STF NA MÍDIA

mistic. "Local people don t
want any sites in their communities,"
he says. "Everyone
knows this. [The government]
is by definition putting
an end to more Gypsy sites
being developed, which will
mean more people living by
the side of the road, more
homeless people and more
people in accommodation
where they are unhappy."
Gypsies have been a part of
English history for more than
500 years. They are believed
to have arrived from Egypt.
("That s why we ve got this
self-belief," says one Gypsy.
"We still think we re descended
from the Pharaohs.")
Studies of the Romany language
suggest they originated
in northern India. Irish
Travellers, although often
grouped with Gypsies, are a
separate people. According
to records, they first arrived
in Britain in the 1850s.
For Thomas Acton, professor
of Romany studies at Greenwich
University, the new
localism bill, ("an illinformed
new government
policy spearheaded by someone
with a long-standing
anti-Gypsy position") could
herald a dark period. "It puts
the cycle of Gypsy/non-
Gypsy relations into a period
of crisis, not seen since the
1960s," he says.
The history of Gypsy and
Traveller settlement planning
is fiendishly complicated, the
details clear only to the Travellers
and green belt protectors
who deal with it every
day. Campaigners worry that
the localism bill, which puts
more power in communities
hands, and removes councils
obligation to allocate sites,
will have disastrous consequences.
"It s a serious, national issue,"
says Matthew Brindley,
planning expert at the Irish
Traveller Movement. "There
is already a shortage [of sites].
It is likely to result in
more unauthorised sites and
more media portrayal of Travellers
as people who wilfully
break the law and can t
live in normal society."
Plans to loosen planning controls
proposed in the draft
national planning policy framework,
also championed by
communities secretary Eric
Pickles, is unlikely to help
Gypsies and Travellers, he
says. Acton said: "This is not
development for everyone. It
is designed to preserve and
entrench the rights of the
rural oligarchy."
Despite years of legislation
designed to tackle racism and
inequality, Gypsies and Travellers
continue to be failed
by society, argues Lord Eric
Avebury, chair of the allparty
parliamentary group for
Gypsy Roma Travellers.
"There is still so much viciousness
directed against
Gypsies and Travellers," he
says. "They are treated in a
way that people wouldn t
dream of treating black people,
for example. It just seems
to be an acceptable form
of racism."
There can be little doubt, as
he puts it, that Gypsies and
Travellers remain "at the
bottom of the pile". Their life
expectancy is 10 years lower
than the national average,
while mothers are 20 times
more likely to experience the
death of a child, according to
the Equality and human rights
Commission. Figures
from the Irish Traveller Movement
reveal that only 8%
of Gypsy Roma, and 22% of
Irish Travellers achieved five
good GCSEs, compared to
55% of the national average.
Only 38% of Irish Travellers
will finish school.
Ironically, when the European
Roma come to the United
Kingdom, they often achieve
significantly better results
than in their country of origin,
according to Jan Jarab,
Europe representative of the
high commissioner for human
rights in Brussels. "The
UK has done fairly well with
its minorities, including east
European Roma. It would
now be very sad if, when
dealing with Travellers,
themselves UK citizens, it
signalled that its approach
was to avoid compromise
and hit hard," he says. Government
support of Basildon
s campaign to oust 86
families from Dale Farm – it
has promised £4.65m towards
the £18m cost of the
eviction – puts the UK closer
to France and Italy in terms
of unwillingness to tolerate
similarly marginalised communities
such as the Roma,
he adds. "If the government
is uncompromising, then of
course that is a policy signal
for the rest of the UK. Ending
up with a situation where
these people are chased
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