is a beggar whose only crime has been to ask people for money. He is not violent, nor is he abusive and poses a risk to absolutely no one. It is every citizen’s right to refuse to give him money if they so wish and there is absolutely no need for this draconian action. If he begs in Manchester again, he will be jailed, at enormous cost to the taxpayer and there can be no justification for that.

Begging is an unpleasant aspect of modern society but anyone who believes that imposing jail sentences on beggars will solve the problem is living in cloud cuckoo land.