The march is also to draw attention to the planned eviction of Dale Farm in Basildon, luvverly Essex. This would affect the homes of 1000 travellers and is geared up around 13th May by ( drum roll....or noise demo ) Constant & Co of Bedford. In the recent past children and the disabled have been beaten and homes burnt out.... The BBC ( state prop machine ) have recently been showing a docu-soap following luvverly bailiffs in the home counties
( just doing my job/following orders/shame it seems to be poor people etc etc - sound familiar?... ).

And just to reiterate 90% of traveller plnning applications are turned down. Earthships and low impact projects also have the same problems. During the late 70s and early 80s when Thatcher started the great planet-wide sell-off large building companies such as Barrets, Wimpys etc seemd to do an awful lot of building yuppie estates on Green Belt land. There was restinacne to this though mainly low-key nimbie projects. Funnily enough - some of the people that moved into these former green belt sites are now doing the same complaints to stop what is left in thir backyards inclusing against travellers who had used the land long before!! All the greedy big building/constuction companies/property developers are still getting away with it.....

Press Release - Response to Tory/Michael Howard Adverts on Travellers

The past weeks have witnessed some of the most distasteful and inaccurate media reporting of recent times led by the Sun's 'Stamp on the Camps' campaign on Gypsies and Travellers. On Sunday the Conservatives took out a number of adverts in the Sunday papers in which Michael Howard accused Gypsies and Travellers of bending the rules and there being "One rule for Travellers and another for everyone else".

Andrew Ryder of the Gypsy and Traveller Law Reform Coalition says

" If the Tories stand for 'fair play' then why is Tory controlled Brentwood Council defying new government directives asking councils to identify land that Travellers can buy at no cost to the council taxpayer? By failing to do this they threaten to force local Travellers to live on the side of the road and paralyse the belated plans to create the new sites that are needed to end the present shortage. Michael Howard should be putting pressure on his councillor colleagues on Conservative-controlled Brentwood council to comply with government directives on Traveller accommodation rather than playing the role of the playground bully".

Len Smith of the Gypsy and Traveller Law Reform Coalition says
" Michael Howard and his colleagues created the present problems when they scrapped the duty on councils to provide sites. Instead the Tories promised Travellers that if they found land to purchase and provide for themselves, the instruction given to councils would assist them through the planning system. After eleven years, very few councils complied, and planning applications in the usual way faced 93% refusal. To avoid homelessness, and endless unauthorised encampment, Travellers moved onto land and then put in legal retrospective planning applications, which still have to stand the test of due process. Now Michael Howard is trying to surf on the hysteria stoked up by the Sun newspaper's distorted reporting and score a few cheap electoral points. It is nasty opportunism of the most deplorable kind!".

Lord Avebury, President of the Advisory Council for the Education of Romanies and Travellers

" The Tory leader Michael Howard, ignoring all the recent legislation, which was accepted in principle by his Party, claims that if you are a Traveller you can build where you like thanks to the Human Rights Act. His little Sir Echo Eric Pickles MP falsely claims that ‘Travellers are now free to disregard planning laws and occupy public land'. These statements are wrong, dangerous and irresponsible. I hope they will be withdrawn, and if they were written by the Australian election rotweiler Lynton Crosby, who may not understand English law, they should put him on a shorter leash".

Tom Sweeney Co Chair of the Irish Traveller Movement says

" I am very concerned about the negative stereotypes being paraded in the media. Why doesn't the media ever report about the Gypsies and Travellers who work in or with the police, work in schools or serve in the army? I am an active charity and community worker for everyone in the community. I'm proud of my work and proud to be a Traveller".