Gypsies
Gypsies… or Travellers, as what relation these people have to do with Romani nomadic mystics I’m not quite sure… I was reading the paper a couple of days ago and it showed a huge wasteland of rubbish littering a farmer’s field from where several hundred gypsies had decided to park for a while and had literally ‘trashed’ the place. Trying to do a little research before writing this antagonistic piece I came across the 1968 Caravan Sites Act which made all country councils duty-bound to provide caravan sites for Gypsies and Travellers, which apparently many county councils decided to ignore so was repealed by the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act in 1994, giving police the right to evict gypsies from ‘other sites’ without authorisation. Unfortunately, squatting on someone else’s land is not a criminal offence but a civil one, meaning the police have no power to move the squatters (and, oh yes… I am using that word intentionally), without the poor landowner having to…
Ask the trespassers to leave
Issuing and serving a court summons
Seeking a possession order in court
Serving the order
Executing a warrant for possession with county court bailiffs
Anyone who has any experience with the bureaucracy, the wonderful people so thrilled with helping you they bend over backwards to make life just that little bit more pleasant, will get some idea of the frightful, and let’s face it, intimidating (not only from facing so many troublesome things to do, but once the process is in place then also from the squatters), task before them.
I have to ask…? Why? Why is it so easy for these people to come and invade you, but so difficult to make them leave? I read this article, it said the police were advocating supplying them with more locations to live, and apparently it is the responsibility of the landowner to clean up their mess when they eventually leave… are you kidding me…! They can, apparently be fined for illegally stopping somewhere, but the local council will receive the money for the fine, not the person who has been violated.
I would like to know why I can’t go and park on a campsite without having to pay? Why can’t I throw litter all over said campsite and not incur any particular penalty, and if I do receive a penalty I would like to spend some time laughing at the person having to clean it up while I congratulate the person receiving my cash…
Oh, and apparently if their children are not receiving the appropriate education we will send tutors to their caravans to help them out with their basic human rights to an education…
Don’t get me wrong; I like being a decent liberal as much as the next victimised idiot, but aren’t we going just a little far?
If they want to stay somewhere they can pay for a site exactly the same as all the rest of us.
If they litter they can be fined; fined a very large amount to prevent them littering again in the future, and half should go to the council and half should go towards both cleaning up the mess and a reward to the owner for any unhappiness the problem has caused.
If they are intimidating they should be arrested for assault (aggressive behaviour without necessary physical contact), or worse.
If they can’t provide a proper education for their children the children should be taken away from them until such a time as they can prove they can provide a proper education for their children – if you wouldn’t allow an orphan to go and live with prospective parents who could not provide a sufficient education for the children then why would we allow children to stay under the same circumstances – does this not fall under the category of abuse and thus deserve all the protection allowed by the law under such circumstances?
What does being a minority have to do with breaking the law – the social contract? Individuals are a minority, but apparently we’re not exempt from the full force of the law…?
Once again our liberalism is being used against us by those who find such gentle kindness a vulnerability to be taken advantage of. It is the responsibility of our administrative tool to make sure our gentle charitable nature is not taken advantage of, that we are not abused for our fair and equal outlook on life, because any and every one without such an upbringing will have a very different perspective, a perspective which will see the abuse and use of our cultural psychology not as a crime, but simply as a weakness to be exploited.
