Do You Remember The Days of Slavery

I commented a while back on the radical new "welfare to work" strategies allegedly being pioneered by the travelling community in Gloucestershire, Leicestershire and Derby, which were reportedly capable of transforming homeless alcoholics, one of the more intractable and challenging groups for any social worker, into dedicated Stakhanovite block-paving operatives working up to 14 hours a day.

It looks as though transformative work therapy is being more widely practiced than thought - and with characteristic modesty, the liberal mouthpieces of said community are neglecting the opportunity to more widely publicise alleged achievements which the publicly funded welfare to work agencies such as Atos could only dream about.

I must say this BBC report is very mean-spirited, and seems to show little understanding of modern labour market conditions and radical management styles :

"Twenty-four men suspected of being held against their will have been found during a raid at a travellers' site. Four men and a woman were arrested on suspicion of committing slavery offences in the raid at Greenacre travellers' site, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, on Sunday. The men, who are English, Polish and Romanian, were found in "filthy and cramped" conditions, police said. Detectives believe some may have been there for up to 15 years.

Those arrested are being held on suspicion of committing offences under the Slavery and Servitude Act 2010. They are being held at police stations across Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire. Weapons, drugs and money were also found at the site, police said."

I don't know. There's always someone waiting to trumpet an anti-business agenda - and more often than not it's the BBC.

Radical New 'Welfare-To-Work' Scheme

People often knock the travelling community. I've done it myself. But I've never said they were stupid people.

If the allegations in this report are correct, the Government need to consider whether handing out welfare-to-work contracts to Serco or Vertex really provides bang for the taxpayer buck, compared with the innovative strategies allegedly pioneered at Beggars Roost Caravan site by the Connors family.

"'The allegation is that the defendants offered accommodation and work to vulnerable homeless individuals then moved them into virtually uninhabitable caravans. They then required them to do manual work for excessive hours for payments of no more than £20 a day and in some cases no payment at all.They were given minimal amounts of food. Movements are restricted, mobile phones are not allowed and victims are kept in fear of reprisals if they attempt to leave. Identity and benefit documents are removed from them for so called safe keeping. We say they were retained by Breda Connors in particular.'

Men would be forced to work for up to 14 hours a day and moved from location to location around the country, he said. 'Many of the victims are homeless alcoholics, the most vulnerable persons in society.'

Mr Dono said police observed 22 alleged slaves living at Beggar's Roost caravan site. They were sent to work in Worcestershire and the West Midlands tarmacking and block paving driveways.

'It is clear from police videos that the slaves have minimal clothing, they are always dirty and disheveled, they look extremely unhappy and there is evidence of members of the Connors family at the locations in charge of the workers.'

On March 22nd, said Mr Dono, police raided Beggar's Roost with a search warrant and arrested William and Breda Connors. A travellers site in Enderby, Leicestershire, was also raided and Miles Connors was arrested there while eight alleged vicitms were found. A site in Common Lane, Pleasley, Derby, was raided at the same time and John Connors was arrested and seven victims discovered. An address in Stanway road, Coney Hill, Gloucester, was searched by police and documentary evidence was seized. Mr Dono said it was alleged that the caravans in which victims were kept had no running water, minimal heating, haphazard and dangerous cooking facilities, and no proper washing facilities. Victims who had tried to leave sites had been tracked down and returned by members of the Connors family, he alleged.

'These victims are extremely vulnerable and are now in a safe house. We say some of them have been indoctrinated for as much as 20 years working in this way, They are people who are clearly fearful. Twenty victims have so far been recovered from the Connors family but inquiries are at an early stage and it is expected there will be more. Some of them have allegedly been exploited and beaten for years and they have described their living conditions as appalling.'"

Now obviously I can't comment on some of the wilder allegations being made here, and which are anyway sub judice. But it seems clear that, given the right incentives and tightly defined business requirements, even homeless alcoholics, a client group which ATOS Origin or EDS would run a mile from, can potentially play a useful role (for up to 14 hours a day) in the important block paving sector. If Mr and Mrs Connors are acquitted, their undoubted management and motivational skills could surely find a place in the consultancy world. Accenture are always on the lookout for talent - and the Connors sound like partnership material.



UPDATE - the legendary Johnson family, stars of their own BBC series, had a chap who lived on their site, described as a 'drifter', who died mysteriously. And Julia has a story of travellers who cared for a man with learning disabilities, and were big-hearted enough to build him a house.

Calling People "Thieves" the PC Way

Where else but a Guardian editorial could you find such a wonderful euphemism?

"Rolling caravans do not lend themselves to rooted integration, and especially when they are decoupled from standard western ideas about property rights."

(via)

Compare and Contrast

The United Kingdom - from Bedfordshire council's enthralling document "Dealing with Racist Representations on Gypsies and Travellers"

Not only is it fair and morally responsible to treat racist representations seriously: it is also a legal requirement.
Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers are recognised in law as a distinct ethnic group. The Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985 requires any material which is defamatory or likely to incite racial hatred or contempt, and information the disclosure of which is prohibited by law, to be marked 'confidential' and not disclosed to the public.

Anyone who, either in writing or verbally, objects on racist grounds to a planning proposal is potentially contravening one of these Acts, by applying pressure to discriminate.

How do you define a racist representation?
In general terms, a racist representation is one which includes words, phrases or comments which are likely:
• to be offensive to a particular racial or ethnic group
• to be racially abusive, insulting or threatening
• to apply pressure to discriminate on racial grounds
• to stir up racial hatred or contempt
The context in which such words, phrases or comments are used must be considered carefully, in order to ascertain their true meaning and effect.

EXAMPLES OF RACIST REPRESENTATIONS (S31 of 1976 ACT) [applying pressure to discriminate]
• I object to the proposed Gypsy & Travellers site because these undesirable people
will damage my neighbourhood with their littering and crime will increase.
• If it is approved the number of gypsies in the area will make house prices fall. Put
them somewhere away from the normal community.
• The council should be more responsible and look after respectable peoples interests.

