blonde poker forum

I was surprised to learn that Tony likes the Fairground boxer and hard men stories, I am a Romany Gypsy (yes, I still live in a caravan) and I know a lot of these guys in person

Because I am a Gypsy I have met with a lot of prejudice in my life, mainly because people are suspicious of what they don't understand, I decided that the best way to combat this was let people ask me about the Gypsy way of life and answer as best I can, I give talks to police forces all over the country and in reality all I do is let them ask me questions, so if anyone wants to know something, please ask

Mrs Red and I were invited to the Queens garden party a little while ago, the group that I work with won the Queens Jubilee award for services to the community, I think we were the first Gypsies ever to walk through those gates, I was very proud

Life is very difficult for Gypsies at the moment, the Sun newspaper is running a hate campaign and there are a lot of people who are not really Gypsies who have taken to caravans, some of these groups cause a lot of trouble and we have to carry the can. This is not to say that we are all angels, we have bad people amongst us just like any other community

I haven't mentioned this before because I wanted you to know me as a person first and a Gypsy second

I am very proud of my heritage and my ancestry, my forbears have been imprisoned, transported, and even executed for the crime of being a Gypsy; it is a testimony to their courage and love that I am here at all

never mind that when you going blonde

Lol, TOMORROW!!!!!

nice post red.

But i didnt assume the title refered to your hair!!

ahhhhhhh differnet roots

or different strokes...I'm not sure, so I'm keeping quiet lest I offend him!!

Looking forward to seeing Blonde-Dog make his debut at Broadway.

Are you playing the 100?

Which 100, on lads or at the Broadway?

Broadway, m8.

Yes, I think so

NO HATS!!!  ;D ;)

Good for you Red,

My mum is from Gypsy stock, and while I am proud of that fact, I did find it difficult as a child when the other kids found out - but it never stopped me telling people about it and being proud of my romany heritage. I do consider myself Romany.

I can imagine you were possibly biting your nails a bit at making that post - but bloody good for you, and it's another testament to this forum that you felt that you could make it.

Sounds like you do an awful lot of good work, with the people you talk to and the information you give out.

Ta you :)

Heid
xx

Wow - a REAL Gypsy? Fantastic!

I am afraid I live in my own little insular world, & know nothing of the hate campaign by The Sun, but I've had a lifelong view on what has come to be known as "Gypsies".

When we were kids, a "tinkerman" used to come round once or twice a year - horse drawn gypsy trailer, the lot. He'd sharpen knives & scissors, and lawn mower blades, & we used to feed his horse apples from the tree in our garden. He was a PROPER Gypsy, immaculately clean and tidy, respectable, upright, & law-abiding. this is MY perceptrion of Gypsies. And of course I read all the books I can find on the Gypsy fighters - awesomely hard and brave men.

But in the last 20 or 30 years, has come the emergence of what are sometimes called "travellers", or, in my language, "diddy-ky's". These are the caravan dwellers who suddenly arrive in a field or Supermarket Car Park, break into all the local houses, steal openly from shops, leave mountain of rubbish & scrap iron around when they leave, da de da de da.

These peeps are usually referrd to as Gypsies. They are NOT. And that;s where Tom's problem lies I suspect - differentiating between the two in peeps minds.

For the purpose of this debate, lets make sure we refer to each group properly - Romany Gypsies are Gypsies, & the "others" are Diddy-Ky's.

I hope & beleve that Tom's post will furher his cause, he really has a problem that persecution is taking place, & I think this is going to help, maybe not much, but bit by bit is the way to go. Big problems need to be solved in bite size chunks.

And how does this affect my perception of Tom? He was always one of my heroes - he has other aspects to his life which I know about & you don't. Jeez, he is SOME big man, I tell you.

But he's just become even bigger.

He has every right to be proud, & I can't believe how lucky we blondeites are to have him amongst us.

Of all the ways blonde has impacted upon my life, getting to be a friend of Tom's ranks very near the top.

Way to go Tom.

By the way, we have decided (Tom & I) that we will make an exception to the "no flaming" rule on blonde in this ONE case. If peeps have a prob with Tom & his kinsfolk, let's hear about it. These things only get better by being openly discussed, & if there IS prejudice out there, lets hear about it. Personally, I am not aware of it, but we shall see.

But we gotta hear about how your visit to meet HM The Queen at Buck House went...!

Is she a blondeite?

