Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[sovietsong]

They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up.

[RED-DOG]

Lovely as I find many of the tales and lore, Red's is a singular and in many ways romanticised perspective.

It is hard for non Gypsies (I cant remember what word Gypsies have for us) to differentiate a Red-Dog type Gypsy - good or bad - versus many other types of travelling communities -  a number of these communities are not particularly nice or desirable and I'm reasonably happy to say that, whilst I might respect their rights and freedoms to an extent, generally, I would rather they didn't park up opposite my house.

We have been trying for years to persuade the government to stop lumping everyone who lives in a caravan together under the "Gypsy" umbrella.


Here are some notes from a speech I gave to Ministers in London recently. (On the day of the student riots, lol)

Please ignore the spelling and grammatical mistakes, this is a rough draft, not the finished article. (I managed to lose that somewhere in cyberspace)



Equalities and Human Rights

Tom McCready from the Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison group, DGLG is host agency to National Federation of Gypsy Liaison Groups.

Equality does not just mean treating everyone in the same manner, because to do so would assume that we all are equal to start with.

1.   The Romany Gypsy and traditional Traveller people do not all start on an equal footing to the wider community, and that was one of the reasons that the last government introduced the 1/06 Guidelines on Gypsy and Traveller sites. For Gypsy people, there was a lack of culturally suitable accommodation.

2.   However, consultation for the guidelines missed an important opportunity to update and abolish the case law that brought about the notion that you can be too old or too ill to be a Gypsy [ Berry Case] The definition of a gypsy within the 1/06 guidelines does not deal with this case law. It fudged over the issues, and ultimately it has brought us right back to where we were before.

3.   Without good guidelines, we have nothing with which to argue against bad case law. We should make sure that any  definition should be referenced to ethnicity in order to improve that equality line, and to bring the Gypsy people to the same level of provision as housed families, it should acknowledge our way of life as a cultural right, as opposed to choice


4.   Derbyshire Gypsy Liaison Group undertakes accommodation and planning application support, and we found that the 1/06 guidelines were actually working. There was an increase in the number of planning permission application approvals (all be it that many of these were temporary).


5.   My way of life, that of my parents and those before them goes back nearly 600 years in this country; it was not mine by choice. It was my birthright. Never the less. I would not choose a different way of life.
 
6.   Today, we find ourselves bogged down in political correctness and Homelessness law, and, although it has sometimes been our saviour. It is not the only area of law that we should be looking at.



7.   Our problem is not the same as that of homeless young people who dip their toes into our way of life and then find it very difficult to get back into the bricks and mortar housing that they originally left by choice.  Because these youngsters choose to leave, they are then intentionally homeless within law.
 
8.   It is nonsensical to then after a few years re-name and re-package these intentionally homeless people as ‘travellers’ and, at the same time refuse to give planning permission to genuine Gypsy traveller people because they have lost their Gypsy status due to a few years in housing or the fact that they have been on a local authority site for a while.   It is the big G little g scenario.

9.   EU law states that Britain should facilitate the Gypsy way of life. It does not speak of lower case g and it does not indicate who is or who is not lower case g. It does not discuss or make that distinction. It says ‘Britain should facilitate the Gypsy way of life’ and it meant ethnic Gypsies. [ this also applies in law now to both the Scots and the Irish]

10.   You may think that this is an “I only love my own race” presentation; well it is not. I put forward these facts, and I will put forward the balancing argument. There is a rural community that have lived in villages up and down the land for generations. Some of those families have never known any other way of life. Their lifestyle is not one of choice; it is the one they inherited, but given the option, they would choose to remain in the village that their father, grandfather and great grandfather farmed, lived and died in.  The Gypsy community identify with family heritage. These young families cannot afford to live in their villages unless there is subsidised social housing. We can understand their anger when this lifestyle is seen as one of choice and not one of birthright.  We, as Gypsies, are talking small numbers here. There are not millions of us.   

