Dale Farm

It saddened me to see that some of the evicted travellers were but a few yards down the road from the old scrapyard that is Dale Farm. 18m was the last figure that I heard bandied about as the cost of the councils operation. Now there are children whose educations have been disrupted messing with their chances of a conventional lifestyle. The whole story upset me. Clearly the real issue is the lack of traveller pitches. The idiocy of the journalism around the subject has baffled me. Many raised the idea that because we had no better name for them than 'travellers' they ust conform to the title we had given them and travel. By the same token Margaret Thatcher should have worked on roofs. Ironically, the day they were evicted the BBC 4 show chronicling the history of coach travel covered the Convoy and the battle of the beanfield. During an attempt to have a festival at Stonehenge the government took the opportunity to atempt to destroy the new age travellers and their way of life. Even today the footage of policemen smashing up families homes, beating men, women and children is deeply upsetting. At the time, though not a traveller myself knew many who were and was nearby when this happened. I couldn't help but wonder why 'normal' society seemed so set against these people who sought a better lifestyle to the inner city unemployment that was the only other avenue for many. There were few jobs, in many ways like now, and most sought but a little peace in the countryside. Though there was clearly a misunderstanding of how the countryside worked on the part of the ex towny travellers the opposition they met was obsessive. Like at Dale Farm the country felt justified in depriving a minority of a life. The thought goes that if I can't have it neither can they. It has roots in jealousy and misunderstanding. Life in a trailer is hard. The life expectancy of a Gypsy or traveller is amongst the shortest of any socio group in Europe. There are no floodgates to open; no one to 'send a message' to. If the noble thing had been done and the travellers appeal upheld we would not have seen an increase in travellers. Now more stray famillies will be floating about in laybys.