Could we get her to dye her hair? Or Charlie Boy?

I used to work in Epsom next to where a guy called Creamy (sp?) lives. He was always friendly to me but a lot of people used poo themselves and walk off whenevrer he approached cos he's meant to be an ex bare knuckle boxing super hard man. Know him?

which sites do the Windsors play on then Tom?

clearly this must have been part of your discusssion with Her Majesty

please do not add to the media lies it was only a little weed that harry took

Tom

That is an amazing revelation. Over the years I have had a lot of contact with the Romany Community and especially the Romany Guild leader, who nominated me as their official solicitor, I remained so for a few years but spent most of my time referring the membership to other firms who did specialist work, such as planning and the like.

The leader of the Guild, for many years, was a chap called Tom Lee from Stratford, in the East End. He was a fascinating man and the world is worse off following his demise. He was a mass of facts as to Romany history and constantly saddened that people did not recognise the Gypsy's own holocaust, one estimate is that 500,000 died in camps etc under the Nazi regime.

During my time in close contact with the community it became obvious that many people were simply scared and non-plussed by the way of life of travellers and reacted aggressively. Yes it has to be said, like any community, there were bad apples, but the resentment was saddening to see. Something that did shine through was the pride of the Romany both in their accommodation, life style and their family.

Good on you Tom, my friend.

Tikay has said far too eloquently what I might say. All I will add is I think all should be proud of their roots, and withstand often ill-informed prejudice.

That said I fully understand the concerns of those such as I, a while back, who had to face an encampment of travellers in the field behind my house with mess, noise, threats to the local community and in a couple of isolated instances violence, before they moved on.

At the time, having had no experience in my past with such communities, I wouldn't have made the distinction between travellers and gypsies, I don't mind admitting it

A thread such as this enlightens me a little further.

I enjoyed reading that Red-Dog.

I'm told that I have 'Irish Tinker' ancestry from my mother's side.

I know nothing more aobut it as my Gran wasn't happy about it & it wasn't discussed  :(.

No-one should be made to be ashamed, or to abandon their heritage. Every time I hear of the 'cricket test' or similar I want to smack someone - it's racism disguised.

Gave me somethink to think about there Tom I must admit. We live with a large field behind us that is "occupied" every year or 2 by travellers and the problems that come with them. The first words we mutter are admittedly usually along the lines of "fkin gypsies are back"- does this make me predjudiced? I think not- probably just missinformed. When you have had your house broken into by these scumbags, had your child nearly run over by a 12 year old on a quadbike and your terminally ill father threatened by a big toerag you do tend to become a little predjudiced. I did go toe to toe with said toerag (although Im a big lad I am not violent but when it comes to family I would happily die defending them) although I admit I was very stupid to do so and very lucky I wasnt up against the usual gypsy hard man. I do read all the papers and have never considered it a  "witch hunt" because of my own experiences. I will now change these views (Tom you have converted one person at least with a well written peice) because I am really intellegent enough not to generalise so easily. What if we all classed every muslim with a rucksack as a suicide bomber?

I have to confess, I know absolutely nothing about Gypsies. However, when someone mentions the word 'Gypsy', I immediately think of caravans in car-parks. And like Tikay said, this is where the problem probably lies. If people don't educate themselves on various cultures, societies, etc, they tend to go with the generalisations and stereotypes that modern society presents us.

Ariston raises an important point: "what if we classed every muslim with a rucksack as a suicide bomber"

I was ashamed of myself a month or so back

I very nearly got caught up in the July bombings on the London transport system.

I commute into London every day, rush hour there and back on the train

In the weeks after the atrocities I found myself consciously sitting as far away from those that even appeared to be Muslim (if it it even possible to ascertain this, which it isn't) on the public transport I use. I accept decisions I made at the time displayed little logic and in themselves helped promote the effect that the terrorists were seeking...to sow conflict, dissension and fear into our everyday lives

My reaction to events shocked and disappointed me, and reinforced to me the point we are all raising here about generalisations and irrational prejudice.

