You may have heard Home Secretary Priti Patel needs to make Tresspass a criminal offence to stop hoardes of awful Travellers pitching up on defenceless school fields.
Only it is not that! That's a cover!
It's actually a tipping point into Nazi type fascism!
Yes. Seriously.
1/
But, I sense you protesting, Travellers, they just crash onto playing fields and the council can't do anything about it, and, and, and...
Whoa a second. I hear your fear.
Let me tell you what's going on out there ok (and how to fix it, for less money).
2/
Councils actually have lots of powers. One tool at their disposal is a 24hr eviction order, as in, if they have grounds, they issue a bit of paper that says, get off by [time] on [date] or else.
"Or else" is often professional thugs/bailiffs. Sometimes (rarely) police.
3/
A recent Freedom of Information request to the government by @GypsyTravellers found that the police know perfectly well they have powers already. The clear majority of police responding to last year's public consultation said they had no need of the proposed powers.
4/
So how come then, if the councils have all these powers, they didn't evict that encampment you know about, who were there for 2 weeks, and put you right off walking your little doggy?
Well maybe because they didn't have to? What if, those Travellers weren't harming anyone?
5/
What if they were with kids, or elderly nfirm relatives they care for, what if they were following a seasonal job, what if they included me, you know me (well as much as you can off Twitter) I am nice enough?
How far should the law extend to ban me from living moveably?
6/
Why do you even need a law to make it a criminal offence not to like houses anyway?
Well, according to the consultation it's to stop me from:
- Crashing school fields
- Fly tipping
- Having stolen vehicles
- Antisocial behaviour
That's how they are selling it.
7/
What if though, I've never parked my home on a school field, fly tipped, handled a stolen vehicle, or been criminally anti social? You still need a law against me? Really?
It says it's about tresspass though, so surely it only affects me if I crash some land?
Wrong!!!
8/
The act itself widens the very definition of tresspass to being basically on any land at all that you don't own.
Oh and by land they mean road.
Y'know. The public road.
The one I pay road tax for.
That road.
That'd be the crime of tresspass.
9/
If you read tweet 9 and exclaimed "bollocks" I don't blame you. If they made all having a vehicle on the road illegal they would shut the country down in an instant, what a mental idea....
Don't worry. They made it not apply to you. It only applies to me. Here's why...
10/
The proposals widen the definition of tresspass to include the public highway. Specifically. It's stated.
They decrease the number of vehicles needed to make it actionable down to 2. (So one caravan and car then. Or one motorhome with a scooter on the back even).
11/
Worst of all they put a clause in, so Bunty, and her groom, breaking the trip back from the Showjumping with an SUV & trailer don't get caught out.
The words are "intent to reside".
So if you have a house you reside there. If with No Fixed Abode, I stop? Instant crime.
12/
The absolute evil of "intent to reside" is you don't have to have done anything. Someone (any passing busybody) has to think you look like you might live in the thing.
If it's criminal, not a civil offence like it is now, the police have to respond to the busybody.
13/
I haven't even got to stay the night, if we stop, even for a cup of tea, no, less than that, even for a cigarette, no less, even for a second, a literal second... We have committed a crime if we have 2 vehicles. That's 1 car & caravan don't forget. Or 1 motorhome & moped.
14/
It means that this law wipes out roadside life in the UK, with a sledgehammer.
What sledgehammer? Glad you asked. How about this scenario, I'll describe it for you ok, picture this with me...
15/
Let's say I am at home with Roadside Dad, and 3 of our kids. Eldest has epilepsy. The 2 smallest are both under 10 years old.
Someone goes by and notices we exist. They call police.
The police will recognise me from all the times I have grassed up drug dealers (truly)...
16/
... so there's no protesting I don't live in it. It's a recorded fact I do. That's a crime.
They now have to seize my home. Yes. Seize.
If I won't open the door and let them (I definitely won't) they have to smash their way in. Even with the kids inside. Because crime...
17/
... when they are in, they have to arrest me, Roadside Dad & Eldest who is over 18.
