From: Vic Smith - PM
Date: 14 Jul 14 - 02:41 PM

he declares victory.

For this thread, victory is not achieved by Bryan or Jim winning their argument on Mudcat. I stated my reasons and concerns in my opening post. Victory as far as this thread is concerned would be achieved if -

a) the club organiser is made to re-consider his attitudes and the way he expresses himself in his circulars.

b) Consciousness is raised of the institutional racism still manifesting itself in the knee-jerk reaction of the police/licensing authorities which runs "Gypsy Funeral...Close the pubs"

As far as a) is concerned, I reported that the folk club organiser circulated that his first message was "badly worded". That's a start; he has been made to think about what he said and is likely to give more thought to public statements in the future.

As far as b) is concerned the admirable post by Nigel Parsons back on 10 Jul 14 - 04:44 PM demonstrates that the incident in question is far from isolated and everyone who has read this thread and read Nigel's links will be more aware of this wrong in our society and should have their thinking and opinions influenced by it.

Very small steps, I'll admit - but this is only an internet chat group that is not widely read or quoted
ok, Vic, Iagree it is good to raise concsiousness and not to prejudge as this organiser was doing. However it does not alter the fact that on occasions travellers can cause problems ,the same applies to football supporters, I agree with you that it is wrong to generalise from particular occasions, it is nonsense for example to say all football supporters cause trouble it is in my experience a minority that do, the same applies to travellers or any ethnic group. it is also wrong for anyone to pretend that football supporters or travellers or muslims or any other ethnic group never cause trouble. but you are absolutely right , when you say that we must not be prejudice or prejudge the actions of any ethnic group before an event.