"Jim seems to think arguing about whether the signs in pubs are still around is nitpicking"
No - I believe they are still round in significant enough numbers to be described as 'common' I do believe they are used differently now, but the effect is still the same.
Out of curiosity I made a couple of phone calls last night, the result being I was told that the signs are still appear in South Wales, Cardiff and Swansea were mentioned.
In East London they are not to be seen in the windows of pubs but they appear inside some bars intermittently (ie, if Travellers from a local site start to visit a bar regularly, the signs appear, when they stop the signs disappear until the next time).
The fact is that these signs are still around; how how common or uncommon these signs are is unprovable apart from word-of-mouth experience.
It is our experience that where Travellers stop, these signs appear (it would be ludicrous to claim that they appear in places were Travellers never visit).
That they are there is documented by the councils and human rights and charity bodies who have acknowledged them in order to take action to remove them.
Statistically, there are somewhere between 200,0000/300,000 Travellers in Britain today (%25 are officially homeless - with no legal place to stop)
If our experience is anything to go by, out of the 100s of Travellers we met, we have never encountered a single family who was not aware or had not been effected by these signs - if anybody has any contrary information on this, I would be extremely interested to hear it.
"Is Carroll using....."
Don't know your surname so I can't use it - my first name is Jim and it's how I prefer to be addressed.
"What is the commission for racial equality"
The document from which I produced my quote was published in 1995 - AS I POINTED OUT - nothing has taken place to change the situation since then.
JIM Carroll