Should the Gypsies have been evicted from Dale Farm

[tonywiltshire]

Last evening I watched the BBC 1 programme on the eviction of gypsies from Dale Farm. Most of the inhabitants seemed to be females of various ages who seemed to be concerned for the future of their children, reasonable and many with strong religious convictions, it was explained that the men did not wish to appear as it may spoil their employment opportunities, it was not explained why appearing on screen may spoil their employment opportunities.
I do hope those who supported their cause on site left their addresses in case the gypsies found they needed somewhere to live.
Based on this programme why do the local residents not seem to enjoy the presence of these people?

[emmie]

There were two programmes on Dale Farm last evening, BBC and Channel 4 I think? To my mind this is propaganda for the travellers of Dale Farm. The fact it's taken 10 years and oodles of cash to remove them, speaks volumes. And if there were no men around, that would be common practice, it looks better on TV if there are only women and children, gets a lot more sympathy for some reason. If you look at the vehicles they drive, and the homes they live in, not exactly short of a few quid. I am sorry for Basildon Council who have been portrayed to some extent as the bad guys in this debacle, when in truth they appear to have bent over backwards to accommodate these people. There are designated sites, not just in Essex but around the country, some go to them but many don't, as that would mean having to pay.

[mikey4444]

I have been following the Dale farm affair for a few weeks now, and a couple of things have occured to me :::

1......Whenever the travellers are interviewed on TV they all appear to have southern Irish accents. Now I very open-minded about foreigners but I am not sure why Basildon council have to provide Irish people with a place to live.

2.....The travellers have made much of thier way of life, and don't seem to like living in houses. But surely, if they all starting "travelling", camping on the verges of country lanes and eating roast hedgehog, it would please Basildon council no end ! If they don't like to stay put for very long, why do they all want to stay living in Dale Farm, as they have done for the past 10 years ?

[soxmis_sid]

The thing that I don't understand is how do they get insurance for their vehicles?
My insurance is based on my post code but if they don't have an official address (not neccesarily Dale Farm) how do they get insured?
Also, given that the BBC bent over backwards to give the pikey point of view, did they check to see if they had TV licences?

[tonywiltshire]

Soxmis_sid: Good point.