Jim Carroll wrote: "What is your solution"

I don't pretend to have one. It seems to me that travellers who can fund their activities through adapting to new condtitions should be allowed to get on with it. Those who can't must change their lifestyle - which will be just as unwelcome for them as for the many of us who've needed, at one time or another, to change careers or move to the other end of the country for work. What isn't acceptable, to me, is the idea of subsidising a group of people in perpetuity simply because they have a desire to live in a certain way. The romantic notion that they are all valuable living repositories of unique songs, language and beliefs is untenable in this day and age. If a few folks are, then I'm sure the dessemination and preservation of those particular cultural assets - in living breathing form - would be worth subsidising but this must be with the consent of the people expected to pay for it.

Is there any evidence that two generations on those who settle are any worse off than similar 'working class' people? I accept that the first generation may have a hard time with the transition - but so did my great grandparents in moving from farm labouring to the mills. Life is tough.