This is a prime example of piece of RABID press work.
This one is particularly obnoxious. There was a rash of really evil coverage a while ago, this is the first for quite a while, of this severity. Hate to give it space on my site, but, it does give an idea of how a reason argument with some folks, is quite imposible.
I hope to be taking advice, to see if we can’t proceed against these people……..
BEWARE THE RETURN OF THE SUMMER INVADERS
09:00 – 02 July 2002
Problems caused by illegal ravers at an airfield in East Devon have brought back chilling memories for MARK DANIEL,
For many, the scenes at Smeatharpe near Honiton, where 1,000 travellers, thought to have been frustrated by the successful security at Glastonbury Festival, have encamped for their own substitute rave, have caused a shudder of recognition and well-warranted fear. Every year for many years, Westcountry farmers – and motorists – braced themselves for an annual invasion at or around the summer solstice as those purportedly seeking to celebrate peace and nature demonstrated that they were the habitual enemies of both.FOR many, the scenes at Smeatharpe near Honiton, where 1,000 travellers, thought to have been frustrated by the successful security at Glastonbury Festival, have encamped for their own substitute rave, have caused a shudder of recognition and well-warranted fear. Every year for many years, Westcountry farmers – and motorists – braced themselves for an annual invasion at or around the summer solstice as those purportedly seeking to celebrate peace and nature demonstrated that they were the habitual enemies of both.
In what Ian Johnson of the National Farmers’ Union yesterday described as “a grotesque sort of relay”, convoys of rickety vans and caravans, often several miles long, were passed from police authority to police authority as they travelled westward. Farmers in each region quaked. Once allow these itinerants to park on your land, and only a laboriously-won injunction could move them on. In the four days or more which it could take to obtain such an order, fences could be ripped down for fuel, crops trampled, livestock disturbed and often endangered, and human inhabitants intimidated by the giant dogs favoured by the travellers.
When at last the invading convoy moved on, it left behind, in lieu of visitors’ cards, a characteristic trail of litter and ordure.
Farmers, of course, are not a listless or namby-pamby bunch, and they took action to deter these unwanted tourists. In general, this was defensive action – granite boulders and heavy equipment on verges, narrowed gateways and the like are still to be found throughout the region. At times, however, action became more direct and offensive. I know of farmers who, among other tactics, “accidentally” showered encampments with slurry and bombarded them with sporadic and offensive sound, day and night. The police found themselves attempting to keep the peace in what was increasingly looking like an annual, ever-escalating war.
As with most wars, the right was not all on one side. Many would damn travellers simply for being travellers. Having lived in rural Ireland and fought to defend my property and livestock from the worst of itinerants, I consider myself a connoisseur of this culture. There were, then, at least four distinct classes of traveller. The true gypsies, versed in Romany lore and extraordinarily skilled with horses, were the most welcome and the rarest. I was invited to the funeral of one such, at which all his property, including many thousands of banknotes, were ritually burned in his caravan.
Then there were the “suburban” travellers, whom I classify as such because of their tastes rather than their travelling habits. Their caravans, which travelled alone or in twos or threes, were invariably crammed with ornate crystal or china. Laundry always hung between their caravans and the hedgerows, and their children attended school regularly, and generally looked a deal cleaner and smarter than mine. Some were born to the travelling life. Others were ideological travellers, who merely preferred life on the road. Others again – surely a rapidly growing class in this country – had acquired the apparently almost unbreakable travelling habit because of the disparity between incomes and house prices.
And then there were the “knackers”. These were highly organised villains. They lived in filth, they fought among themselves, they fought with the Gardai, with their children’s occasional teachers and with every representative of authority, but they had friends and relatives who wore very, very tidy fatigues.
There was a well-known rule for Irish landowners – never give a glass of water to a stranger. Greet him or her rather with a glower, a curse and a fierce dog, barely restrained. The knackers usually sent one of their women, usually equipped with an infant, to your door to beg for a drink for the child. Once identify yourself as a soft touch, and you were done for. One caravan would be parked on your land within hours, 20 within days. Within weeks, following an injunction, they would leave. Within a month, your house would be rid of all valuables. Within another 24 hours, those valuables would be with experts in Holland or Switzerland.
And finally, there was the “New Age” crowd – “ideological” travellers in so far as ideology was convenient. Those I encountered were lazy, physically no less than intellectually. They were promiscuous and riddled with HIV. Meningitis trailed in their wake. They were inexpressibly dirty. They used drugs, had large dogs, espoused nature worship but hobnobbed with “knackers”. They were urban spume drifting into rural waters. This is a rude analysis, but I beg the indulgence of the travelling community. I am, after all, pleading that they be treated as members of distinct classes, rather than as a homogenous whole. Imprecision is surely preferable to the gross prejudice which brands the worldwide community.
In 1994 British law was changed to bring the hostilities, if not to an end, at least to a tense ceasefire. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act empowered the police to demand that travellers leave a site “so soon as practicable”. No arrests, have yet been made under this provision, presumably for fear of European Human Rights legislation. The Act also enabled the police, however, to search vehicles, and the condition of most of these meant that the invading army could no longer campaign in force.