And we see the policy in action - here in Devon :

Mr Lee's objection stated that problems were caused by the number of families using another permanent site for vehicle wrecking. Mr Lee also highlighted that the police were called to the site a number of times and livestock was regularly let loose on his land.

The authority replied: "I have to tell you that if the council receives any more racist representations from you, this matter will be referred to the Commission for Racial Equality or the police for investigation."

And in Bedfordshire :

When residents were asked to provide feedback on council plans to build traveller camps on their doorstep they dutifully responded. More than 3,000 homeowners filled in forms outlining their views, many raising concerns over a possible increase in noise, traffic, rubbish and a detrimental effect on property prices.

However, such objections were not appreciated by Mid-Bedfordshire District Council, which partially or fully rejected nearly nine in ten of the replies for including comments 'of a racist nature'.

Meanwhile, across the pond, at the Official Portal for the State of Georgia, Governor's Office for Consumer affairs :

Irish Travelers Perpetuate a Tradition of Fraud

Around the time that schools let out, individuals known as Irish Travelers load up their pick-up trucks and take their show on the road. Sadly, their business is not a very entertaining one and can cost you way more than a ticket to the Big Top. These descendants of Irish immigrants live in nomadic clans and make their living by perpetrating home improvement fraud and selling substandard machinery at huge mark-ups.

While there are several communities of Irish travelers throughout the South, the largest is an enclave located just outside North Augusta, South Carolina. With the exception of their “marks”, Travelers have little contact with outsiders. Generally, in the spring, they spread out throughout the eastern seaboard and beyond.

Travelers go door-to-door, often targeting the elderly. They usually drive unmarked pick-up trucks with out-of-state plates, often from South Carolina. They are pavers, roofers, painters, repairmen who just happen to have left-over materials from a previous job, allowing them to offer huge discounts, but only if you act now. You will rarely receive a written contract from them, and if you do, the contact information will have only a toll-free number and a post office box, making it impossible to track down the conman when the homeowner discovers the inferior quality of the workmanship and materials.

Hmm. Quite a difference.








(via a comment replying to the Capitalists Nick Drew's point 5 in the following list, an attempt to answer the question 'why do we let politicians lie to us?'.

1) in most people the Will to Truth is very much weaker than the Will to Power (Nietzsche passsim)and several less exalted things besides, including

- the Will to an Easy Life
- the Will to Not Rocking The Boat (Homer Simpson passim)

being untrue doesn't count as much of an objection in the face of many other considerations

2) people for whom the Will to Truth is strong are generally Trouble-makers and hence outcasts, easily ignored / ostracised / burned at the stake

3) human beings are geared up to defend the Holy Lie (whatever it may be at any given time), using strategies like double-think, or shouting lalalalala very loudly, etc etc

4) why single out politicians ? Aristotelian physic is laughably false but it ruled the roost for centuries, through a combination of Church endorsement/ enforcement, and a complete absence of empirical curiosity / regard for consistency etc

5) many truths are deeply uncomfortable / embarrassing / infra dig. There are things one might just about get away with in the comments column of a blog, that are 100% true, and at the same time could not be voiced by any mainstream politician. This being the case, why do we even expect truth from them ?

6) despite all experience, we have a huge subliminal propensity to believe that, if a public figure can bring himself to state something as fact, or a newspaper to report it, it is probably true

7) tabloid journos have tapped into, and mastered, these phenomena - the doctrine of the reverse ferret, e.g. They make money from it. NuLab has tapped into tabloid journo-wisdom (Campbell etc al) and deploys the brazen lie, the shameless U-turn etc etc with confidence born of mastery

I could go on ... but hey, it's Saturday morning !)

UPDATE - the Georgia Consumer site really is rather good. From their page on scams to watch out for, this innovative (to me, anyway) Nigerian 419 fraud :

They met on a dating website just before Valentine's Day 2005. Richie described himself as "loving, caring and hard-working." His photo, of a handsome, bearded man in a cheek-to-cheek snuggle with a cat, sold Theresa Smalley on the "loving and caring" part. Richie explained "hard-working" in the first of their many online chats.

"He said he was from Massachusetts, but [that he] was supervising a construction project in Nigeria," says Smalley, a supermarket cashier in Middlefield, Ohio. Weeks into daily instant messaging, she knew she had lost her heart to Richie. By April she had also lost $2,700 to him.

Richie claimed he was paid in U.S. postal money orders and was having trouble cashing them at Nigerian banks. "He asked if he could mail me his paychecks and then I could wire him the money," says Smalley. "He even offered me some money for doing it, which, of course, I refused to take."

Over two weeks she deposited two paychecks in her bank account and wired the money to Nigeria; she wired a third payment to resolve what Richie called a "visa problem" so he could return to the United States and they "could finally meet."

Then the bank called. It seems Richie's deposited money orders were authentic. But they were worth only $20 each—they had been chemically washed and altered to read $950.

I like the touch with the cat. These guys are brilliant marketers. Mind, I'm almost inclined to believe she deserves it :

"The bank said I was responsible for the money I wired; it was everything I had," says Smalley, a divorced grandmother and college student pursuing a degree in social work.

A Few Grass Clippings From The Curate's Lawn

I thought they'd come over here to do the jobs the lazy natives wouldn't do ? Not if this is correct.

Almost a quarter of children in London live in families where nobody has a job, far above the UK-wide figure of 15%, new figures show. North east England has the highest rate of child poverty, but London has many of the most deprived areas, according to the Office for National Statistics. Nearly a third of children in London live in lone-parent families (31%) compared with the UK-average of 25%.

I'm still trying to reconcile that last 31% with the fact that London has the lowest bastardy rate in England and Wales. I guess it may well be that the people without jobs and the people without husbands may not be the same people. I surmise there might be higher unemployment among London Asians, but lower numbers of single parents, for example. The ONS pdfs are here. Of course the doleys could be the remaining natives.

The Mail picks up on the fact that 40% of young Londoners are non-white. I'm surprised the figures are that low. Maybe another 10% are Polish.

The Nightjack fallout continues as another police blogger bites the dust.