Yes I Know Creamy, He's one of the  Price's

The visit to the palace was amazing, we had to be vetted by MI5 (I think it was) first, we met The Queen, Had tea on the Biggest lawn you have ever seen, then we were allowed to stroll around the grounds and  mingle with the great and the good, we were also allowed to walk around some of the public rooms in the palace, staring wide eyed at priceless objects, completly unatended, Mind you, I did bump into a 7ft 15" Beefeater, he sat and had a chat with us, it was a surreal day

I have to point out that I also have camped illegaly for most of my life, there are 'Official sites' but they are very few and always full, they are horrible horrible places, the difference is, we always tried to camp where we would cause no trouble, and we always left it spotlessly clean, we used these camps for years, but others have spoiled this for us now

why are the Official sites horrible places Tom?

If you don't mind me asking, what sort of place do you live at now?

I should add that "official sites" are becoming rarer each quarter.

Tikay,

As regards diddy k's (i don't know what that means?).

Are you not generalising a group of people yourself? Which is what Red is trying to educate people about?

Tarring all with the same brush?

Forgive me if i'm wrong, just seemed like a bit of a sweeping statement.

Ariston's very honest reply is THE perfect example of the point I made, a big up to him for ilustrating the point so perfectly.

He "took against" Gypsies, for the reasons he explained.

But now he knows they were NOT Gypsies, they were Diddy Ky's. And he's onside now.

That's one person who now knows better (one who has a voice too - and knows how to talk.....) so Tom's post has already been worthwhile.

It was always my belief in life & business that NO problem was too big to solve. But it has to be broken down into digestible, bite sized chunks, & dealt with bit (or bite?) at a time. So Ariston's newly enlightened understanding of the situation is just great. There will be more. I mean, if Ariston can understand it........

I always say it as I see it and am never afraid to put my views across be they right or wrong, however I would never class myself as a racist or a biggot and to tar everyone with the same brush was shortsighted by me. I will never generalise again (dont all old people smell of wee, talk bllcks about the olden days/trains etc and are forever missreading their hands  ;D)

Now that IS a generalisation. I never here Tikay speaking of the olden days.  :D ;)

Hi Ace2Mouth, good point.

I am trying to differentiate betrween one group & another, and in doing so, I have to collectively generalise to make the point.

It's possible, in doing so, that some innocent people will get hurt, but in the greater scheme of things, that's almost inevitable.

You can put whatever label you wish on the group of folks I refer to as Diddy Ky's. But by definition, I am ONLY referring to the groups that, collectively, cause so much mess, thieving, vandalising, terrorising, etc, in the way that Ariston so beautifuly described. They HAVE to have a collective name - but you can call them what you wish. If they don't thieve & terrorise & vandalise & leave rubbish everywhere, they are NOT Diddy-Ky's....!

So, if your suggestion that I am taring a group with the same brush, then yes, I am. I am saying all those that leave all that scrap & litter, & break nto houses, & steal openly, are Diddy-Ky's.That's my name for them, & it does tar them all with the same brush, because it's a "collective noun", by definition! We can't ignore them simply on the grounds that it woudl be a generalisation. It is precisely this group that, in my opinion, are responsible for the way Gypsies are wrongly & unfairly percieved, & prejudiced against, in our society.

A serious discussion on blonde- no mention yet of norks,nipples or boobies anywhere to be seen. Wonder what time cochester will get out of bed? ;D

NORKS!

NIPPLES!

BOOBIES!

(cough) - just keeping it light.  ;)

that moon thats giving off heat is keeping it light

i dont understand why people get up before 8pm with a moon like that

But our next serious Topic - I guess we have to have one now & then, but they all end in fun & disarray anyway - iis Ageism. Boy oh boy, are you lot gonna be in deep poo then......

Hard to imagine ONE of you will escape my wrath, my cutting ripostes, my withering looks. (I shall regret "withering looks, which wise guy will get in first on THAT one... Evens Ariston?).

Oh, & before you jump to the wrong conclusion. i shall defend Ageism, because I KNOW some old peeps - Karbiner for one - & I shall be old myself eventually.

And what's a Nork when it's at home? (Serious question).

Ok i understand,

It seemed like you were seperating all travellers without a romany gypsy heritage as Diddy K's (please explain hat that means?). I am sure that not all travellers without the heritage are the theiving, nasty people many have encountered.

Question,

Is there a seperation between romany gypsy's and travellers or do they camp/stay/travel in the same groups?

Bristol's, boobs, baps etc oh and breasts, some people call them that as well.

withering looks- too easy mate. I expected some sort of response off you on the poker translator thread. Set up to perfection for your wit that thread.
norks- verb... a particluarly pert pair of breasts usually found on a "younger" attractive femail. Not to be mixed up with their older "fried egg" counterparts  ;D

Another quote from that series "Coupling":

"I have found 800 words for breasts, and counting"

Eek. Maybe I should modify that line before he reads it. Don't want to be brought to the docks on his 'age-ism' thread.

