Still, it's quite a difference between the calls for the law to be rigorously enforced with regards to the rioters of two weeks ago, and pleas for mercy and the bending of the law for the gypsies. It is the personal opinion of your humble correspondant that the law applies to everybody, regardless of which particular law, and regardless of whatever
Various defences have been put forward to persuade Basildon Council to allow the gypises to remain where they are, primarily to do with race. Indeed, the blog dedicated to Dale Farm specifically accuses Basildon council of racism for turning down their planning applications without considering the other reasons for doing so. I think quite a good one is that the whole area looks like an inhabited cess-pit - precisely the sort of thing the planning rules are there to avoid.
In any case "Traveller" is not a race, so racism cannot possibly be involved. The inhabitants claim to be descended from Scottish, Irish and Romanian wanderers, which seems essentially to encompass Europe, making them Europeans. Is it possible to be racist against your own race? Furthermore, in decribing themselves as Travellers, I'm sure I'm not wrong in inferring that means they intend to travel, perhaps when their position on a certain bit of land becomes untenable?
Whether Travellers can be considered a distinct race or not, the issue is not about that. It is evident that in a functioning society, everybody must follow the same laws. A property the immediately abuts Dale Farm must after all keep the law of the land, apparently simply because the inhabitant has the great misfortune not to be a gypsy, if those same gipsies are to be believed. No, I am firmly on the side of Basildon Council here. A decade is far to long for a planning dispute to go on, and they should have been told to clear out years ago if they continued to ignore the law.
Unfortunately, the previous administration took a terrifically soft line with that sort of person; local councils all over the country are still inhabited by the cuddle-'em brigade that can't say no to anybody except for their constituents.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, local government is now required to put up sites for them, and as nobody wants them in a town, they get put in the country to make life miserable for villagers and farmers. Though, thinking about it, one could put 'em all in the outskirts of Birmingham or London - nobody would notice another over-entitled non-contributing minority group there.
Nice article.
ReplyDeleteCan I post it to the British Freedom Party website?
Sincerely
George Whale
georgewhale@britishfreedom.org
www.britishfreedom.org
Great piece. Guess to be a white Englishman is to be a despised minority these days.
ReplyDeletefarmland investments