Stressed Out Cop’s post here and this story in the Times, and then this one, scares me if I’m honest.

Life is too short and I worked too hard to get here.

Although I am a Police officer, I am still a regular bloke. I have a family, a mortgage, car payments and a pension to think about.

The Times pathetic justifications for their action are roundly dissed by commenters. I do wonder if the fact that editor James Harding, who must have approved Patrick Foster's disgraceful piece and the decision to defend it in the High Court, came from the FT and before that the EU, is relevant. Not a guy who worked his way up from the subs desk at the Glossop Advertiser, to put it mildly - or don't journalists do that any more ?


British jobs for Indian workers - they've come over here to do the jobs the natives do want to do.

'Hundreds' of Indian contractors are being brought to the UK by state-backed Lloyds Banking Group, which is using them to slowly replace British IT workers.

The Mail has obviously been in suspended animation for the last few years. This is not a new issue.

To make matters worse, the bank's British IT contractors were told just last week they must accept a 15 per cent pay cut, or leave. The whistleblower believes the government should use its 43.4 per cent stake in Lloyds (up 2.57p at 67.57p) to stop overseas contractors taking British jobs. Lloyds, which rescued rival HBOS at the height of last year's banking crisis, admitted it is bringing overseas workers to Britain. It also admitted to cutting rates for existing contractors by 'up to 15 per cent'.

A spokesman said: 'We continue to outsource areas of IT work to companies based overseas. At any one time some of the staff from these companies will be based in the UK to deliver aspects of our IT projects. We monitor all of our projects and keep a close eye on quality and delivery.'

Does your local council have a Violent Persons Register ? I must say I'd never heard of them.

A woman labelled "potentially violent" after complaining to a council about a vandalised flowerbed has won £12,000 in High Court libel damages. Jane Clift, 43, sued Slough Borough Council and public protection chief Patrick Kelleher over their reaction when she complained about the vandal.

Hugh Tomlinson QC, representing Ms Clift, said the former care worker had been following the council's own poster campaign about reporting anti-social behaviour and was "understandably furious, frustrated and angry" with Ms Rashid. After talking to Ms Rashid, she then sent a letter, in which she wrote: "I felt so filled with anger that I am certain I would have physically attacked her if she had been anywhere near me."

The court heard the council and Mr Kelleher had argued that a November 2005 entry about her on its Violent Persons Register and an email informing people about it were "substantially true".

Maybe someone in Slough Council needs to get a sense of proportion.

Travellers Tales - how Warwickshire police are spending your money :

Shock at police's gypsy party

Ian Hughes
25 June 2009

BEMUSEMENT has greeted the news police are planning a gypsy party this weekend in a bid to build bridges between travellers and residents.

Illegal camps set up by gypsies have long been a source of problems, with recent ones set up on Myton Fields in Warwick and on Abbey Fields in Kenilworth.
They have made life a living hell for neighbours, and often leave the taxpayer to foot the bill for clean-ups costs when they move on. The regular Horse Fair, held on private land in Kenilworth, brought a mini crime wave to the town last summer, with reports of shoplifting, intimidation, and pubs being forced to close their doors.
In a bid to promote "understanding" police chiefs to organise the Family Day of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History and Culture, which takes place at the force's Leek Wootton headquarters on Saturday (June 27).
But Kenilworth councillor George Illingworth told the Observer that news of the party had “made him wonder” what side police were on.
He said: “You have to assume they know what they are doing, but I am very intrigued by the whole thing. The police move in mysterious ways sometimes.”
He added the town had been “taken over” by travellers during a chaotic horse fair on the outskirts of Kenilworth last summer, but said police had their improved their efforts since, quickly evicting a group of travellers from Abbey Fields before the most recent fair in April.
Warwickshire Police Asst Ch Con Bill Holland, who heads up the Association of Chief Police Officers group that leads on Gypsy and Traveller issues, believes the event will offer residents and travellers the chance to get to know each other.
He said: "This is set to be a really new and engaging event which we would welcome all members of our communities to attend. As well as having something on offer for everyone to enjoy, the event is a step in the right direction to improving relations between police and the travelling community.
"Unauthorised encampments have become a source of friction. We know education is at the heart of some of these contentious issues. Hopefully this day will be the start of building relationships with the aim to better understanding and learning about the different cultures and societies we all live in."
The free event, which runs from 10am to 4pm, will feature activities including traditional music and dancing display; storytelling; a collection of traveller memorabilia; plus children's arts workshop, graffiti project and competitions, together with refreshments.

Graffiti project ? It must be said that graffiti is not a prominent part of traveller culture.

Interesting to see that the Lib Dems former planning spokesman makes his money advising travellers on planning law.

A former parliamentary spokesman on planning matters has earned thousands of pounds advising gypsies on illegal camps. Matthew Green has been involved in around 250 planning disputes involving travellers through his company, Green Planning Solutions. Mr Green won the Shropshire seat of Ludlow for the Liberal Democrats in 2001 but lost it to the Tories at the last general election.He was party spokesman on matters involving the Deputy Prime Minister's Office, which had major responsibility for planning and housing.His company, Green Planning Solutions, advises gypsies on how to contest efforts to evict them as a breach of their human rights.Neighbours of the illegal sites refer to 39-year-old Mr Green as the "Gypsy King", according to the Daily Mail.His business partner is Ruth Reed - the next president of the Royal Institute of British Architects and also an expert on planning law.On her website she describes Green Planning Solutions as a company which "specialises in winning planning permission on difficult sites, usually rural locations including the green belt". Among those employing the expertise of Mr Green's company are the gypsies who set up camp last year near the £1million Warwickshire country retreat of Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell and her estranged husband David Mills.Mr Green's company is also representing a group of travellers who have set up camp in the village of Weeley, near Colchester in Essex. After buying a plot of land for £90,000, the group arrived there in June 2008, laid hardcore and built fences.Mr Green said that all the travellers and gypsies pay him privately. "About a third of our clients are from gypsy or traveller backgrounds," he said.

Swine flu heads south - to Worcester secondaries.

