Travellers are wonderful people.....stop press

[R1Geezer]

I've just been watching the BBC's latest propaganda film from last night and it seems that we've been unfairly maligning our itinerant brothers. Jolly bunch honest hard working just handing down their "culture". The ones I saw were a lovely friendly bunch living off the land and scavenging, helping us really, recycling, hunting hare etc. So can we now shed this ridiculous notion that they are trespassing, cr&p leaving scum who'd steal anything that isn't nailed down?

I feel that the BBC have converted me on the road to damascus!

[Ankou]

not all trespassing, cr&p leaving scum who'd steal anything that isn't nailed down are travellers, and not all travellers are trespassing, cr&p leaving scum who'd steal anything that isn't nailed down.

so happy for you that you are now enlightened. finally.

[RATTER15]

They lied!!!

[flip_flop]

They are scum.

They choose to live outside the normal rules of society by not paying taxes, NI etc... and yet still benefit from NHS Treatment, schooling etc...

They pretty much do steal anything that isn't nailed down.

They do leave sites they have illegally occupied in an absolutely shocking state.

They are violent scumbag thieves.

This romantic notion that people hold about pikeys is completely misplaced and is, I suspect, held because they have never had any personal experience of them.

[Ankou]

wrong

[flip_flop]

There will be somebody along soon to wrongly accuse me of racism because I've used the word pikey.

[Ankou]

nope, i just thought you were wrong.

[plautus]

I did not know what the word meant so I consulted the Urban dictionary. I am now better informed.

The term pikey is NOT politically correct or in fact a word with any grammatical bearing to Standard English language.
Avoid use in social situations when people with large gold hoop earrings,caravan dwellers or generally dirty people are present, as this may cause offence leading to dog Sugar through your letterbox, caravans on your drive etc.

[NOX]

I never have ANY trouble with the travellers who camp on my land twice a year for a month or so at a time... treat people with respect and they tend to do the same to you regardless of whether they are travellers or not. Simple if you think about it- you ought to try it sometime.

[Kromovaracun]

I've often said before that I despise people using their own personal experiences as the -exclusive- basis for believing things (obviously you can't ignore it totally but you have to accept that it's fallible). But certainly the fact that I've personally known decent, hard-working members of the traveller community (as well as people who have been persecuted within it and treated despicably by them) certainly undermines the notion that 'all' of them are thieving scum. Minority/majority assertions, however, I don't have enough evidence to make, so I'm not sure what the balance is there.

[Kromovaracun]

Tell me, R1, do you have any compelling evidence that -all- travellers are as you describe them? Because if you don't then I think you look a bit foolish.

[johnk]

Can somebody tell me what a pikey is, I hear it all the time but I'm not sure what it means.

[plautus]

i have answered that above. originally it referred to gypsies but now is used to denigrate any form of low-life, much the same as chav.

[R1Geezer]

I have lots of direct experience, In Bournemouth I used to be on the committee of a Rugby Club. when ever they managed to trespass on our land ruin our pitches, thieve from the every where, it would cost thousands, last time it cost us £7k, we had to hire guards from for he club house F_F_S! they leave piles of sh1te and live like animals. Other sports clubs in the area have had had similar damage. Our sports centre near me gets them regularly. I wouldn't mind so much but their sub human brats ride dirt bikes all over the golf greens and make dame nuisance all over the place. They seem exempt from normal motoring laws, takes at least a week to get rid of he,. Ask anyone in Bournemouth you'll get the same answer. They've cost us a fortune over the years, we also spent a fortune on anti pikey measures. I just wish we could get some of the fluffy bunny wonder pikies that Nox and Kromo can get

[Quizmonster]

We don't use the word 'turnpike' any more, Johnk, though Americans do. It was originally a toll-road. As a result, vagrants/gipsies who wandered along these roads got the nickname piker or pikey.

[emmie]

sadly i have had some experience of this, and the ones have come across were as described by R1G, maybe not all are i agree, but quite frankly those who call themselves travellers seems strange, if you set up in someone's back yard, stick down roots, and don't move for years, that is squatting.

[B00]

I'm sure there are law abiding travelers around (somewhere) just i've never come across any.

We, as in our town, are currently having major problems with a tribe (for want of a better word) who moved, the very next day, onto a shopping centre car park that had closed down, chucking all their rubbish into the river into the bargain. When they were eventually moved off there, everyone's relief was short lived.....

They moved onto the local sports centre's playing field.

[R1Geezer]

Perhaps Kromo and Nox can tell you the secret of attracting nice ones boo!

[plautus]

"Dame Nuisance". Wasn't she an Enid Blyton character?"