Panorama tonight @9 My Big Fat Fake Wedding:

[soaps]

Looks interesting,

[yogi-bear]

Not Jordan is it, soaps?

[boxtops]

Nooo, it's about faked weddings for people to get UK residency.

[Xylene]

...is it about gipsies?

[New Judge]

No. That was My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding which was shot predominantly on the illegal Crays Hill travellers’ site near Billericay. The local council has recently decided to clear the site and the exercise is estimated to cost upwards of £18m.

As already said, the Panorama programme is about sham marriages where immigrants who would otherwise not be entitled to remain in the UK marry EU citizens to gain right of abode. The measures the UK government took to prevent such marriages are shortly to be shelved because they it has been ruled that they fall foul of Human Rights laws.

[sherrardk]

Why will it cost upwards of £18 million to flatten some land?

[New Judge]

The estimate was £2m in 2008:

http://www.thisistota...0-detail/article.html

Here’s a couple of articles outlining why it will now cost £18m:

http://www.southendst...rays_Hill_evictions_/

http://www.guardian.c...-evict-400-travellers

http://www.dailymail....r-staggering-18m.html

[boxtops]

If anyone watched, it WAS interesting to see how people manage to evade the law with these marriages - the vicars spoken to seemed powerless to do anything, unless those up the chain in the church refused the licence. It seems that a sham church wedding is a great deal easier to arrange than one in a register office.

[pinkjudy45]

The program was very interesting,I felt sorry for the girl from Spain who's passport had been stolen and she has then found out that she is married to some chap because another girl used her name and passport and there is nothing she can do about it, except prhaps divorced this chap if she can find him and it is also going to cost her money for something she knew nothing about.