A school which closed after a confirmed case of swine flu will remain shut for an extra two days to try to stop the virus spreading. A year eight pupil at Nunnery Wood High School in Worcester was diagnosed with the virus on 12 June. It closed on Tuesday after the virus spread, with four cases now confirmed and 17 students awaiting test results. It will now only be open to GCSE exam students on Monday and Tuesday before opening to all pupils on Wednesday.

And Worcester primaries :

The cases were confirmed in pupils at Stanley Road Primary School in Worcester today. But health experts have decided to keep the school open as the pupils have not attended school since being symptomatic. Dr Richard Harling, Director of Public Health at NHS Worcestershire, said: “We have written to parents at the school today to explain the situation to them fully. “Two cases of swine flu among pupils at the school were confirmed last night. However, these children did not acquire the infection at school. In addition, they have not been to school whilst symptomatic and there is no evidence at the moment that there has been any further transmission within the school.

It seems the Asian community (Stanley Road is in the Wylds Lane area of Worcester, once an Italian enclave and now a Muslim one) are most affected.

Officials have blamed the extent of the virus in the West Midlands on an outbreak at Welford Primary School, Handsworth, Birmingham.

It shut in May, with nearly 200 people connected to the school diagnosed with the virus. It has since been reopened.

Welford is the school featured on the BBC last year. It had two white pupils at the time - out of 480.

Do As You Likeys

A group of travellers wrecked a multi-million pound police helicopter which was being used to spy on their site. The gang used axes to smash the £5million aircraft, after they leapt over a 4ft wall surrounding Surrey Police force’s helipad at Fairoaks airport, near Woking in Surrey.

After threatening staff working in the operations room, they set about wrecking the helicopter, smashing six of its windows and causing tens of thousands of pounds worth of damage. The incident happened at 10pm yesterday after weeks of aerial surveillance on the travellers’ site, where detectives believe stolen goods have been hidden.

Officers were getting ready to raid the site after collecting evidence they had filmed from the air. A police source said last night: 'The gipsies were furious because they kept getting buzzed by the helicopter. But no one expected this level of violence. Before a raid is conducted we will observe the criminals from the air. That way we get an idea what we are likely to find, identify suspects and locate entrances and exits. Maybe we got too low.'

I'm sure the report is basically kosher, but I wonder how they knew they were travellers ?

I keep reading in the Guardian that violence solves nothing. But it seems pretty effective for some groups. The police round our way are leery enough of them as it is. Incidents like this (and this) will only reinforce the feeling that they're not to be messed with.

Here's a report on a 'domestic' in Wales :

Nineteen people were arrested after reports of a huge brawl at a Mid Wales gipsy site. Dozens of police officers attended after “violent disorder” broke out. Neighbours reported seeing a gang of men pile out of several vehicles and run on to the site at Withy Beds, on the outskirts of Welshpool, at about 2pm yesterday. Dyfed-Powys Police said 19 travellers from Welshpool and Oxfordshire were arrested for violent disorder and officers remained at the scene overnight, but had left by 8.30am today.

What ? A £20,000 4x4 full of red diesel ? I'm shocked.

Government Continues To Surprise

Blogging's light - too much work, alas. I'm too busy earning a living to make any money, as the saying goes.

I think almost every day that our rulers can't get any more despicable. Then I pick up the paper.

Hundreds of bail hostels are being opened in residential neighbourhoods without public consultation as part of moves to ease jail overcrowding.

People living next door to properties earmarked for suspected criminals and prisoners released early from jail are only told when the premises are about to take their first inhabitants.

Since the privately run hostels will not have live-in staff, neighbours are given a number to phone in the event of problems, according to a document leaked to The Times. Local councils will only be consulted on the “suitability” of a building to house up to five ex-prisoners and suspects granted bail.

I see. At least you find out about the new traveller camp. (Resistance is useless)



I see the government have officially denied reports that they're printing money. So it is true then. Obviously you can't call it printing money, with its resonances of Weimar and Zimbabwe. "Quantitative easing" is the approved expression. "Easing" is so much gentler a word than "printing".

So those on fixed incomes, already stuffed by low interest rates if they have investments, are simultaneously going to see their pensions eroded by inflation. Look at the BBC's example of Mr Routledge - a 77-year old bloated plutocrat with no less then £15,000 of savings.

Since a heart complaint forced him to take early retirement from his job with BOC, Mr Routledge has received a company pension - now £96 a month - on top of the couple's combined weekly state pensions totalling £150.

They receive housing and council tax benefit but lose out on the full amount because of the very savings they put aside to fund their retirement.

A couple with less than £16,000 in the bank qualify for the benefits and can hold £6,000 in savings without affecting their payments.

But for every £500 they have saved over that amount, the authorities assume they earn £1 per week in "tariff income" and reduce the benefit payments accordingly.

The Routledges' tariff income is calculated at £18 per week, or £936 per year.

But with their interest payments falling well short of covering this, Mr Routledge said it has effectively left them hundreds of pounds a year worse off.

In other words, the Government is assuming (for benefit-slashing purposes) a 10% return on the £9K of their savings over the £6K limit. It's grotesque. They're being punished for their attempts at self-reliance.

Roger Bootle was on the Today programme this morning saying 'nobody is worrying about inflation'. I see a new capitalist myth in embryo here. For the last 20 years all economics correspondents presented rising house prices as indubitably and self-evidently a Good Thing - apparently we talked of nothing else at "our dinner parties". It was only early last year that someone actually organised a poll which reported that no, people didn't see it as a good thing. Not surprising really, given that no one on a low or even average income could afford a house any more. What the myth screened was a slow-motion asset transfer of the housing stock to the wealthy.

Looks like the 'nobody is worrying about inflation' myth will attempt to cover the slow-motion destruction of private pension assets. After all, they've already been destroyed quite successfully at the front-end, the paying in end. Where are the final salary schemes of only eleven years ago ? Now it's time to have a go at the back end, at the people already receiving pensions.

(And is inflation that low ? Energy prices, council tax - the big hits on the fixed-income budget ? I don't think my council tax is likely to decrease - do you ?)

