Meanwhile the progressive gypsy Roma love-fest continues.

Young gypsies to film their way of life.

Fie on you, BBC, for using racist out-of-date terms like 'gypsy'.

Fascists In, Doctors and Foreigners Out

Guthrum smuggles in Somalis and no bugger cares.

Follow the Doctors: if only I could.

Ulster fascists drive out Romanians. A follow-up in the Observer to the attacks on Romanians in South Belfast. Not just Romanians but Roma Romanians, just to add to the aggravation. It seems that this is not the first group of foreigners to be dumped in this unwelcoming place; Chinese, Poles and Slovaks have preceded them, all with the same response.

Now you have to ask yourself why a local authority would do this time after time? I'm just guessing here, but could it be something to do with EU structural/regional funds or something of that sort?

Voluntary Self-Declared Ethnicity Ascription EU Roma Travellers

Gypsy Awareness Lessons over at A Tangled Web. I have an earlier post on this subject.

The Daily Mail wades in.

It's now part of government education policy (although the word education rarely features any more): The Inclusion of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Children and Young People, The Inclusion of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Pupils: strategies for building confidence in voluntary self-declared ethnicity ascription. I just love 'voluntary self-declared ethnicity ascription'.

No mention of the EU, which is the motivating force behind all this:

The European Union has a strong legal framework to combat discrimination. It uses the European Structural Funds and addresses the issue of Roma discrimination in its awareness-raising initiatives. Moreover, it coordinates a number of key policy areas which are particularly relevant for Roma inclusion, such as education, employment and social inclusion.

However, even the Czech Roma are complaining that EU cash is not proving effective.

On the EU Commission's website, The European Union and Roma, it says

For the purposes of this website, the term "Roma" includes persons describing themselves as Roma, Gypsies, Travellers, Manouches, Ashkali, Sinti, as well as other terms. General use of the term Roma is in no way intended to downplay or ignore the great diversity within the many different Romani groups and related communities, nor is it intended to promote stereotypes.

In other words, if I decide to sell up, buy a caravan and become a 'Traveller', I could declare myself ethnically a Roma? Or 'voluntarily self-declare my ethnicity ascription' as Ed Balls would say.

I didn't realise it was that easy.

Roma Roma Crap Jobs In Lincolnshire Yes?

This article in the Lincolnshire Echo caught my eye:

Gypsies 'could fill county's job vacancies'

Thursday, January 15, 2009, 07:30

Romany gypsies from countries including Romania and Bulgaria could be invited to Lincolnshire to take jobs previously filled by Eastern Europeans.

Gypsies and travellers currently suffering from persecution in their countries of origin could be persuaded to flee their "squalor" and step into jobs left by Poles returning home.

In Lincolnshire they have predominantly filled jobs in agriculture.

Peter Robinson, portfolio holder for social cohesion at Lincolnshire County Council, told colleagues this week: "If, because of the downturn, we start to see fewer Eastern European migrant workers from Poland and so forth, it's my personal view we could get replacements from Romania and Bulgaria."

He said Lincolnshire could extend a friendly hand to them saying "come to us and get a better deal".

"The main problem of course, whether we like it or not, is that gypsies and travellers are extremely unpopular people to have in the county," he added.

Coun Robinson was speaking during a meeting of the council's local community development and partnerships policy development group, which held talks on a new pilot project to deliver extra housing-related support to gypsy and traveller communities already living here.

But in a written response issued via the council's press office after the meeting, Coun Robinson said it only "might be the case that gypsies and travellers could take up the jobs that Eastern European migrants used to hold".

(Note to councillors: Poles are from Central, not Eastern Europe; and the majority of other European migrant works in Lincolnshire tend to be from Portugal.)

There's something distinctly suspicious about this. Why should a County Council think of 'inviting' in another tranche of European migrant workers to fill vacancies when it should be encouraging local unemployed to take them up - especially now we're in recession?

Not just that, but why choose Roma in particular, a group of people not usually (or stereotypically) noted for their employability? A group also badly treated in their own countries and, like their gypsy ('traveller') counterparts in the UK, often a cause (whether justified or not) of strong local antipathy?

I'm not sure, but I think I have the answer: the European Union's Decade of Roma Inclusion (2005 - 2015).

Presumably the County Council is in receipt of EU funding for the project and has to be seen to be doing something, including a Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month last year.

The first 'summit' of the scheme in Brussels in September, was not without its excitement and disappointments.

Truly, there is nothing the EU (like New Labour) doesn't want to regulate and control (for eveyone's good, of course).