Dale Farm – what to do?

At a time when MPs are thinking of abolishing the Human Rights Act citing illegal immigrants who’ve argued for the right to family life to avoid proper punishment, these travellers are doing much the same.

And don’t travellers travel? Why do they want to stay? One traveller says she wants everyone to stay another 30 years.

In truth I commend the fact that they want their community to stay together. Many of us live in fragmented, meaningless clusters, independent of our neighbours and remote from our family I’m aware that locals resent those on the site. I do wonder what their main cause for concern is.

Are the travellers renting the land? Are they part of the mainstream community? If they’re not, does that mean they should go? Should we try to oust anyone who doesn’t live as ‘we’ do? (Right, off I go then…) Looking at the area on Google maps, I can see an area of flat, tired land with some solid houses and lots of vans and motorhomes. Is this the site? It doesn’t look much different to any industrial park.

Most the surrounding area is green and pretty. This looks a mess. And liberal and tolerant as I want to be, I know I wouldn’t fancy living next to this either. Why? Because individuals who don’t loosely accept some shared community values make difficult neighbours.

And because I think about things like waste, sanitation and toilets. What’s the situation? Portaloos? Public conveniences? Or something else?

Some children attend school and part of me thinks that here’s a group of people who want services taxpayers fund but who will battle for a decade to continue not contributing. Or am I misguided? Do they contribute?

I can see both sides. The travellers are settled (?); the residents are fed up.

The law isn’t clear about anything it seems – after ten years.

I agree that there should be provision made for travellers to stay places for short periods in peace – we embrace every other culture in this country, why not Romany gypsies?

This raises a larger question about newcomers to the country. How much should anyone adapt, integrate, accept the host’s culture, laws and social rules?

I don’t know the answer. Perhaps it's a step towards the hailed Big Society. But I think the Dale Farm calamity should instigate some serious debate about what constitutes society and how communities are formed and sustained.

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