11.   This is a part of the social cohesion agenda. Understanding fully, and trying to balance the rights.


12.   Our way of life is a cultural right and as with all rights it has to be balanced with the rights of others.  That can be, and often is difficult. We need to be cautious, as prescriptive law can sometimes bring more problems and this could be a disaster. However, we do think that there is a need to re visit this issue of definition.


13.   The community are worried about what may happen in the future with regard to 1/06. We understand that the Secretary of State wishes to replace it with a policy. What is to be in that policy and with whom is the Secretary of State going to consult in regard to that policy?

14.   We sincerely hope that the National Federation of Gypsy Liaison Groups will be consulted on this, as we are the only group that has a representative from every region in England and include two groups from Wales.  Remember, there are some hard working groups across the country as a whole, not just in London.

15.   We would hope that a Race Equality Impact Assessment has been carried out before these guidelines are withdrawn. There are still many unequal facets of Gypsy life, especially for the disabled and the elderly.   Most of the Gypsy and Traveller groups would prefer to work on those issues rather than debate accommodation yet again, there is still a lot of work to be done on equality issues.

[RED-DOG]

BTW Nirv, Who is that in your avatar?

[nirvana]

Interesting piece, thank you.

10 & 12 resonate particularly strongly with me and I'm sure most people would identify with large parts of what you've written there.

[Claw75]

BTW Nirv, Who is that in your avatar?

I know.  I thought it was dexy's midnight runners at first tho.

[nirvana]

BTW Nirv, Who is that in your avatar?

That is a picture of the English 'Oppressed' (English only mentioned to distinguish us from a Welsh band of the same name) - taken in 1978 on the mean back streets of Wootton Bassett. We were the finest punk band to never release a record :-)

[RED-DOG]

BTW Nirv, Who is that in your avatar?

That is a picture of the English 'Oppressed' (English only mentioned to distinguish us from a Welsh band of the same name) - taken in 1978 on the mean back streets of Wootton Bassett. We were the finest punk band to never release a record :-)

Please post that pic in all it's full size Technicolor glory.

[RED-DOG]

Portcullis House, the building where I did my speakering.

Click to see full-size image.

[RED-DOG]

Click to see full-size image.

[kinboshi]

The police obviously knew you were coming Tom...

[AndrewT]

Click to see full-size image.

Red-Dog decides he's finally had enough of the moles in his garden.

[RED-DOG]

Don't get me started, I could commit Talpidaecide. 

[Karabiner]

And I miss-spelled Kendall. Sorry.

You did too, but I'm in a gentle mood today.

You also mis-spelled mis-spelled.

I was going to attempt a rebuttal, but I think I'll quit while I'm behind.

If you were really stuck you could always remind him of the time when I asked him on his diary if "euphanism" was a euphemism for euphemism.

[RED-DOG]

And I miss-spelled Kendall. Sorry.

You did too, but I'm in a gentle mood today.

You also mis-spelled mis-spelled.

I was going to attempt a rebuttal, but I think I'll quit while I'm behind.

If you were really stuck you could always remind him of the time when I asked him on his diary if "euphanism" was a euphemism for euphemism.

I don't think he would be inpressed.

[tikay]

BTW Nirv, Who is that in your avatar?

That is a picture of the English 'Oppressed' (English only mentioned to distinguish us from a Welsh band of the same name) - taken in 1978 on the mean back streets of Wootton Bassett. We were the finest punk band to never release a record :-)

I lived next door, in Wootton Rivers, when I was a little boy, next to the Avon & Kennet Canal, with Uncle George & Aunty Winnie. Wonderful place, with it's own Railway "Halt", & Marlborough Forest nearby.

Aunty Winnie tragically died from a diabates complication. She went almost blind because of it, but still cycled into Wooton Bassett every day. Everyone knew of her condition & steered a wide berth, including the local Bus-Driver. The complication arose on the day the bus-driver threw a sickie, & a new bus-driver took the shift. How was he to know?