Who profits ? Well, if you have enough money, in such an environment working to preserve it is pretty much a full-time job. Hence my point at the front of this post about being too busy working to make any money. Those with a lot, and the time to shuffle it around, should make hay even in this economic climate. It's Mr Average who'll be stuffed.

All Your Children Belong To Us

Local "Democracy" Week in action. Background - the proposed travellers site at the delightful Norfolk village of Spooner Row is vehemently opposed by villagers. The village schoolchildren are attending a workshop run by Norwich and Norfolk Race Equality Council, as part of Local Democracy Week.

Mr Wakeman said: "The two people taking the workshop asked the children if they wanted to stand up and make a pledge.

"None of the children stood up because I suspect they felt awkward, but the pledge was read out anyway.

"They were asked to make a series of promises to be kind to gipsy and traveller children, welcome them into the community and not bully them.

"The children were encouraged to put their fingers in the air or their hands on their hearts to signify their acceptance.

"I am very unhappy about any child of primary school age being asked to take any form of pledge to any group in society.

"But it was also of concern because of the heightened level of anxiety felt by many of the pupils' parents about the proposed travellers' site."

Mr Wakeman has now made an official complaint to the council.

The local council, btw, is Tory-controlled. Now I'm in favour of children - and people being nice to each other full stop - even if their parents work for Norwich and Norfolk Race Equality Council. But State (and NNREC will be totally tax-funded) indoctrination ? As the people of Cottenham found out, discrimination and hatred cuts both ways.

Council officers have insisted they knew nothing about the pledge and denied trying to "brainwash children" into accepting the controversial plan.

But one parent, who asked not to be named, said: "It appeared as it the council was targeting children with propaganda to try and get them on side.

"My first thought was that it was disgusting to target children in such an underhand way when so many people oppose the new site."

Spooner Row Primary School head teacher Simon Wakeman said he believed it was "inappropriate" for children to be asked to make the promise.

"The Notorious Johnson Family"

I mentioned Gloucestershire's most well-known band of vagabonds and villains in this post a few years back. Now they've gone down for 49 years. Between five of them. Another judge - Christopher Critchlow - with a good line in ironic humour.

Judge Christopher Critchlow, sentencing the gang for the country house raids, told them the way they had mocked police was "indicative of your attitude to the law".

He said: "Cases of this gravity must attract heavy sentences because of the deliberate criminality, organisation and sophistication of their planning and the effect on the occupants. This must be one of the most serious examples of conspiracy to burgle ever to come before the court, considering the amounts involved. Little of the property has been recovered and is no doubt well hidden in the countryside or passed on for disposal. You have no respect for people's property or the law so I have no alternative but to impose severe sentences."

Four or five years (remember to cut the sentence in half) for £60m robberies ? His Honour is having a laugh. For ten million quid I'd do five years in Dartmoor.

I see they've left Glarcestershire for Cleeve Prior on the Worcestershire-Warwickshire borders, somewhere twixt Evesham and Bidford-on-Avon. Should feel at home there. A few years back Cleeve Prior was home to a gang of those helpful chaps who knock on old ladies' doors to tell them about the loose slates that they can fix for them - a story that ends with old ladies being driven to the cashpoint on multiple ocasions to have their building society accounts emptied as the work that needs doing mysteriously escalates. When they were nailed one of the lads had over £400,000 in a building society, which had dwindled to about 100K by the time the courts got their hands on it. When I open a bank account I need a letter from a bishop and my firstborn as security. How come all the money-laundering regulations seem to bypass these people ? Are they scared of being accused of discrimination if they raise an eyebrow at cash-only caravan dwellers ?

THE Johnson’s (Ricky, Albi and Richard) who sound like an American pop group but were actually a travelling band of gipsy thieves, liked to look on themselves as some kind of 21st century Robin Hoods robbing from the rich. Except they never gave to the poor. Not unless it was to themselves anyway.

From their base on a travellers’ permanent site in south Worcestershire, they travelled all across southern England stealing from the homes of the rich and famous. “I feel I have the right to rob the lords, sirs and the ladies,” family patriarch Ricky Johnson once told the TV cameras. “I have to feed my children and if no one is helping me achieve my goal I feel I have that right.”

How much the Johnsons actually made from the proceeds of their raids, estimated in a court this week to be a staggering £80 million, is open to question. As one visitor to their home on the park at Cleeve Prior, near Evesham, said: “It’s not as though they live rich. There’s no sign of a Bentley round the back.”

That certainly figures. According to my extensive contacts in the Gloucestershire criminal underworld, artworks from Paddy McNally's manor, the frames hastily repainted, were being sold by one of the matriarchs at knock-down prices at the Cheltenham Racecourse car-boot within months of the raid.

More On Mullingar ...

According to the Herald the guy in the stripy top with the beanie hat, one Christie "Ditsy" Nevin, is named as a leading instigator.

A senior garda named Christie "Ditsy" Nevin (53) as the man who has contributed most to the violence. Superintendent John Gantly, a former head of the Garda Emergency Response Unit, claimed Nevin had opposed all attempts at compromise in a long running feud between families. Nevin was charged with public order offences. Hugh Nevin (21), of Grange Crescent, Mullingar, and David Nevin (30) of St Michael's Park, Mullingar, were both charged with assault. Five others were also accused of public order offences. They were: John Nevin (25), of St Michael's Park; Paddy McDonagh (70), of Dalton Park, Mullingar; David McDonagh (26) of Reask Court, Navan, Co Meath; Michael McDonagh (36), also of Reask Court; and Michael McDonagh (24) of Northern Close, Belcamp Lane, Coolock, Dublin 17.

I liked the comment on Politics.ie :

"The lad in the balaclava is with the Continuity Travellers"

Apparently after a prize-fight between two champions from the feuding families to decide on the 'king of the tinkers', someone didn't pay their gambling debts. Hence the house that was trashed. That's according to RTE.

George Borrow again, on the tramp through North Wales in 1854 :

We continued our way, and presently saw marks of a fire in some grass by the side of the road. “Have the Gipsiaid been there?” said I to my guide.

