Politicians have been accused of using racist rhetoric against Travellers to help push through sweeping bans against unauthorised encampments. Other politicians have called on the government to go one step further and implement the “Irish option”, which would make unauthorised encampments, currently a civil matter, a criminal offence. The Conservative councillor, Hugh Byrne, was also quoted as saying Travellers could not access websites or social media, it was very common for fights to take place when Travellers gathered for weddings and funerals, and Irish Travellers spoke their own language, “Pavee”, which is not a language but a term used by Irish Travellers to refer to themselves. He said he was in favour of increasing the number of legal sites. It’s very draining for them.”The Labour MP Kate Green, chair of the all-party parliamentary group for Gypsies, Travellers and Roma, said: “Using stigmatising and discriminatory language against Gypsies and Travellers has been described as the last acceptable form of racism.

Source: The Guardian May 14, 2019 11:38 UTC