Ive never watched coupling robert but if thats a quote from it it sounds like my type of show  ;D Is it on sky?? Also I think I may need a lawyer to defend me against alleged ageism, I dont think I have ever been ageist but you know these old people- they just need to find something to moan about to make them feel important/wanted  ;)

Whilst we are all being honest and talking about roots, I have a confession to make.





I'm not really a Nun ;D ;D ;D :D ;D



I think i am quite lucky as i never generalise folk, I always like to take time to get to know people from all walks of life, I grew up in the country where, from an early age,  we had  Gypsies visiting the area throughout the year. We never had a problem with any that visited, some even decided to settle in a house not too far from ours, at first they took a lot of stick from uneducated locals, but they were the most kind & helpful family anyone could wish to have as neighbours, and soon made a few people eat their words. There is now a residential site in that area, which as far as i know causes no problems.
I'm struggling a bit to try and understand why Red,  you felt,  that by having Romany in you  would make a difference to the way people on here judge you. I personaly dont care how people judge me, as there is far too much serioiusness in my life to worry about what people think of me. I come to this Forum for release  from everyday thoughts, & that is exactly what people on here provide me with, especially you,with your humour and lovely words that you put into your posts, how could anyone not want a bit of romany in them ...oops ...i mean in the forum. ;)

"Coupling" is excellent.

Was a BBC2 Comedy for several years

Sarah Alexander. Say no more. Get the DVD. Drool.

Hi Ace, thanks.

No, not at all, that was NOT the differentation I was making. I am sure there are many travelling peeps who do not thieve & loot & vandalise & leave mess everywhere. You can give them any collective name you wish. "Travellers" probably sums them up.

I don't know where the term "Diddy-Ky's came from, but I have used it for 20 years or more. It means what I inferred - if the peeps do not behave in the way I suggested, then they are not Diddy Ky's.

We CAN generalise if we wish. "Murderers" - they are all murderers. By DEFINITION. Racists. They are ALL racists. By DEFINITION. Churchgoers. By DEFINITION. Lets not get into the nanny state, "wet"  mindset, thats say we are not allowed to generalise. We ALL generalise, & quite right too.

What is WRONG, is saying, for example, "all travelling people are bad". A SECTION of them ARE bad. I choose to call them Diddy Ky's.

Ok I will change my generalised views on old people as well then. Not all old people constantly missread their hands- I have never had willie tann turn J2 over on me claiming he thought they were kings.  :-[

Russ, you have missed much! It was on BBC2, and hilarious, so well writen and performed. here's the link:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/coupling/

Yes TightEnd. Miss Alexander, sigh!

Another quote shamlessly nicked of the site:

"Maybe women are completely different when we?re not with them. Maybe they?re not cross all the time."

Ageism is a poor allegation. You can defend yourself in a defamation action by simply saying " I told the truth",  if you say that in defence of being accused of ageism you are just digging a hole.

Nun's post is a beaut (like her....) but it cuts, almost accidentally, to the heart of Tom's "problem" with posting this story, about which I must say he consulted me first.

Nun says she does not know why he felt he should worry, that we would all say "what's the prob?".

Well let me now tell you something that will hurt and surprise and shock you all.

I said EXACTLY the same thing toTom - "what's your problem Tom, you know how we all feel about you?".

He told me this. When he moved to a new site recently, the local shop refused to serve him. Because he was a Gypsy, or an "Ethnic", from an Ethnic Minority (which, I would infom you, he is officially classed as by the Government).

WHAT?! Now THATS discrimination. They refused to serve Tom because he is an ethnic.

Get your head round THAT.

No community is without those who bring them down, it is a fact of life. Too often a group is assessed by it's worst member.

All I can say to that is ..They are not WORTHY of his custom,, let alone friendship. Sounds like a small minded community to me.

i'd refuse to serve tom too as he looks like bob calgeeze

So Ariston, are you saying that fellow blondeite Willie Tann is OLD......? He ain't gonna be happy......

But talking of "Kings", a weird thing DID happen to me on Monday, & "thee from thine" witnessed it.

