I’m hoping you’ll join me in a campaign to get rid of these inhumane, ugly and nasty anti-homeless spikes outside Selfridges in Manchester. I walk past there most days on the way to work, and I was shocked to see them. I took a photo, posted it on Facebook, and my friends recoiled too. My thoughts were – Manchester is better than this – society has to be better than this!

These spikes, to me, say everything about inequality in modern Britain. The homeless are a problem to be moved on, rather than addressing why, in a developed country like Britain, we have the scandal of homelessness. It seems extraordinary that in the 21st century, in a wealthy country, we still have people sleeping on the streets.

A simple ethical test to see if something is wrong, is to think about what would happen if everyone did it? If every store did this, we would have city centres covered in these nasty spikes. These spikes are plain wrong. They are also potentially dangerous to anyone who might fall or be pushed onto them.

Please join me in pressing Selfridges to remove these dreadful spikes, which symbolise everything that is wrong in attitudes to the most marginalised in society. Selfridges have tried to claim that they are not targeting homeless people with these spikes.  If this is true, they should remove them and support the great work done by any number of homeless charities in Manchester. 

Manchester is better than this, we are all better than this!