The proposals will ban me from the authority area, so the county. The whole county. For a year.
We are being nicked for a crime. So we'll never pass a criminal record check again...
18/
... when I walk out of that nick I can't get homeless support, even with the kids, because my county, the one where I have the magic "local connection", is the same one I am barred from for a year.
They have a duty to the kids though.
So that only leaves foster care...
19/
... Social work would look for relatives before fostering, like siblings. But the law just made Eldest criminal too. That's right. You don't have to be responsible to get hit with with law, you just have to be there.
Oh Eldest by the way WILL have a seizure- blue lights...
20/
... I would like to think that the ambulance crew have enough courage and love for their fellow humans to take Eldest to the nearest major hospital, but it's in this county... So are they going to know where they stand in law, given Eldest will be banned from this county?...
21/
The proposed law is absolutely obscene.
You would think it would need to go to court to come to that, that the police couldn't destroy my whole family in an afternoon just at the drop of a hat?
Yeah you'd think.
Nope.
It's POLICE powers/requirements. Not courts.
22/
Listen. The proposal would bring disproportionate police violence to peaceful, quiet, respectable families for just existing doing no harm to anyone!
Oh and after they are done beating me, half killing Eldest, stealing my kids, they'll crush my home. Nearly forgot to say.
23/
That's why it's Nazi.
It's the persecution of a minority (a racial minorty if the travelling family are ethnically Gypsy, Roma or Traveller, at that).
- Fly tipping
- Stolen vehicles
- Antisocial behaviour
Etc.
Awful aren't they. I don't like them either. Shitty behaviour. Make better laws about them. I have marched for better environmental laws, my kid even spoke at a rally. Get on with it already.
25/
What of the big one though, what of crashing school fields? I told you I would give you the answer and it's....
*Drum roll*
More sites.
Don't look so downbeat, I know "it's expensive"... It's only expensive because you do it wrong. I know how to make it cheap!!
26/
There is a scheme running in Leeds, @LeedsGATE can tell you all about it, and it's called Negotiated Stopping.
In a nutshell, the council let Travellers stop on disused land, for a set period, if they be good. Simple as that. So cheap.
Cheap not good enough, you want it free? Sure. Why not. The "problem" of Unauthorised Encampment can be solved literally free... You ready...
We'll build sites.
We ain't all skint you know.
Plenty of travelling people have land and/or skills to develop it.
Let us.
28/
Almost all planning applications from travellers looking for a pitch are refused. They are refused for the most absurd reasons, excuses actually. It's not just a few, it's virtually every application, even when we hire professionals to vet them to be sure they are perfect!
29/
The rates are stark. Almost all settled applications for planning succeed. Almost all Gypsy, Roma and Traveller (GRT) applications fail, even though GRT routinely use Planning Consultants, because there is no hope at all without. Maybe @GypsyTravellerM have exact stats?
30/
If a proposal:
1. Doesn't solve the problem it says it does 2. Is not wanted by authorities 3. Is desperately expensive 4. Is racist 5. Is rejected at public consultation
Why would you even carry on? Why?
Coz it'll also criminalise rambling, protest & rough sleepers.
31/
I am not an expert on the whole rambling thing. Not at all. You can follow journos like @guyshrubsole and @GeorgeMonbiot for that... But look here. This video explains it
I thought long and hard about tweeting this but I am going to because I think some of you might not know, and you should.
Today at school a child grabbed RN by the hips and thrust himself as if fucking RN. This is primary school, not secondary.
Do you see what I see?
1/
Be alert to children behaving in ways that are overtly sexual. While sex is "natural", sexual behaviour isn't. It's learned. A child that young behaving that way should sound massive alarm bells. Where did he learn that?
His behaviour should make you ask, is he safe?
2/
So if you see a child behaving in a way that is sexualised, "dirty", suggestive, or creepy, and it's not standard for the age, always speak up.
Kids have limited ways to express something wrong. Playing out sexual behaviour is one.