“Hardly, sir; I should rather think that the Gwyddelaid (Irish) have been camping there lately.”

“The Gwyddeliad?”

“Yes, sir, the vagabond Gwyddeliad, who at present infest these parts much, and do much more harm than the Gipsiaid ever did.”

“What do you mean by the Gipsiaid?”

“Dark, handsome people, sir, who occasionally used to come about in vans and carts, the men buying and selling horses, and sometimes tinkering, whilst the women told fortunes.”

“And they have ceased to come about?”

“Nearly so, sir; I believe they have been frightened away by the Gwyddelod.”

“What kind of people are these Gwyddelod?

“Savage, brutish people, sir; in general without shoes and stockings, with coarse features and heads of hair like mops.”

“How do they live?”

“The men tinker a little, sir, but more frequently plunder. The women tell fortunes, and steal whenever they can.”

“They live something like the Gipsiaid.”

“Something, sir; but the hen Gipsiaid were gentlefolks in comparison.”

“You think the Gipsiaid have been frightened away by the Gwyddelians?”

“I do, sir; the Gwyddelod made their appearance in these parts about twenty years ago, and since then the Gipsiaid have been rarely seen.”

“Are these Gwyddelod poor?”

“By no means, sir; they make large sums by plundering and other means, with which, ’tis said, they retire at last to their own country or America, where they buy land and settle down.”

(If you think the English or Welsh are dubious about travellers, just ask an Irishman about them and get your ears pinned back)

"members of the travelling community"

The BBC apparently think that County Westmeath is in Northern Ireland - at least that's where they've put this story. Any fule know that Lough Ree is

"where the three counties meet, Longford, Westmeath and Roscommon"

Seven people have been arrested after a riot in County Westmeath involving two feuding extended families. Gardai say 200 people were involved in the violence at Dalton Park estate in Mullingar and riot police were needed to deal with the trouble.
Two petrol bombs were also thrown and a number of people treated in hospital. Trouble began at about noon when it is understood a prize fight involving members of two feuding local families sparked serious violence. Stones and missiles were thrown amid sustained fighting in the housing estate.

Blimey. It reminds me of this little contretemps round my way some fifteen year ago. I know it's dreadful stereotyping, but can you think of any community characterised by this sort of large-scale inter-family barney ? Well would you believe it ...

Several people were injured and taken to the Midland Regional Hospital in the town, where further fighting broke out between members of the travelling community. Riot police from the Garda Public Order unit were needed to quell the trouble, and the Garda helicopter unit was also sent to patrol the scene, with ambulances and fire brigade units also present. Seven people were due to appear in court in connection with the violence. Local reports say a feud has been simmering between two extended families over recent months.

One of the things that makes the police and others leery of upsetting Irish travellers too much is the knowledge that to offend one is to offend the clan.

'Twas ever thus. 1854 ...

“Only think,” said I. “And now tell me, what brought you into Wales?”

“What brought me into Wales? I’ll tell you; my own fool’s head. I was doing nicely in the Kaulo Gav and the neighbourhood, when I must needs pack up and come into these parts with bag and baggage, wife and childer. I thought that Wales was what it was some thirty years agone when our foky used to say — for I was never here before — that there was something to be done in it; but I was never more mistaken in my life. The country is overrun with Hindity mescrey, woild Irish, with whom the Romany foky stand no chance. The fellows underwork me at tinkering, and the women outscream my wife at telling fortunes — moreover, they say the country is theirs and not intended for niggers like we, and as they are generally in vast numbers what can a poor little Roman family do but flee away before them?

A pretty journey I have made into Wales. Had I not contrived to pass off a poggado bav engro — a broken-winded horse — at a fair, I at this moment should be without a tringoruschee piece in my pocket. I am now making the best of my way back to Brummagem, and if ever I come again to this Hindity country may Calcraft nash me.”

“I wonder you didn’t try to serve some of the Irish out,” said I.

“I served one out, brother; and my wife and childer helped to wipe off a little of the score. We had stopped on a nice green, near a village over the hills in Glamorganshire, when up comes a Hindity family, and bids us take ourselves off. Now it so happened that there was but one man and a woman and some childer, so I laughed, and told them to drive us off. Well, brother, without many words, there was a regular scrimmage. The Hindity mush came at me, the Hindity mushi at y my juwa, and the Hindity chaves at my chai. It didn’t last long, brother. In less than three minutes I had hit the Hindity mush, who was a plaguey big fellow, but couldn’t fight, just under the point of the chin, and sent him to the ground with all his senses gone. My juwa had almost scratched an eye out of the Hindity mushi, and my chai had sent the Hindity childer scampering over the green. ‘Who has got to quit now?’ said I to the Hindity mush after he had got on his legs, looking like a man who has been cut down after hanging just a minute and a half. ‘Who has got notice to quit, now, I wonder?’

Well, brother, he didn’t say anything, nor did any of them, but after a little time they all took themselves off, with a cart they had, to the south. Just as they got to the edge of the green, however, they turned round and gave a yell which made all our blood run cold. I knew what it meant, and said, ‘This is no place for us.’ So we got everything together and came away and, though the horses were tired, never stopped till we had got ten miles from the place; and well it was we acted as we did, for, had we stayed, I have no doubt that a whole Hindity clan would have been down upon us before morning and cut our throats.”

Farewell To The Thirty-Foot Trailer (and the Lamborghini)

Despite the fact that, as everyone knows, travellers are poor people who never have any money, one does find the occasional band of tarmacers or roof-repairers who target old ladies and are then found at the trial to have hundreds of thousands of pounds salted away.

This chap doesn't deal with such small change.

A convicted fraudster who masterminded a huge tax scam has been ordered to pay back almost £7m. Noel Young, who imported and sold luxury cars, was sentenced to 28 months after admitting conspiracy to commit VAT fraud and money laundering. The 32-year-old, from Carlisle, is already serving seven years for causing death by dangerous driving.

