travellers

in the run up to this year’s election travellers have emerged as being one of the issues of the campaign.
the tories and michael howard are being called racist because they are “attacking” travellers. so much so that planning minister keith hill said the tories were "tapping into the biggest vein of bigotry - prejudice against gypsies and travellers". and i am sure the asian and black communities will agree that the bigotry and prejudice that they have suffered is nothing compared to that shown against travellers.
howard and co are using the travellers as a way to attack the human rights act as they claim it makes it easy for travellers to exploit loopholes in order to get planning permission.

i like most people am not bothered by travellers and their chosen lifestyle – after all variety and diversity is the spice of modern life. the problem with travellers is that they do not extend this courtesy to others.
over the last few years there have been three illegal travellers’ camps near to where i work. in each case within a day the area they had occupied had become a dumping ground with heaps of refuse scattered all over the place. in each case the site they had occupied had been landscaped by the gypsy equivalent of laurence llewelyn-bowen visiting the site and making it over with a water feature (some old disabled washiing machines) and piles of tyres to break up the monotony of the car park they have inhabited.
it’s this complete disregard for their surroundings that means most of the public have little time or sympathy for travellers.
it is the local council who is left to pick up the bill for cleaning these sites once the travellers have moved on, and the mess they have created means that no one wants to fight for them to remain in the spot.
no one wants travellers near them because they have seen what they do to an area. it is not prejudice, it is not fear it is just a certainty that the area will be turned into a dangerous mess and it will become one very quickly.

however this is not quite the rallying cry the tory party want. they want to make travellers out to be exploiters of the system, people who are getting something for nothing, people who are using the law to get one over the rest of us.
moreover he doesn’t want to solve the problem he just wants to make it worse.

but it’s ok mr howard is about to unveil a new softer version of himself, a more caring concerned michael howard.
too late mike – anne had you pegged from the start there really is something of the night about you….