I pick up KK, bet, & Matey Boy moves in, I'm Pot Stuck, but who cares, I ain't laying KK down.

HE wins the hand though, not me. How so? Nope, wise guys, he did NOT 4 flush it.

I say to the dealer, "hey, it's a split pot", & he replies, nonchalantly, as if it were an everyday occurrence, "sorry Tikay", but KK beats K-8. So even dealers can misread hands! The rest of the table agreed too - the ALL misread my hand. Now that's really weird.

Exactley .. look at this community, if we are not careful ...Ironside is going to get us branded as perves..

Dammit. I was rather hoping you WERE a perv Mauireen. Sigh......another dream shattered.

can i just say i am the only non perv on this forum

but thats cause i cant get into any of the places you pervs can

Ok, TightEnd's Question first, I will answer the others




Most official Gypsy sites are built on old rubbish dumps, under flyovers, beneath pylons etc, in fact anywhere no one else wants to live, and you have to wait for someone to die before you can get a 'plot' on one, and there are only enough places for about 30% of the Gypsies in the country today

They are horrible places because you have to live on a concrete slab, cheek by jowl with neighbours you didn't choose, traditionally Gypsies live in small family groups and don?t like being forced to live with 20 or 30 other families, add to this the fact that site admin don?t distinguish between Gypsies and other groups in caravans, so everyone is lumped together

The local people will hate the fact that the site is there at all, and if someone from the site does anything wrong, all the rest get the blame

I decided to try to find somewhere to use as a permanent base for several reasons. For one thing we were being forced to band together in larger groups than I would like, simply for security, I used to go to work and leave my caravan unattended, but things got to the stage where you would come home to find graffiti, smashed windows or worse, and we were moved on, with no idea where to go, sometimes twice a day

Then one of my children became seriously ill and I had nowhere to stay while he was in hospital, I moved on to an official site but there was no 'plot' available, I had to park my caravan in the road on the site, I was told I wasn?t allowed to do that but I refused to move

Why not move into a house?  I have tried it, but Mrs Red and I have lived all our lives in a caravans, a building doesn?t sway when the wind blows, you can't hear the rain falling lightly on the roof, you can't turn it around when you are fed up of the same view

So, I decided to try to buy a small piece of land to use as a base, somewhere to go when the going got tough, the Government are supposed to be encouraging Gypsies to do this, and its a great idea, Gypsies who own their own are accountable, almost always behave in a responsible manner, and it is in their own interests to get along with the local community, plus, it eases the burden on the already overflowing official sites at no extra cost

But the problem is, no one wants a Gypsy in their community and local planners and councillors want to be elected again next year, the obstacles they can put in your way have to be seen to be believed, 95% of planning applications by Gypsies are refused

Before I bought the bit of land that I occupy now I did as much research as possible, it seemed Ideal, out of the way and unused, it seemed to fit most of the criteria, and that?s virtually impossible

The day I moved on almost 5 years ago, all hell broke loose, the locals were up in arms, some of the things people wrote to the council complaining about defies belief "We can't sleep safely in our beds" "property prices will plummet"  "If I go down there I can see them" "They will put their kids in our school"

The local bobby (a nice chap actually) asked us "If anything goes missing, can I come and look in your sheds?"

I went to the planning meeting, they didn't know who I was or that I was there, It took them 30 seconds to refuse an application I had spent two days writing, I have a daughter who suffers from Tuberous Sclerosis, luckily It doesn?t affect her day to day life, but she needs medical procedures periodically and she is on the kidney register so we have somewhere safe to stay when they need to treat or examine her, they didn't even take the time to read it, they just started eviction proceedings

Eventually 2 years later, it went to a public enquiry, by this time all the locals were on my side and some brave souls even spoke up for me, but the council produced expert witnesses by the boatload, environment officers, planners, Highway officials, the ramblers association and someone from the natural history museum.

Never the less, the inspector who heard the case gave us temper permission to stay for 5 years, I was happy, the locals were happy (I?m on the environment committee now, and they use my truck to remove rubbish from the village, lol) but we only have 18 months left, and the council are still determined we must go

Iron,

That's a generalisation. There is at least one - maybe two - non pervs on this site.

WARNING - Cochester Kev has logged on. Stand by for pervy posts.

let us know when they try to move you on it'll make a change being chained to a caravan

someone mention chains?? :P

Wow, WHAT a story that is Tom. If anyone is not moved by that, well, they are not human.

but Tom is incapable of writing a post withoit bringing a smile to our faces - even if, in this case, it's so-called "black humour".

