Yeh, that's what I thought...
But then, I'm not one of the pets of the progressives:
A council has come under fire after it closed a road to allow a group of travellers to hold a wake.I'm even more surprised that the local council allows a lane to be called that in the first place!
A brazier fire is burning in the middle of a country lane so the dead person's belongings can be destroyed in what is a traditional traveller ceremony that can last up to two weeks.
But local residents are angry that West Sussex County Council has shut Blackboy Lane in Fishbourne instead of asking the travellers to move their ceremony elsewhere.
Villager Bob Kerby, 63, told The Sun: 'There's one law for us and one for them. We pay our taxes and are entitled to have access to the road. It's also an inconvenience for emergency services.'I wonder if these are the same 'safety reasons' that cause other councils to ban doormats and insist hanging baskets are taken down?
The ceremony started - without the council's permission - on Tuesday. The road had originally been kept open forcing drivers to swerve around the fire and piles of logs.
But West Sussex County Council then closed a 30ft stretch citing 'safety reasons'.
Can't be, can it? Otherwise they'd simply tell the travellers to move the brazier, or else.
A spokesman said: 'Concern was expressed that a metal drum containing a fire had been placed on the highway verge outside a house where we understand the personal property of a recently deceased member of a travelling family was being burnt according to a tradition.Note the whining note that has crept in here, as if these villagers could be fobbed off by the council's insistence that it isn't costing much.
'The fire was declared safe but because of a truck parked while members of a travellers' family watched over the drum, we have put a temporary road closure in place for road safety reasons.
'This has cost less than £100 and only involves a stretch of road less than 100metres in length and with a very short diversion, so there has been full access at all times.'
That's not the point.
The point is that the road laws are there to be obeyed, and it should matter not one jot why you want to burn a brazier in the middle of the road - for the safety and good neighbourliness of all, you shouldn't be allowed to do it!
Police said the travellers have not been moved on as no crime has been committed.Obstructing the road isn't a crime now?
Ah...Julia hitting travellers again, when she owns a mobile herself.
ReplyDeleteYou must overcome that constant urge to strike a happy medium, my dear.
Obstructing the road isn't a crime now?
ReplyDeleteNot if it's part of your kulture, it isn't
ALMOST £900,000 has been spent by police to steward illegal street meetings by the radical cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri and his followers.
You haven't heard of the (often illegal) loyalist and republican bonfires in Northern Ireland then? They make this look like a tea party.
ReplyDeleteNormal people have to pay a house clearance company if they want to get rid of all of a deceased belongings. Or take it all to the tip themselves. Perhaps everyone in the area should get themselves an oil drum and start burning their unwanted rubbish in the road. After all the council could hardly complain now could they......
ReplyDeleteXX Dr Melvin T Gray said...
ReplyDeleteAh...Julia hitting travellers again, when she owns a mobile herself. XX
Owning a motorbike does not make you an Hells Angel.
"...when she owns a mobile herself."
ReplyDeleteAfraid you've been misinformed - the only mobile I own is an Ericsson.. ;)
"Not if it's part of your kulture, it isn't..."
Ah, yes, I was forgetting the Finsbury Park Mob...
"You haven't heard of the (often illegal) loyalist and republican bonfires in Northern Ireland then? "
And those too. Looks like there's a lot of precedent for councils giving in to vocal and reputationally-challeged sections of the community...
"Perhaps everyone in the area should get themselves an oil drum and start burning their unwanted rubbish in the road. After all the council could hardly complain now could they......"
You know, I think they just might if it's little Mrs Smith getting rid of some stuff the Church Bazaar couldn't use.
Call it a hunch. Or a good idea of how bullies operate.
'Obstructing the road isn't a crime now...'
ReplyDeleteWhen I had occasion to call police (something that I have stopped doing since!!!) for eleven vehicles obstructing the road and pavement outside my house, the arrogant little s--t who attended said, "It is an offence, but whether or not we take action is discretionary, and I have decided not to take any action!" So there we have it. They can simply pick and choose which laws they enforce, and we can lump it!
It used to be all are equal before the law. However some are now more equal than others (Copyright NuLab).
ReplyDeleteI don't know where it started, it might have been the introduction of race & hate crimes which increased the severity of the crime if there was a perceived element of hatred or racisism involved. Perhaps it was the moral relativism of all cultures are equal.
Dickiebo:
ReplyDeleteThat's socialism. When everything is illegal, the State has the power to persue those crimes it wishes to. Crime is political, no longer a matter of transgressing an accepted Common Law.
"Sir John Stevens, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, told the police authority that the situation was “a challenging policing operation” that had been handled with “appropriate sensitivity”."
ReplyDeleteYes, when a group with a reputation for violence and terrorism want to break the law, the police allow them to. That is "appropriate sensitivity".
Is there somewhere I can register? Would I get a membership card, perhaps saying "This scrote's vehicle is exempt from tax, insurance and MoT. Planning rules do not apply where this person is involved. Normal rules of society are waived."
ReplyDeleteThere would seem to be advantages in becoming a traveller, where do I join? I could live with the disadvantages - surrounding oneself with scrap metal and rubbish.
Here's an idea. Next time we all have to fill in census forms, let's all be Travellers!
ReplyDelete