The problem in the UK is that all travelling people get tarred with the same brush.

My daughter lives in a town in which a large number of 'gypsies' had settled. The area in which they lived was notorious for the trouble that went on there, between the residents themselves and involving outsiders. Certain pubs in the town were basically almost no go areas as the clientel were predominantly 'gypsies'. My daughter fought tooth and nail when the rules on school places was changed to stop her son from being placed in the school used by these people. These were what are also known as Irish tinkers, a completely different thing from the Romany gypsies for whom I have a lot of respect.

Unfortunately the tinkers tend to be unpopular wherever they land up. In the town I lived in visits by tinkers coincided with higher crime rates for burglaries and violence. When they moved on the illegal sites they left resembled rubbish tips. In spite of the fact that there were official sites these were not used. Those living on the official sites liked the tinkers even less than the townfolk as they were stuck with the same reputation.

I had a very liberal friend who, when tinkers invaded his town, reckoned that he could see where Hitler was coming from. That is the sort of reaction that this particular group can arouse in normally very laid back individuals.

The media do not help in this matter. When a number of Roma landed in Dover as illegal immigrants we were assailed with stories of their lawless ways, the rise in crime in the area and that they had made a beeline for the UK to take advantage of the benefits to be had here. How much of that was true I couldn't say, but it was printed in the papers and people believe what they see in print.