Gypsies and Travellers look for more political clout

From the Guardian

A new pressure group that represents the views of Gypsies and the travelling community is hoping to lobby the main political parties at Westminster.

Representatives from a number of existing organisations are getting together to try to mobilise their community to use its votes at local and national elections, above all to protect their way of life.

Historically, the percentage of people within the community - which estimates its own size at a million or more - who register to vote and engage in the democratic process has been low. This has various causes but the prime one is that their nomadic lifestyle has made it difficult to register a permanent home address with electoral officers.

Now, as more Travellers live on designated caravan sites and others have permanent addresses, the barriers to engaging in the democratic process are coming down. Community leaders have taken note, and are working to make their voice heard and to prevent discrimination and laws that interfere with their way of life.

Alexander Thompson, of the Irish Traveller Movement in Britain, Charlie Cooper, for Roma Gypsies in the south and Billy Welch representing those in the north, have held talks and agreed to set up a website. They are also in talks with organisations such as the Gypsy Council and The UK Association of Gypsy Women.

Welch, from Darlington, says:

We are sick of being told where we can live and where we can't live. We are a recognised ethnic group. People think they can discriminate against Gypsies and Travellers and the authorities will do nothing about it.

We want the same rights as anyone else. If politicians believe there are votes at stake they will be more likely to listen to us. The government estimates that there are 350,000 Gypsies and Travellers in Britain. But that is the number still living a travelling lifestyle.

Counting everyone, we reckon we can muster a million votes or more. In local elections we would encourage our communities to vote for whoever promises to look after Travellers' rights.

Welch lists what the community consider as serious threats to their way of life, adding that members come across discrimination daily.

It's almost impossible to get planning permission for sites and there are just so many laws brought in to stop our young people working. Political parties pay us lip-service and patronise us because they think we don't vote. We need to wake up to the modern way and use the ballot box to protect our way of life."

He estimates that currently only some 10% of Gypsies and Travellers vote, and in recent years there has been only a solitary Gypsy/Traveller councillor in the UK, Candy Sheridan who sat as a Liberal Democrat on North Norfolk district council.