I wonder why Doncaster has a sign at the start of a dual carriageway saying "No racing of horse drawn vehicles." I recall one outside Chichester too.

Seems a bit odd?

OK

There is mistreatment of travellers. There is also mistreatment of old people, children, Asians, women, gays, white blokes. (That last one.. You never see us in "quota" numbers for public sector employers, yet we have to put up with it.)

Regarding travellers, and thinking of when the health authority I chaired engaged health visitors with a site.. The local people questioned why we were spending NHS money on them. The travellers by and large didn't engage with us and I was resigned to saying in a public meeting that we were aware of a TB cluster in the regional travellers community and it is a good use of NHS money as the travellers use the same shops, pubs etc as non travellers and we don't want TB spreading. (One advantage that travellers have with regard to letting infections fizzle out is that they cohort without being asked.)

The hostility of the locals to the site, and not all were readers of the gutter press and self righteous, got me thinking. Racism, discrimination and every other term is plain wrong. Really is. But throwing labels around isn't the answer. Understanding why there is division is a start.

We have this notion of society. Society is not a spectator sport. In order to engage and be engaged, you need to lace up your boots and run out onto the pitch, or you are not seen as part of the game, and if you loiter on the pitch, the players want you removed so the game can carry on.

No rights, no wrongs, just fed up of the easy option chosen by shallow people of labelling everybody who doesn't agree with how you conduct your stance of not liking seeing people labelled....