“We can only hope this latest gathering does not mark a renewal of the annual cultural rebellion,” said Ian Johnson. “The travelling community is diverse, and many of its members are law-abiding and respectful of property. As ever, it is the bad apples which taint the whole barrowload. I believe these are partygoers deprived of a party, which makes them a friendly and cheerful crowd but for a few idiots. I pray I am right, because the bad old days were very, very bad, and we do not want to see them recreated.”
THIS IS WHAT IVE TRIED TO DO ABOUT IT>>>>>>
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Monday, 08 July 2002
Hello again.
Gosh! Having sent you a mail, over the weekend. It was some collected info on the new government proposals regarding further traveller law. But, being lawyers, your probably ahead of me. I’m just making sure. J
Anyway, you’ll know that law charges, or proposals, sometimes gives folks the ‘green light’ to behave badly towards minorities….. This is usually the vigilante tendency on the ground! However, the press also think they can get all Nazi in their attitudes also.
Shortly after send info about new government proposals, I had just been sent the link to this information. In paper called “This is Devon” – all copied below.
I am particularly angry / concerned / bothered about the whole article, but, specifically content of para #9
Is there anything to be done? Really doesn’t seem fair.
Very best
Alan Lodge [tash]
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Tuesday, 09 July 2002
Hi Rachel.
You will have had a mail from me over the weekend, about the new anti-trav measures announced yesterday, bastards!. They’ve still not finished yet then. The mail contained the press items on it and the gov response announcement from dept prime minister etc…..
Anyway, you’ll know that law charges, or proposals, sometimes gives folks the ‘green light’ to behave badly towards minorities….. This is usually the vigilante tendency on the ground! However, the press also think they can get all Nazi in their attitudes also.
Shortly after sending info about new government proposals, I had been sent the link to this information. [all included and link, below] In paper called “This is Devon”
I am particularly angry / concerned / bothered about the whole article, but, specifically content of para #9
Spoke to the Traveller Law Partnership in Birmingham, yesterday. They thought it unreasonable, but suggested I contacted you. They only able to advise on eviction etc….
Really doesn’t seem fair just to leave it. Not sure if there is crime there. Don’t know the criteria or, likely success for press complaints.
What do you reckon, Is there anything to be done?
Very best
Alan Lodge [tash]
===================================================================
Rachel Morris [MorrisRC1@Cardiff.ac.uk]
Re: They were promiscuous and riddled with HIV. Meningitis trailed in their wake.
The Traveller Law Research Unit (TLRU) exists to conduct and publish research into the law and policy relating to Travelling People (including on its web site – address below) and to produce the magazine Travellers’ Times. With this remit, and one full-time member of academic staff with no secretarial support, it cannot provide advice, information or non-TLRU publications on request. It has not been funded to do so since April 1998.
For general advice and information contact Friends, Families and Travellers on 01273 234777 (there is a link to their web pages on the TLRU web site under ‘links’). For legal advice and representation contact the Telephone Advice Line for Travellers on 0845 120 2980: the service commences Tuesday April 2 and the Line will be staffed from 10am to 1pm and 2-5pm Monday to Friday (except bank holidays).
Best wishes
TLRU
==================================================================
Tuesday, 09 July 2002
Attention: Chris Johnson,
Hello,
Did what you suggested and tried rachel morris in cardiff with the ‘this is devon’ piece.
I think I just got an automated reply::
The Traveller Law Research Unit (TLRU) exists to conduct and publish research into the law and policy relating to Travelling People (including on its web site – address below) and to produce the magazine Travellers’ Times. With this remit, and one full-time member of academic staff with no secretarial support, it cannot provide advice, information or non-TLRU publications on request. It has not been funded to do so since April 1998.
For general advice and information contact Friends, Families and Travellers on 01273 234777 (there is a link to their web pages on the TLRU web site under ‘links’). For legal advice and representation contact the Telephone Advice Line for Travellers on 0845 120 2980: the service commences Tuesday April 2 and the Line will be staffed from 10am to 1pm and 2-5pm Monday to Friday (except bank holidays).
Best wishes
TLRU
An attempt to refer back to you. J
So that ‘s that then.
Cheers
Alan lodge
===================================================================
Thanks for your note about TLRU. Fair enough! If you know someone in Devon who wants to take this up, please ask them to phone us on the advice line.
Yours,
Chris Johnson
office@communitylawpartnership.co.uk
The Community Law Partnership
4th Floor, Ruskin Chambers
191 Corporation Street
Birmingham B4 6RP
Tel: 0121 685 8595
Fax: 0121 236 5121
Really doesn’t seem fair just to leave it. Not sure if there is crime there. Don’t know the criteria for press complaints.
What i do know though, is if this sort of think is allowed to stand, the vigilante quotient’ increases, and will lead to futher physical stress.!!
Press Complaints Commission
http://www.pcc.org.uk/cop/cop.asp
