Gypsies
The decent Right have been in short-supply over this issue, particuarly on blogs, with most of the comment rarely rising above 'a mate told me in the pub' rants like this , which are totally irrelevant to the debate (if the stories aren't wildly exaggerated, which I doubt, they are clearly matters for the Police who can deal with the problem using all manner of existing laws).The debate is about planning and The Economist helps to restore some balance with a few facts, noting that a) the number of gypsies has risen only slightly in recent years, b) the fact that Michael Howard himself is responsible for a shortage of legal sites, c) gypsies do not receive special treatment under the Human Rights Act, it plays only a minor role in this issue, and when it has been used it can work both for and against gypsies like anyone else, and finally d) the Irish policy Howard says he would like to introduce here also involves a requirement to create legal sites, i.e the opposite of what Howard has done.
So essentially what Howard is doing is singling out a group of people who are discriminated against in the planning process and attmepting to remove their (rarely used) means of redress. And he is doing this for short-term electoral advantage (no-one believes in reality this would be his policy). Any Tory should condemn it immediately.
posted by Matthew @ 3/25/2005 12:56:00 PM
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