Travellers
"Travellers are people who think that it's perfectly OK for them to cause mayhem in an area, to go burgling, thieving, breaking into vehicles, causing all kinds of other trouble including defecating in the doorways of firms and so on".
Who said this? Not me! None other than The Rt Hon Jack Straw MP when he was Home
Secretary in 1999. (Source http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/428915.stm )
While I'm not sure that all travelers thieve, my objection is that they create and leave behind
them the most dreadful mess which the local community has to pay to clean up. Old cars,
rubbish and worst of all - their shit. But of course, if anyone locally should object to this
behaviour then the usual band of PC spokesmen are brought out of the woodwork to
condemn them as racists. How ridiculous!
In 2009, a Bedfordshire council called for comment on a proposed Gypsy and Traveller site in Bletsoe, North Bedfordshire. The residents formed an association to combat the plans and were delighted when Bedfordshire Police joined them. In a letter to Bedford Borough Council, the Police stated how they had visited three other Gypsy sites in the county a total of 210 times over a two year period. They pointed out that noise, litter and burgalries were likely to rise if the site was given the go ahead. Chief Superintendent Andy Street wrote to the council: ‘The numbers, and nature, of incidents are not atypical for traveller sites. The likelihood of such sites causing problems for those living in close proximity is highly probable.’
But Bedford Borough Council refused to accept the objection because it breaches the Race Relations Act saying 'Judging a proposed community on the basis of how many times the Bedfordshire force had visited (but not necessarily prosecuted) other Gypsy and Traveller communities is prejudice.' Of course, if this were any other type of planning application, such as a pub, club or shop, the council would have quite rightly accepted the police views as grounds for refusal!
Occasionally, a community which has had a bad time with travellers takes the law into its
own hands or perhaps over reacts. This happened recently in Firle, East Sussex.
(Source http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/southern_counties/3222321.stm )
These villagers, after a long battle with travelers, let off steam at a bonfire party and burnt
an effigy - a caravan marked 'P1KEY'. Now Trevor Phillips, chairman er um I mean chair?
of the Campaign for Racial Equality has called for the perpetrators to be prosecuted for
inciting racial hatred. Shame on you Trevor! Haven't you got anything better to do?
Trevor - the problem is not one of race - it is one of anti-social behaviour.
Luckily after an eight month investigation by the police costing over £100,000 - during which twelve villagers faced the prospect of seven years in prison, Ken Macdonald, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said: ‘In order to prosecute there must be sufficient evidence for a realistic prospect of
conviction and if the evidence is not there, no matter how disturbing or unpleasant the allegations may be, a case cannot go ahead.’ Well thanks for nothing Ken. An apology might have been better.
If I was being prosecuted for inciting racial hatred - I would personally question whether
'travellers' belong to any race or ethnic group in the first place.
I think that the only common
factor that links these travellers is that of financial expediency - if you have no fixed abode
then you don't need to pay tax, national insurance, road tax, vehicle insurance or council
tax. You can run a business without premises, leave your rubbish for someone else to pay
to collect and move on easily to avoid creditors and dissatisfied customers when the tarmac cracks away from the drive. However, a recent amemdment to the Race Relations Act includes them.
One of the prejudices we are urged to discard is that so-called ‘travellers’ are thieving and squalid. Certainly, a camp for them at Tintinhull
in Somerset seemed to show that they could be responsible and civilised citizens. A number had lived there happily for 20 years and the site received a £500,000 renovation grant from the Office of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott.
New showers, lavatories, fences and security systems were installed at the site, which featured eight pitches for caravans. Then along came a group of up to 100 Irish travellers, who arrived overnight and destroyed everything in a spree of theft and vandalism. They made off with electrical fittings, heating equipment, alarm covers and wooden fence panels, leaving behind row after row of concrete supports.
They illegally tapped into electricity supplies, racking up hundreds of pounds worth of bills. Then they wonder why they have a reputation!
In a new twist, travellers have now started buying land across the country and starting sites without planning permission. Having established the site they then apply for retrospective planning permission which the council naturally refuses. But because of how the planning laws work in the UK, the travellers can run the appeals system for years and also try the Human Rights route. In a recent case a Judge refused to remove travelers from an illegal site on the grounds that it would cause them 'hardship.and suffering'. The local residents ask what about their hardship and suffering? They are subject to threats and intimidation and house prices in the area have plummeted 40%. A spin off of this situation is that now unscrupulous landowners are blackmailing villagers to buy plots of land at hugely inflated prices otherwise they will sell them to travellers.
Meanwhile of course our politically correct government say they can do nothing - the villagers must live with all this mess on their doorsteps. But when it comes to a mess on the government's doorstep then things suddenly can be done. Peter Hain has announced a change in the law so they can move the demonstration against the war in Iraq from the ground outside Parliament. 'It is distressing and upsets many people' he declared 'we must be allowed to go about our business free from harassment'. If just seeing the demonstration is harassment to you, what about all the villagers suffering REAL harassment by being burgled and threatened by travellers Peter? Why not change the law to help them go about their lawful business as well?
The real issue again is that of "Political Correctness". No Judge or Politician dare tackle the real problem of travellers for fear of bad publicity when the PC vociferous minority start bleating. As for discriminating behaviour, it is us vast majority that are being discriminated against. If I threw rubbish down outside my house or shit in the garden, I would soon have the local council, public health and police on my back. If I built a house without planning permission they would soon knock it down. If I am a traveller - they won't dare.
Political Correctness again succeeds in turning reality on its head!
| 
Stumble It!