The £7m order, granted at Liverpool Crown Court, is thought to be one of the largest ever made. Young, of The Green, Houghton, was found to have benefited by £10,551,747, and was described by Judge David Aubrey QC as "a manipulative and deceitful individual". The fraud involved more than 250 vehicles and the total value of the scam was more than £14m, the court heard.

During proceedings last month, Young claimed that he could barely read or write as he is "a Gypsy" and never had any schooling as his family had travelled around.

Hmmm. He can add up, though, can't he ?

Black and black unite and fight

The Rainbow Nation seems not to be as inclusive as all that :

The violence in Alexandra started on Sunday evening when an enraged mob marched to a hostel in London Road, targeting foreigners mainly from Zimbabwe whom they accuse of stealing precious jobs and contributing to worsening crime rates.

The crowd beat the immigrants, forced others from their rooms and shot dead two men – one a South African who refused to take part in the attack.

Scores of refugees, many “illegal” immigrants, flocked to Alexandra police station for protection. Despite extra police with riot gear taking up positions across the township, violence again erupted on Monday night, drawing condemnation from politicians and soul-searching on the part of other South Africans.

“Is this the new South Africa?” screamed the front page of the South African Times under a picture of a bloodied Ms Ndlovu. The ruling African National Congress (ANC) has condemned the attacks, but others point to frequent warnings of mounting tensions in townships that the ANC Government has ignored.

Complaints of jobs being taken and a government ignoring tensions ? Sounds familiar. But in the UK the natives don't go in for this sort of stuff. Instead, a Labour leaflet accusing the Tories of not wanting foreigners to carry ID cards is seen by the the massed and hysterical ranks of Guardianistas as one step away from requiring them to wear yellow stars.

For once, I agree with idiot CiF poster tooter, a glass-three-quarters-full kind of chap whose motif is 'surely, comrades, you do not want Mr Jones back ?'. His thesis is that this is all just part of the cut'n'thrust of politics and that the end sometimes has to justify the means. Horrified lefties point out to him that this means using the language of the right and ipso facto conceding that their arguments may have a point.

Both tooter and his critics are right. It's true that Labour are using language that sits better with the right - or with Old Labour. I don't think Bevin or Attlee would have had trouble distinguising Brits from non-Brits. Whereas, as every post-60s leftie knows, foreigners are exactly like "us" - and anyway, who's "us" - we're a nation of immigrants, don'tcha know ?

But the simple fact is that a campaign of 'we welcome immigration and see no upper limit to it', while pretty well describing the de facto Labour position, would lead to an even greater hammering than the one they're going to get. Labour have always been prepared to talk tough on crime and immigration, while letting all the prisoners out and the asylum-seekers in. It's what they do. And it worked pretty well (electorally) for ten years.

I've said before that the Brits don't do fascism.

Can't say that about the Italians. They invented it. I must say I can't imagine scenes like this in the UK, where the travelling community are the ones with the unity, the willingness to use force, and the firepower.

Italian police began a nationwide round-up of nearly 400 illegal immigrants from the Balkans and North Africa yesterday in the midst of a series of arson attacks on Roma gypsy camps in the suburbs of Naples.

The first step in a drive on crime promised by the new centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi targeted temporary encampments on the outskirts of cities from Naples to northern Italy. Some 118 people held in the operation were ordered to be expelled immediately for offences ranging from drug dealing and robbery to prostitution.

But in Naples local people have anticipated the new policy, taking the law into their own hands.

This week’s assaults on Roma shanty towns by scores of youths on scooters and motorbikes wielding iron bars and throwing Molotov cocktails were sparked off by the capture of a 17-year-old Roma girl who last weekend entered a flat in Ponticelli and tried to steal a 6-year-old girl. Chased by the mother and neighbours, she had to be rescued by police from being lynched.

The city erupted in fury, with local women leading the marches on the Roma camps to the chant of “Fuori, fuori [Out, out]”. Night after night young men — allegedly acting on the orders of powerful local clans of the Camorra, the Naples Mafia — have set the sites ablaze, blocking attempts by the fire brigade to put out the fires, with exploding gas canisters completing the destruction. The women jeered at the firemen, shouting, "You put these fires out, we start them again”.

Plumes of smoke were still rising yesterday from the smouldering, blackened ruins of a Roma gypsy camp attacked and burnt to the ground by local vigilantes in Ponticelli, a rundown industrial suburb in the east of Naples in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius.

The charred remains of the makeshift wooden shacks at the site on Via Malibran crunch underfoot. The only sign of life is dogs scavenging through the neighbouring mountain of uncollected, rotting rubbish.

There are similar scenes of devastation at camps nearby, including one in the incongruously named Via Virginia Woolf. At one squalid “nomad camp” beneath a motorway flyover, intact but deserted, a policeman guarding the site said that the inhabitants had fled during the night to avoid being attacked.

Hmm. I've always thought of Naples as the Scallyland of Italy.

The Naples arson attacks, however, are the result of long-festering anger throughout Italy over rising crime levels and urban degradation, much of it blamed on Roma gypsies and the estimated half a million Romanians who have emigrated to Italy since Romania joined the European Union.

But I can't see even the Scallies going in for this sort of thing. Rising crime levels and urban degradation ? If that were the criterion, Kirkby would have been a heap of smouldering ruins long ago.

"Please, please can someone help us"

The travellers encamped illegally at Crays Hill have won their High Court battle against eviction after Lawrence Collins ruled they they could stay 'while concerns about their needs and welfare are further investigated.'

Tragically the needs and welfare of those whom obey the planning (and other) legislation don't seem such a high priority.

Posted by: Hovefields resident, wickford on 2:59pm Fri 9 May 08

We have been totally let down by this government. I don't know which cloud this judge has been sitting on for the past 6 years but he should be knocked off his perch and told to live in the real world. We have suffered so much down here I just want to sit down and cry buckets but no I have to pick myself up and fight again. Our human rights are non existent, why will no-one listen to us, why is this allowed to happen to us. We have no faith in our judicial system whatsoever. Please, please can someone help us because we are at a loss as to what to do. Most of the comments are realistic and supportive and I thank you for these.

