The UK ASSOCIATION OF GYPSY WOMEN would like to respond to Michael Howard's advert "I BELIEVE IN FAIR PLAY".
Firstly is he including the Romany Gypsies, the oldest ethnic minority in this country today, or is it the Travellers only?
We would remind Michael Howard the Gypsy men fought and died to help free Europe from evil that was the Nazi regime, Jack Cunningham a Gypsy man from Hull was one of only 4 to receive the Victoria Cross for bravery. Michael Howard by his own admission came to England with his family as Jewish Refugees to flee the terror of the Nazis, the human rights act was adopted to protect people of a different race, colour or creed from persecution Mr Winston Churchill played a prominent role in forming the human rights laws for the very reason that the atrocities of the Holocaust suffered by the Jews and other minorities would never be able to happen again to anyone because they were different. Winston Churchill was a man of honour and principals he had the forsight to know that the holocaust could easily happen again but what he could not know is the leader of his party today would want to tear down what he had built up they must be pretty short on policies to stoop to such a low level as to use the most vulnerable minority in this country today, use them as a political football and due to certain tabloids who have launched a propaganda campaign of racial prejudice and hatred creating a climate of fear within the wider communities against the Gypsy /Traveller minorities Michael Howard obviously now believes the mood is right to claw the Tories back to power on the backs of these minorities did Hitler not do exactly the same with the German people against the Jews?
Michael Howard suggests the human rights act works in our favour and we can build sites wherever we want that is a DOWNRIGHT LIE we certainly have no evidence of this the facts speak for themselves the evidence we have is our people being evicted from their own land on a daily basis their homes smashed up or even being burnt down, elderly sick men being beaten and little children terribly traumatised and now anyone in uniform fills them with uncontrollable terror. Their parents’ only crime is trying to provide their own accommodation, in order they may get access to education and proper healthcare for their families, why do they have to try and provide for themselves? That is due to Michael Howard in 1994 repealing the 1968 caravan sites act that took away the duty on local authorities to provide caravan sites hence we find ourselves in this situation today local authorities have closed sites at an alarming rate forcing families out onto the road unable to find anywhere legally to stay and now Michael Howard has the audacity to say if he cannot exclude the Gypsy/Traveller minorities from the human rights act he and his so called party will SCRAP it !!!! The UKAGW say to every Jew in this country if you do not cry shame on Michael Howard the message you are sending out not just to the Gypsy/Traveller minorities… but to the BNP that Hitler was justified in the murder and the slaughter of 6 million Jewish fathers, mothers sisters and brothers and it is right and just to have a racist Government in power the BNP do not need to fight for seats in the election their views and policies are well safe in the hands of Michael Howard. We would like to speak to all the other minorities in this country of ours that the Romany Gypsy have been in for almost 600 years we will speak to them if we may through a poem that was attributed to a Pastor Niemoeller at the first service for the victims of the Holocaust, (forgive us Pastor we have made some slight changes)
FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE GYPSIES/TRAVELLERS I DID NOT SPEAK OUT
THEN THEY CAME FOR THE BLACK PEOPLE I DID NOT SPEAK OUT
THEN THEY CAME FOR THE BROWN AND DISABLED I DID NOT SPEAK OUT
THEN THEY CAME FOR ME AND THERE WAS NO ONE LEFT TO SPEAK OUT
GOD BLESS
CATHERINE BEARD (CHAIRPERSON)
