akenaton
The Times has been scrupulously fair on the Dale Farm issue and most of above is no exception - good and bad in all communities and all the crimes mentioned so far not only take place in the settled community but almost certainly originated there.
Up to he eighties the officially recognised most common crime among Travellers was driving without tax or insurance - it took a mass exodus into the towns and cities for them to pick up real bad habits.
As far as the law is concerned, the key question has been totally ignored.
The Travellers, by their very existance, have no alternative - if they stay where they are they will be breaking the law; if they move onto the side of the road they will be breaking the law.
Which is more desirable; that they remain on an ex-scrap-yard in one single, managable group, or that they scatter into hundreds of illegal sites all over south east England and beyond at the start of winter?
The removal of the law requiring councils to provide sites has automatically criminalised them as a community.
If they move into houses they are harrased and threatened by racists like Bluesman (assuming he has the bottle to back up his racist abuse with action); if they stop illegally they are moved on and/or prosecuted - added to this, in Ireland, if they are found camping illegally their caravans will be conficated.
Repeating Dalek-like "the law must be obeyed at all costs" is as crass as the people who put it forward - it is not an alternative.
'Bastard Brit'
Long time since I've heard that Dave, and certainly never in forty years visiting and living in Ireland, and never addressed to either me nor Pat (a London Scot) - I think the last time someone said it was a Brit claiming to have had it said to him - not to say there aren't any BBs, mind you, or Irish, Welsh, German, Yanks......
Don't know what circles you move in - maybe it's the company you keep
Thanks for the Nick Dow clip - breath of fresh air in the cess-pit this thread has proved to be.
Jim Carroll