WWSTWD

From time to time my town gets an influx of travellers, we have a few sites in the area and there are quite often unauthorised encampments too. Leaving aside the aspects that brings, it means that regularly on a Sunday afternoon quite large groups (at a guess I’d say yesterday was 60-80) of young travellers, aged from prob 12 thru’ to late teens or early 20’s come into town to go to the cinema and then to the restaurants nearby.

Most of the time it’s not an issue; they’re boisterous and noisy, and they do piss the restaurants off (we were in Nando’s and talking to the manager a favourite seems to be for them to come in and take a table, but where it’s counter service they then just sit and chat for ages pretending to be choosing, and then 20 minutes later they just get up and walk out. So it’s somewhere away from the crowd, sat down, in the warm…. taking tables away from paying customers) – but mostly they don’t interact with non-travellers unless they are forced to.

However, sap must be rising or something and there was a fair amount of ‘grabbing’ going on among the younger ones. Which in non-traveller society would be seen as a some form of assault, but the girls seem to just about tolerate it. Until a passer by took exception to it and decided it would be a smart idea to take these lads to task over it, and things got a bit heated for a while until the police arrived.

Is it part of culture, ‘mostly harmless’ and should be tolerated? I’ve in the past stepped in where a guy was pestering a girl outside a bar, and I’m generally of the opinion that society functions best when we stand up to bad behaviour, but yesterday i was much more ‘it’s a traveller thing’ (plus I didn’t want a shoeing off a 13 year old and his mates). My 14yo daughter, FWIW, was of the ‘I wouldn’t like it but they seem mainly OK with it’ opinion.

WWSTWD

Can I just get in first with…..

Binners is , quite literally, Hitler.

Move house.

Don’t eat in Nandos

Don’t grab Perchys, or Binners, arses.

Don’t grab Perchys, or Binners, arses

…at least, not alone.

Two man job, that.

#Inbeforemike

lol @ Flashy!

I thought this was gonna be about white guys called Benji with dreadlocks bumming around the far east with just a trust fund to support them.

I’m out.

Leave them to it.

You’ll get absolutely nothing, apart from a possible beating, if you bother them. If you’re talking baout where I think you’re talking about then it’s been like this for years and the general consensus of people around there is to ignore it.

Binners is , quite literally, Hitler.

Eddie, or Adolf? There’s quite a difference

That’s nothing to do with Travellers culture, how do you explain the middle class lads in Magaluf? They do exactly the same behaviour as described by the OP.

Being a dick is universal, there’s one common denominator

Eddie, or Adolf? There’s quite a difference

Fidel.

Fidel Hitler.

Move your house.

Ftfy…

I thought this was gonna be about white guys called Benji with dreadlocks bumming around the far east with just a trust fund to support them.

Me too. Everything you need to know is explained by this book.

I’d get my driveway done at a knockdown price and hide all the lead and copper that I have.

Were they being a bit “grabby” amongst themselves or with strangers?

Different things are acceptable in different cultures. If they were acting that way with their friends and the girls weren’t overly fussed then whilst I don’t particularly like it I’d guess you’d just have to accept that that’s how they are. It’s a bit like wandering into a nudist camp going “put some clothes on for god’s sake!” maybe. If they were doing it with the waitresses / passers-by then that’s an entirely different situation and it absolutely needs challenging in an ideal world.

That said, it isn’t an ideal world and challenging them probably isn’t the wisest course of action in any case. I’d expect them to immediately close ranks if an “other” tells them what to do and then you’ve got an angry mob on your hands. With the best will in the world they’re highly unlikely to respond with “terribly sorry old chap, I didn’t realise.”

no, it was traveller boys grabbing traveller girls, which an ‘other’ took exception to. A woman incidentally, but she still got turned upon which was when some other passers-by had to be involved, which then turned it a bit heated.

Police were there sharpish but they’d been patrolling in the area anyway.

Should we just accept that’s the way they are? See also – arranged marriages, ‘having to wear’ the burkha/hijab, fgm, circumcision, (OK, 2 more extreme examples in there) all of which have been criticised in the past rather than ‘it’s just their culture’

Should we just accept that’s the way they are?

