Big fat gypsy weddings

[LittleDonkin]

So looking forward to this!!!! I loved it last time!

TotorosOcarino - this is because they are basically property. If they went to the carboot sale there would be the possibility that they would be able to interact with men outside of the Traveller community and who knows what might happen to their purity.. They are fair game for the boys from the Traveller community though, as the boys belong to the community that owns the girls; hence the unchecked assaults within the community.

Want to add, they are not seen as individuals with individual rights, but only as part of the community with a gender-specific role laid down for them.

Riven Roma are totally differnt and they look down they would refer to this lot as tintackers.

Differnt values and cultures .My mums family are from a roma background her mum married outside her culture and no one spoke to her for years .My mum did not live in ahouse from 2 till she was 10 as lived with her Gran and travelled

I,m married to an English Romany gypsy and dh has flatly refused to watch this programme after the last one stating that it shows nothing about the way that Romany gypsies live ,it is all about Irish Travellers.
In our part of the country a lot of gypsies are now settled on their own sites,children are fully educated,girls as well but are still aware of their heritage.

Bubbles

Yep exactley there two differnt cultures

this one put me on edge - didnt like the whole grabbing thing and her friend should not of left her alone

One thing I did notice was how healthy and fit they all were. They must be doing something right. There seemed to be very few over-weight people and they all had fabulous skin and looked bright and healthy. I didn't see any people with disabilities at all though. I wonder how they would manage in space restricted vans etc.

possibly kept out of sight?

I found this programme riveting - I didnt realise it was the second in the series...

I couldnt beleive that it was OK for cheyenne to be assaulted in public like that! If I saw that on the street myself, I'd intervene - how can it be OK?

But also I couldnt understand where the money comes from? I mean I really dont understand - was it explained? Josie was from a family of 10 with only the dad, presumably, working. And cheyene and montana were buying £300 dresses 15 times a year - yes, 15 new dresses for parties was how I heard it! - and I didnt see where the money came from.

The only person who they talked aobut working (others not the focus of the show, of course, may be doing something different) was Swanley and he was a farm labourer and that kind of money doesnt buy those kind of dresses.

Was there something in show one that explained where the families' money comes from?

i too was wondering where all their money comes from

I spoke to some traveller families last year for work, and generally it was the women who seemed to be "in charge" of dealing with officialdom. One thing which stood out though was how disparaging they were of other groups of travellers/gypsies - they were incredibly proud of being Irish travellers and not "those bloody Kosovans coming over here and giving us Irish travellers a bad name".

There was a huge range of groups, some almost fully integrated into the local community, some where the police wouldn't benture near. One place was entirely behind huge metal fences with no apparent entrance, and all we could hear were dogs flinging themselves at the fence.

They do seem more insular than other ethnic minority groups. Less integration?

I found the programm deeply disturbing, had to stop watching. how can this level of abuse be right?

The 'grabbing' was horrible to watch. oppressive, sexist and bloody awful.
And who are the girls the young men are 'using' to shag as their own girls are off limits?

Money??!! I have never met a poor gypsy.

They either earn their money with completely illegal activity (protection rackets, thieving etc), or sometimes legal (scrap/horse dealers/ owning caravan sites/ builders etc), but they very rarely pay tax, and more often than not are on benefits and working at same time. Often they claim at the benefits office that they cannot read, and get someone else to fill in all the forms etc. More often than not they can read, but find it easier to claim they cannot.

I used to deal with gypsy's, selling them haylage, and renting land to them for their horses etc., and always found them to be very fair, and pay up in cash. The gypsy's I dealt with were all part of the same clan/group, it was by word of mouth. I rented some land to one gypsy, and then other members of his extended family. I was advised not to deal with more than one family, or it can cause fighting/trouble. You have good and bad ones. I never had any problems, and never had anything stolen.

My brother is a vet and he has been to treat their horses on these sites, and has always been paid there and then, and found them to be good clients.

I think more could be done, to make them earn their money legally, but people are too scared to confront them on where their money comes from. I certainly never asked.

I agree on the comments on the treatment of women. I think the problem is social services are too scared to get involved. My grandad is from a gypsy background, and I was always taught to never cross a gypsy.

I'm guessing gypsy is the wrong word when its irish travellers?

shouldnotbehere

I think your being a bit naive if you think HMRC are too scared to ask to ask gypsies where they are getting their money from,in my part of the country Romany gypsies run legitamate businesses and pay their income tax and NI,and I do know of gypsies that have been investigated by the HMRC.

Bubbles4 - perhap I am being naiive on HMRC. Yes many have legitimate businesses, however I'd be very surprised if they pay tax on all their earnings.

I have noticed they all tax and insure their cars, and no doubt when they live in a house they pay council tax, and the VAT on goods they buy and fuel etc, so I suppose they do pay something.

My experience is HMRC are more likely to go for the easy target, rather than gypsies.

not all travellers evade tax though, ffs.
and not all take their kids out of school in termtime.

can people please be a bit more careful with the generalising?

Well said Seth.

Sorry but many do take their kids out of school in termtime. It's a problem that costs money with councils having to provide additional support and working hard to improve educational standards for such children.

Not sure why my message got deleted,perhaps I should have put many at the beginning of most of my points.

It's not fair that the rest of us get fined if our dc miss 1 days schooling yet travellers are allowed to take their kids out whenever they feel like it and expect the taxpayer to pick up the pieces.

Also this practise screws up school numbers. Councils give out places which others are turned down for only for many to then leave thus wasting the place.

You'll see that poor achievement amongst traveller's children is a problem caused by their lifestyle which has to be payed for. It's significant enough for councils to have policies and funding on dealing with it(which can be found with a simple Google) so we are not talking about a small percentage.

As Riven says, there are two distinct groups being talked about on the thread, Travellers and Gypsies. They are not the same at all.