"...if we go down there, we can see them....." Oh DEAR.

And a real Tom gem, talking about his love for living in a Caravan rather than a house. "you cant turn a house round if you get fed up with the view".......!.

Red-Dog - that story's terrible. Nimbyism disgusts me, couple it with racism & things get worse.

I only hope things turn out OKin 18 months time, & I echo Ironsides on the taking a stand against any eviction.

And I bet Ironside MEANS that.

suggestion if the councill try to move tom on how about getting 100 blondites down there for a comp choice between tom or 100 blondites they will be begging tom to stay

I've used spellchecker on it now, I cant spell at the best of times but Im even worse when Im excited

whatever are you using to hit the keys with?

Why are you "excited" Tom? Is this a painful afternoon, a good afternoon, an emotional afternoon, is it winding you up?

I hope it's happy excited.

Don't ever underestimate the value of friends. blonde is one site you will NEVER have to leave.

Your replies have moved me more than I could ever say, Thank you all so much, I will reply to the other questions when I settle down a bit, my screen has gone all blurry at the moment

If only the rest of the world were blonde

Bloody hell. There are a LOT of blurry screens after that.

What an absolutely amazing and unexpected story, RED DOG
Every time I have seen you, I ve been asking when you gonna write you life story,Well pal, its been worth the wait.
I would never have guessed in a million years of the subject matter of your tale, which probably proves my smallmindness(and most others) impression of a stereo typical Gypsy.
You have really educated me today Tom, and I cant wait for your regular updates of your magnifficiant story, which I really hope there will be.
Good on ya
Craig.

ps. any chance of any lucky heather next time we meet? ;D  (couldnt resist that one srry) )

RED-DOG - RESPECT mate.

I empathise with you more than you know. Anything I can do just ask.

This next comment isn't meant to be flipant before anyone starts. In light of your sterling efforts (and Lord Ironsides of course) in raising cash for Game for Life / Poker4Charity  I would like to send you a Game for Life shirt and jacket, could you please PM where to send them to or who to get them to.

Best wishes

Davey

You've got my backing too, Tom.

I hope all works out for you in the future.

All the best.

Snoops

After reading the updates of last nights event at Robs, this was the first thread that i clicked on in my efforts to catch up on all the posts since last online .....  Red, mate I dont care if you are black, white, Gypsy, townie, Gay , straight,  or anything else ... You are a mate, a mucker, and a friend ... and to tell you the truth, Im bloody proud of you.



Now as to Tikay and his "look out Kevs online stand by for some pervy posts" comment .....  well last night at rob's, me and Tikay had a good conversation about "Snatch"  :P

What a fantastic thread !

You already had my respect as a person Tom, now you have my admiration too.

And if you need my support, you may have that as well.

Got to say brilliant posts... Now as i'm a bit younger i have to admit my perception of gypies in general is'nt a great one, as the local area has been affected by the "minority"of the group as i now no!

I have to admit i understand red-dogs love for caravans as i have been around them for all of my life weekends away etc etc my parents love it as does my aunty and uncle! they go away all the time even if its just twenty miles from the house! They love the whole thing and my dad says he could live in it whan he retires... why can't u get a seasonal pitch on a normal site? i know my parents have had them in the past!

Ian

ive been fortunate to meet red dog on a couple of occasions, both at walsall.
the first time was a quick hello because the tournament was about to start and he exited after about 3 hands ;D(sorry) and the second time i got to walsall a little earlier. i went over to say hello to him and he said hello mate come and join us. so i sat down with him had a chat and he was a really nice guy. i dont care what background he has, what he does or anything, he was very friendly to me and you can not ask for alot more than that.
good on you red and i look forward to the next time we meet :)

What a fantastic thread.


Good on ya Red!

Trace
xxx  :-* :-*

It's not often I have a tear in my eye, however after reading Red Dog's first post that did it for me, there is no reason why anyone should be subject to any type of discrimination or harrasment, both these are criminal offences and should be treated so and the purpretators bought to justice.

I do not know you personally Red, however for the little time I have spent of the forum, you have come accross as someone who is intelligent, witty and the type of bloke I'd like to go for a pint with.

As with most posts you too have my support, and will help in whatever it takes to ensure you and your family get what is fair and right.

Good on you