The thing about the show, is that it has turned normal people into actual racists, I've heard the following statements.
Even what you just said, "gypsies are suing channel 4 for £10M. for what, exactly?? whose opinion of them could have been any lower?", is quite racist. If you replaced the word "gypsy" with "blacks", then that wouldn't be acceptable at all. I've heard the sort of statements like "It's not all of them, just the ones I've dealt with.", which reminds me of how people talked about the black or the jews or even the muslims in the last 50 years.

*Copy'n'paste of something I sent to a friend*

"I know it's not all black people, and some black people are my best friends, but I've had a few dealings with black people in the past. The ones from the Carabien are mostly OK, but the ones from Africa that I've delt with give the rest a bad name, I ordered a Zinger Tower Burger from one of them, but they didn't put any Zinger sauce in. It's not representative of all of them, and I try not to let it tarnish my opinion of blacks, it's just that this was a bad dealing"

That would be greatly thought of as a "I'm not racist but...", but people think it's OK to say that about the gypsies. If they did a show on the hassidic jews and their weird way of doing things, then it would get the same reaction. If they done a show on extremest Muslim cutlure and called it a show about muslims, it would get a really bad reaction too.
( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:11, 2 replies, latest was 15 years ago)

i haven't watched the show, or not more than about 2 mins of it the other week
my opinion of travellers is purely formed on the basis of the work i do against them - the damage that some of them do to my clients' properties is pretty horrendous.

other than that, i was really hoping someone would just talk about the show so i know what i have missed...
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:18, Reply)

You missed children dressing up like prostitutes

( TGB checking Off Topic is still shit at, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:21, Reply)

and this is worth £10,000,000 on top of what they have doubtless already been paid for the show?
christ, i'd dress my dad's budgie up as a prostitute for that.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:23, Reply)

The telegraph has reported they've just asked for a right to reply.
Nothing about sueing them.
(PsychoChomp, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:25, Reply)

it was in the daily mail. it must be true.
look.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1358206/Travellers-plan-sue-nightmare-My-Big-Fat-Gypsy-Wedding.html
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:28, Reply)

"May be"
"reportedly"
"said to be"
unnamed source from an unnamed group
Only direct quote describes the impact of the show, doesn't say that he's sueing.
top journalism.
(PsychoChomp, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:32, Reply)

haha some of the comments are sheer genius. look at this tool:
Yes, you are embarrassing. Yes, you chose to go on TV and yes, you don't pay much tax on what you "find" and earn for cash.
- Abu Hamster, Hook, 18/2/2011 9:43


they will sue. they'll find a lawyer who'll do it on a CFA (no-win, no-fee) or similar, so there's no reason for them not to.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:34, Reply)

Everything you just said, while true, is made redundant by
"Daily Mail".
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:35, Reply)

haha meanwhile at the other end of the scale, the guardian says:
Bridget Rooney, 16, and husband Patrick, 18, with their parents. They got engaged on her 16th birthday and married in Lincoln last March. In many ways they were very grown up for their age, but when asked if they were planning to have children, Bridget almost collapsed with embarrassment. Although they were very young, I got the feeling they would have a long and happy marriage.

ffs guardian, there's being leftie, and there's being wholly unrealistic!
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:37, Reply)

God, if was anymore left
It'd be written on ethically sourced tofu by the naturally rehoused (in negative carbon footprint buildings) indigenous population of some war torn third world country.
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:41, Reply)

well quite
there's not wanting to discriminate against anyone for being a gypsy, and then there's saying that a 16 and an 18 year old are going to have a long and happy marriage in a culture where the guardian itself did a report last year and reported that 60-80% of the women were victims of domestic abuse...

maybe these 2 will have a long and happy marriage. maybe he will treat her like a slave and kick the shit out her whilst cheating on her and making her have 137 kids. nobody knows. but we do know that the journalist cannot honestly believe that two kids like that are more likely to be happy than not, statistically speaking.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:43, Reply)

That;s what made me have to turn that program off
Some of it was tantamount to child porn.
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:24, Reply)

God how I miss them.

( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:25, Reply)

The key phrase here is "some of them".

( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:23, Reply)

it's a fairly safe bet that the ones who are suing
are amongst the "some" though, eh.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:28, Reply)

The key phrase here is
'bike-stealing tinkers'
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:31, Reply)

It's a real catch-22, people are relating the entire group of "gypsy"s with those who do those kinds of things, in the same way people mix up jews with israelis.

( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:23, Reply)

The problem is
unlike other races/creeds they're a fairly homogenous group with only two major divisions. Thus culturally they're actually all quite similar and you can see behaviour-mirroring in the other encampments of gypsies in different countries (Ireland for example)
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:29, Reply)

the article says something about how it has ruined their lifestyle
it is their lifestyle that i am curious about. the ones i deal with drive around in packs squatting on other people's land and nicking stuff. how can this be ruined, was my question.

i don't know anything about the others, as i didn't watch the show...
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:31, Reply)

That was pretty much the show
bar the nicking stuff. What I found most repulsive was the way they whip girls out of school at twelve or thirteen so they can become unpaid slaves, until desperate to escape they marry at sixteen.
( Amberl was stripey and dominated Europe, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:33, Reply)

ohhh this is ringing drunken bells from the pub the other night now
don't the women have to give up everything to spend their lives cleaning the caravans? urrrrrrgh.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:35, Reply)

how fucking clean can a caravan get?

( Lisette von Falcon, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:50, Reply)

...and half of London would get blown up.

Err...
( Monty Boyce, My cheese game is strong, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:22, Reply)

it is true that religious extremists would go waaaaaaay too far
look at all the fuss over a bloody cartoon in the newspaper...
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:23, Reply)

All extremests are bad, doesn't matter if it's religion, your city or your football team.
They're all fucked up.
( G/PP 💩💩💩💩💩&#128, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:25, Reply)

Sadly we do not have football nutters who are willing to strap dynamite to their chest
And take out the opposite stands at the match.
( Labia Majora You keep on talking but it makes no sense at all, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:26, Reply)

at the moment the tiny minority of muslims who are extreme
are far and away the most dangerous of any extremists because of this. they are actually out to kill mass numbers of people.

some other nutters will come along and take their place as the most dangerous at some point in the future, i'm sure of that.
( rachelswipe with a fork, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:30, Reply)

The Soviet Union came up with a solution to this
When they invaded Afghanistan, so I'm told, they encountered problems with suicide bombings, as one might expect. After a few horrific incidents, they hit upon the grim idea of gathering up the remains of the bombers and burying them, facing away from Mecca and covered in pork. The bombings ceased shortly after this.
(LongJohnBaldry, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:50, Reply)

And that meant they won the war!

(PsychoChomp, Fri 18 Feb 2011, 14:52, Reply)