Carty IV

The last Carty story I featured was this, the everyday story of a 20 year old construction worker being shot at hs own wedding reception. A Martin Carty was one of the accused.

At the time I wondered if it was a travellers tale. While no paper said so, the story just had that air about it.

Seems so. Note however that travellers are not stupid people. This was planned and organised - a lot better planned than the first hit.


A man facing an attempted murder charge broke out of the dock, bit a policeman on the nose and fled from a court yesterday. Jason McInerney - who is accused of shooting a bridegroom at a wedding reception - was on the run last night after the breakout.Prosecutor Ian Hope threw off his wig and gown and set off in pursuit of McInerney, but was tripped up in a corridor by a man thought to be among a gang of accomplices who had arrived to help with the pre-planned breakout.

Although McInerney escaped, his brother Kurt and Martin Carty, the two other defendants on attempted murder charges, were caught by police and security guards before they could reach the exit at Reading Crown Court. The trial had only recently been moved from a courtroom with a higher level of security. Last night police warned the public not to approach McInerney as they continued to search for him.McInerney, of Romford, Essex, is from Britain's travelling community, with contacts across the country.

His parents' home, in Blaxston, near Doncaster, was alleged to be where McInerney, his brother and Carty, 18, set off from before the shooting at the Skyways hotel in Slough in November 2006. They were accused of attempting to murder Joseph Mitchell by shooting him in the groin during his wedding reception. They also deny robbery, relating to the beating of a man whose high-powered VWGolfR32 they allegedly stole to use as a getaway car.

Mr Mitchell gave evidence against them at the start of the trial, which had been moved from the high-security Court Six, where it had been held for the past three weeks to the lower security Court Two, to make way for a murder trial. A witness said it was no coincidence that the breakout took place on a day when armed police, normally stationed outside the courthouse in connection with the murder trial, were not present because that trial was not sitting.



Jason McInerney.

I Wonder ...

Could the Hilary Beach, Labour Mayor of Chepstow, who asked if the Rifles could possibly leave their rifles behind ("I am very much against guns and think they are awful things") for the Remembrance Day parade, be the Hilary Beach who "currently works with and is known to the Gypsy Traveller families living on the local authority sites in South Gloucestershire."

If so, no wonder she doesn't like guns.

"a whiff of the lynch mob"

In such understated tones doth the BBC's Jon Dymond (21:39 in, RealAudio) report from Italy this morning on expulsions of Romanians, mostly gypsy Roma, from Italy.

I paraphrase : "none of the men have jobs - the women make a living by begging".

Just the kind of work the Italians won't do ... though in fairness he does visit a construction firm with lots of Romanian employees.

EU officials say Italy is acting within its rights provided it respects the union's criteria for expulsion of EU citizens and does not target a group. Under European law, EU countries can expel EU citizens who pose a public threat or who lack sufficient income. Italy is deporting some Romanians under a new decree aimed at tackling crime.

"It is possible to expel citizens of another [EU] state if they don't fulfil the [residency] criteria or represent a threat to public safety or public health," EU justice affairs spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing said on Monday.

Funny - in the UK, our judges decide that we can't deport Italians convicted of murder - or any other criminals from within the EU. They must have a different EU law over there - or could they have different judges.

Back to the banks of the Tiber :

The situation, already tense, reached a critical point in late October, when Nicolae Romulus Mailat, a Romanian citizen, was charged with the murder in Rome of Giovanna Reggiani.

Romanian authorities describe Mailat as an ethnic Roma (Gypsy). He had been living in an illegal shanty town at Tor di Quinto on the edge of Rome, inhabited mainly by Roma. Italy demolished the shacks there at the weekend.

At the time of EU enlargement Migrationwatch worried about how many of Eastern Europe's I.5 million Roma would turn up here. Expect a concerted Guardian campaign to entice this demonised and oppressed people to a country which has already shown it can deliver a warm welcome.

A Berkshire town has been struggling to cope with nearly 90 children who have arrived unaccompanied from Eastern Europe. The Roma children, one as young as ten, have apparently paid someone in Romania to send them to Slough. The Borough Council does not know why it has been singled out but has been forced to set up a special team and spend £150,000 helping the children. It has called for more government help to offset the strain on other services.

Thought Crime

I think Peter Black AM says pretty much what I want to say about the decision of Trevor Phillips' CRE to take legal action aganist a man who raised a petition against the possible siting of a "travellers" site near his home.

The decision by the Commission for Racial Equality to take legal action under the Race Relations Act against a local resident who collected 953 signatures on a petition against a possible official travellers’ site near his home is one of the most bizarre I have come across for some time. It just flies in the face of commonsense ...

This intervention by the CRE in my view is a perverse and unwelcome intrusion on this process.

Whatever one’s views on this matter, the prosecution of local residents who are using legitimate and democratic means to bring their concerns to the attention of the local Council, will set a dangerous and unwelcome precedent. If for example the Council were to proceed with an official site and lodged a planning application would the CRE determine that anybody who objected to it, and any Councillor who spoke against it, were acting in breach of the Race Relations Act?

To which the answer is "yes, probably".

Do As You Likeys

By now, the other boys had found poles and sticks to beat us with. They were surrounding us, and nonchalant young men were standing by watching. The pacing steed had been replaced by a manic squad bike that was running circles around me and Jessamy. While I was fending off Jonathan, Jessamy was protecting the awning that the boys were pulling down. In despair she turned to a man who had stuck his head out of a neighbouring caravan.

"What can I do to stop these children tormenting us?" she asked

"Pack up and go", he said.

Ever wondered what would happen if someone from the straight world pulled their caravan up on a traveller site ? I've lived in the country long enough to be frankly amazed that anyone would try it. Nowt as queer as folk.

Travellers, as we all know, are very poor people and subject to the most dreadful discrimination.

More Traveller's Tales

Once again, as so often in her history, Britain offers a home for those fleeing oppression. The home in question being Cheltenham racecourse.

One said: “We used to travel in France but the authorities were strict and always moved us on, often using force.

“We moved to England because the laws are much fairer for travellers and we have no desire to move back to France now. We will stay here until we decide to move.”