Romany roads

Ellie Keen — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 20:14:00 +0000

Discriminatory policies against Italy’s Romany Gypsy population, including the fingerprinting of children, are said to have their origins in the fascist policies of Mussolini. Many were shocked by the apathy shown when two Gypsy girls drowned on a beach near Naples, as people carried on enjoying their day out only yards away, regardless of the small bodies laid out on the sand. But how different is Britain when it comes to prejudice against its own travelling people?

According to a report last year from the Children’s Society, almost nine out of every 10 children and young people with a Gypsy background have been the victim of racial abuse. The report also stated that nearly two-thirds have been bullied or physically attacked.

Few campsites are provided for British Gypsies, and draconian powers allow local authorities to crack down on new encampments. Shelter Scotland points out that if you are a Gypsy and you own your own land, you can still be evicted by your local council. Ernie Rutherford, Romany Gypsy and professional boxing trainer, told me:

There ain’t no life on the road no more. You’ll end up living in a house – that’s just the way it is. That’s how they’re killing it out. They take away our lifestyle and make us fit in with everybody else’s … In the end there won’t be no Gypsies – that’s the way it’s going. We can’t even buy some land and put nothing on it, because they’ll bulldoze it down. At the end of the day they don’t want to give us nowhere to live, they don’t want us to drive about on the road, they don’t really want to give us houses.

When I ask him whether he thinks Gypsies are discriminated against, he says, “Yeah, you’re not wrong. We’re the only people now that you can call pikey and things like that on the telly and get away with it. Catherine Tate takes the piss out of us every week mate.” This makes me glad that Tate didn’t win the British Comedy award.

Rutherford grew up in St Mary Cray, in south-east London, which is the largest settled community of Romany Gypsies, or Travellers, in the UK. Like many Gypsies, the Rutherfords lived in pre-fabricated asbestos housing until the site was eventually closed down and they were moved into houses. “Them houses were the worst houses in the area – they were dangerous,” he recalls. Not Kushti Atchin Tan, or a good stopping place, in the Roma language.

Ernie tells me how some of his family have had bricks thrown through the windows of their caravans when they’ve been on the road. “Some people don’t like you in their area, they don’t want you there. They look on us as we’re the worst kind of people in this country,” he says. He just wants to be treated with respect. The government does not provide sites for the Travellers, but he would love to buy a plot of land and put a mobile home on it. He accepts that at the moment this is an almost impossible dream.

“If the government can’t control ya, then they don’t want ya,” he believes. “They talk about China and all these places, they’re just as bad. They ain’t no different, they just do it craftily.” He complains that there are no schools for Traveller people. “They’re killing our culture that’s what they’re doing. They’re doing it slowly, but they’re doing a good job of it.”

travellers | ukwatch.net

Romany roads