I’d say… not a lot of choice in the matter.
What next – you want to have all their women folk have careers and jobs and not clean the caravans every day and cook their fellas food? (my erm, knowledge comes from watching a ch4 documentary)

Unless the “victim” wants to complain, then it’s Shirley a no-go even for the Rozzers?

Should we just accept that’s the way they are? See also – arranged marriages, ‘having to wear’ the burkha/hijab, fgm, circumcision, (OK, 2 more extreme examples in there) all of which have been criticised in the past rather than ‘it’s just their culture’

… some of which are illegal in this country, some of which are not. I’m not sure as it’s fair (or tasteful) to lump something like FGM together with wearing a headscarf.

It’s a difficult one for sure. Playing devil’s advocate, should we perhaps be tolerant of a different culture’s, erm, culture so long as it stays within the law? I’m not defending their behaviour, but as DezB says there’s probably not much we can do about it.

I absolutely love that book hols. 🙂

My local cycling club rode past a site where they frequently stay, on a weekly evening ride a while back. They were shot at with air rifles, with one rider sustaining a wound.

https://www.pinkbike.com/news/mountain-bikers-targeted-with-air-weapon-in-leamington-spa.html

Lovely…

I’d look at it in the same way as some of the other “cultural” things that have been mentioned.

If someone is part of a culture and accepts certain behaviours, no-one is being harmed, and the people involved don’t mind, then rock on and let your freak flag fly.

But if you suspect that someone is being forced to take part and “culture” is applying pressure to force them to acquiesce and threatening them with consequences for speaking out, then the rest of society should step in and protect them.
(If genuine harm is resulting, all bets are off, and **** your culture)

It is a form of courting in some parts of the Traveller culture. I think they refer to it as stealing kisses. You chase the girl you fancy until you are able to hold her still enough to kiss her iirc.
Given the nature of the culture, I suspect they don’t really ask the women how they feel about it, or anything else but outsiders getting invovked really isn’t going to change it.

My local cycling club rode past a site where they frequently stay, on a weekly evening ride a while back

I used to take my dog over the field where some travellers decided to park up for a few days. I rode past a group of fellas sat round and said “alright”, they nodded and said “alright” back.
True story. Didn’t make the papers though.

Cool story Bro. Might have done had they shot at you I guess.

I used to take my dog over the field where some travellers decided to park up for a few days. I rode past a group of fellas sat round and said “alright”, they nodded and said “alright” back.
True story. Didn’t make the papers though.

Try it again, but on the bike and without the dog. If you get shot at report back 👍🏼

Try it again, but on the bike and without the dog. If you get shot at report back

I rode past a group of fellas

Unless he was riding the dog, he at least had the bike part covered😉

Dog riding came later.
I could try it again, but I think they’re long gone from that site. It’s being turned into a commercial/industrial park. Which obviously is far nicer use of green fields and woodland.

Reading failure for me. Unless, DezB were you on a horse?

How would he get the horse to stay on the bike? Do clips or flats work better with hooves?

Do clips or flats work better with hooves?

Clips.

Only if used with clops.

Unless, DezB were you on a horse?

Hobby horse. Galloped past em I did.

DezB

I used to take my dog over the field where some travellers decided to park up for a few days. I rode past a group of fellas sat round and said “alright”, they nodded and said “alright” back.
True story. Didn’t make the papers though.

What an odd thing to say.

Not really, seems fair enough. Or is it only odd if you post irrelevant stories that aren’t bashing travellers?

My house overlooks parkland that is owned / managed jointly by Lord Lambton and The Land Trust. We had a group of travellers come in one night (they removed a 4″ box section steel gate with a stilh saw) and set up camp. I was expecting the worst for a number of weeks. “Something” happened during the night and they were “removed”. It appeared to involve some tractors, lots of shouting and them not being there in the morning. Most effective. Seemingly it helps to own large swathes of Co Durham and be a Peer.

What an odd thing to say.

You want to read some of what he says about “music”. That’ll recalibrate your definition.

It’s called “balance”, ya dope.
And who the **** are you to comment on me when you come out with bollocks like this “It is a form of courting in some parts of the Traveller culture.”
Er duh yeah, none of us fickos got dat did we 🤨

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Play nicely please, children.
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