Dale Farm: My Two Cents.

Burn baby, Burn.

 Ah Dale Farm, set in the idyllic countryside of Basildon, a haven for gypsies and travellers set away from the rest of the community. A place where they have lived for a decade, set up camp and homes and families, used the community's schools and services, co-existing alongside the council-tax paying law-abiding citizens who live in the surrounding villages. And then it all got torn down, about a week ago or so now in the midst of a raging legal battle that had been spread out for far too long. Because let's face it, the "travellers" had built upon this land (yes, they had bought it themselves so that was all cool) without planning permission.

Seriously. You can't go building things willy-nilly these days in the countryside. You have to obtain planning permission for putting up so much as a flagpole in your garden, otherwise someone will come round, tap you on the shoulder and tell you to take it down. Yes, you did buy this house. But still, you can see a flagpole from across several fields, and it may even (shock horror) interrupt the view. We couldn't possibly have that, could we?

Best dressed.

What I don't quite understand is how these "travellers" got away with it for so long. Yes, they set up shop in an abandoned scrapyard (cleaned it up real good and whatever), build houses and expect no one to say something about it. Many couples up and down the country, with their large houses that they're wanting to extend, yet have been rejected by the council for "planning permission", are kicking themselves thinking that they could've done away with the council's orders and gone through with that new conservatory. If those travellers got away with it, couldn't we, Albert? Or if so, keep it up for ten years or so until the bailifs come in and destroy it with brute force. We'd probably be bored of it after ten years anyway.

That chalet looks rather permanent
to me.

What I also don't understand is why these travellers want to stay put. They call themselves "travellers" for goodness sake! Doesn't that generally imply that there is a fair amount of moving around that they do, generally as a life choice? Instead, they've been living on this site for the best part of 10 years, have chalets and kids that have been born in a time where they haven't experienced any of the true grit of the travelling lifestyle. You know, like travelling up and down the country. I was quite surprised that they all had big sofas and tellies and they all had crazy parties for one year olds and posh cars (one of them had TWO Lexuses! Not one, but two)when they didn't really seem to do much. You see, on this telly programme I watched that followed around the gypsies at Dale Farm (and also followed the guy who owned the land on the other side of the fence), it didn't show them going out to work or doing much that could really end up in money being earned. Then again, this programme was focussing more on the alpha-females in the group, the men were nowhere to be seen. Just the kids and the girls, so who knows what the men were off doing.

The leading ladies themselves, taking levels of audacity
and stubborn-ness to dizzying new heights.

However, the alpha-females were really quite scary and dominating. You know, ladies that really hold the community together. All of them had bleached blonde hair, was overweight, had thick Irish accents and were all stubborn as mules. They claimed that they all came to Dale Farm to "settle down". Why settle down in land you know that you can't build on? And why still call yourselves travellers? Why do you feel the need to separate yourselves from the rest of the community when you chose to use their schools and other resources (without paying taxes, I hasten to add)? These proud ladies appear to have lost their traditional values, as material possessions seem to take over their community, yet being fiercly defiant that they have a very strong community spirit. Yes ladies, so strong that no one can really get in. And why did you establish homes on land that you know that you couldn't? You knew that it wouldn't last, seeing as gypsies and travellers and other minorities and in fact anyone else isn't above the law. Are you really that short-sighted?

What's wrong with this?

What I felt was most ungracious of this community, was when they were originally evicted they were offered housing. yes, Mr Head Chancellor of Basildon offered this community permanent housing. Isn't that what they wanted really? To settle down in a nice house that these crappy little chalets were imitating? Apparently not.  They turned down housing, proper housing with bricks and mortar in favour of their Dale Farm lifestyle, claiming that they didn't want bricks and mortar to contain them. Really? I thought that you were wanting somewhere to settle down? I'm sure that if you asked nicely, they would have let you put your chalets there instead of the houses. What was so great about Dale Farm to make you cause such a fuss to leave it?

Entrance in the run-up to the eviction, tower constructed and bullshit slogans aplenty.

It's ridiculous how long this was drawn out. Protesters came out, made barricades from the rest of the world and chained themselves to them in support of the gypsies, concerned about the welfare of the residents of Dale Farm. Personally, the travellers had been given plenty of notice that they were in the wrong place to be setting up their lives, had been told to move on for years and years and had in short, acted like assholes in regards to the law, so I guess I don't think that they didn't deserve the support of the protesters. If they'd settled legally, then fine, I would have some sympathy.

Ere mert i won't doin' nothn

However, seeing as every other avenue had been taken, every peaceful request ignored, rebuked and stuffed back in their faces, I have no pity on them. This time round, they were also given adequate time to evacuate the area before riot police descended upon the place. I mean, half of them had enough time to move or sell their chalets for Pete's sake, so it's not as if the police came in one day and knocked everything down. How many times did they stall the whole thing to take it back to court? Three weeks of stalling time I think? And half of them popped back during that time as well!

Good turnout then?

All I can really say to the travellers is that they shouldn't have tried to settle down and create homes where they legally couldn't. Surely they must have known something about getting permissions and licenses to live on such land before they started? Yes, those 3 old haggard mother hens must have known something about it, and it is rather audacious of them to think that they are exempt from the law, when really deep down they knew (well certainly should have!) that it was a ticking time bomb threatening to destroy this little community that they had over the years nurtured and led... And the fact that they thought that they were so proud of their heritage obviously prevented anyone from integrating with the real world.

Why would you allow it to become your home in the first
place?

So what's left? Everyone's off again in their little caravans, with their posh cars that no one really knows how they acquired. Travellers and truly travellers, yet a new generation. I wonder how many of the 20-somethings cave to the "civilian" lifestyle of bricks and mortar as they realise that they cannot fulfil this consumerist lifestyle  that they had once led, in a crappy little campervan. All they want these days is a big sofa and a telly, whereas I bet that in the "olden days" of the "true traveller" (a fast-dying breed) material objects would have been insignificant and merely company would have sufficed for entertainment, as they lived the true Romany gypsy lifestyle.

And all this "ethnic cleansing" stuff that's flying around is bollocks. The same would happen if muslims or jews or japanese or even Glasweigians set up camp in a field and refused to budge.

Ethnic cleansing? The same would happen to anyone mate, just you guys are repeat offenders.