Hatred in the Heart of Olde England

The issue of gypsy camps again has hit the headlines in the UK, where the Middle England village of Meriden is up in arms at Irish Travellers building on green belt land that they purchased.

 

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.		They bought the land, we understand With hard cash fair and square But as they are not English folk They cannot build their own park there On land that they themselves own As a blockade blocks the load Of supplies for drainage and ancillary works So they don't camp on the road For their town is picturesque In the heart of Old England The truth's if your not white, English, Protestant Your skin they cannot stand. They will go to church on Sunday Pompous righteous and proud And boast how successful they are How they gypsies were not allowed To build a PROPER park, on land THEY own By proper English folk And as I read the comments of one I thought how it was for racism a cloak I live in an English house That for some hundreds of years did stand Built by Irish hands for English folk Upon stolen land. And the people dispossessed by Cromwell And to Connaught could not go And have walked the roads years since The same hatred's they know. England is equal they say for all As long as your white British and Protestant Then you enjoy every right. But should you not be so, alas No rights is there for you To be as bold to BUY your land! What a thing for a gypsy to do! You cannot camp upon the road The locals don't like the stranger Your children are running wild And are a source of danger. You are the least of Gods children And for you they do not care They wish you did not exist Were not among them, were elsewhere They glory of the beauty of England But hate is in their heart Pretty houses hide hateful minds Keep THEM from ME apart!

 

Author's Note

There is a few spoonerisms and typs on the video, but Im a believer in "warts and all" approach, and it gets the message across adeqately...

Reviews

[Greg the Bard]

Biased from end to end. It is almost as if you suffered the potato famined yourself. I was in the Bull Ring of Birmingham England the day the IRS came calling and for the life of me I still do not understand what it was all about? The write however was very well done but I do not see a biased oppion call spoonerisms anything more than a cop out.

[Emily Quinn]

Such a brutally honest piece that makes the reader feel WE have lived that and makes us feel guilty just reading about the judgement and descrimination that is extremely unjust and has/had absolutely no grounds or reason. Wonderful write I quite enjoyed it. Congrats on placing in my contest

[J.P. Bristow]

This was wonderful........really well done!

[Tate Morgan]

This is one of the best things I have read here

[Samuel Dickens]

Alas, this poor body of mankind must always hate some of its fingers or toes, but why, I can't understand.

[Ellen Hammond]

Great rhyme and flow in this poem! There is one little typo in the 4th line of the 2nd verse...'they gypsies' should be 'the gypsies' The theme is a sad one and points to a problem that exists for many folk. Prejudice may be veiled a bit in Canada but sadly, it tends to exist in some parts, only it is directed at the Native America population who were here long before the white man came to 'civilize' it.

It is sad how many church-going people seem to think it is okay to classify people and ignore the plight of others and/or show distain for them. What happened to "Love your neighbour" and "Judge not..."

Thanks for sharing this with us. Well done!

[Tomás Ó C..]

I appreciate your view David, but we'll have to disagree on this one. Everywhere a camp is tried to be legally set up, there is objections. Everywhere. Even Dale Farm, a legitimate camp dating from the 1960's has got a closure order thanks to someone who didnt want them at "their door". We have the problem here in Ireland too - but as the council build the camps, there can be no objections. And they manage them quite well too. Dunsink Lane being the exception, but the CAB and Garda rooted out the element causing the problems, and now there is no hassle in the camp.

As for Green Belt... this is rural England, an old common sold to be built on, reold as there was no money to build houses. So either way it wasnt to be green belt, but maybe a more acceptable residents if houses for the rich were built there.

Incidently, a lot of the objectors have Irish names, McGrath the ringleader being one. They seem to have forgotton how far and from where they came. More English now than the natives, sad to see.

The greater majority of English are decent and not racist. Whwn one looks closer at the protesters, the majority are members of the Tory party, the party of empire and privilige...

[David Lewis Paget]

Your Irish prejudice peeps out a little too strongly in this piece for me to appreciate it as an unbiased viewpoint. There are so many problems today associated with shifting populations that you can hardly blame people for protesting when they feel they're being overwhelmed in their own country. You make a point of stating that this is 'green belt' land. Regardless of ownership then, it stands to reason that this land is not supposed to be built on. I think you'd find similar examples in America, Australia, New Zealand, Canada - this is not just an 'English' problem.

[Emily B]

hatred can be found everywhere . . .

[Gandré]

You raise our attention to their problem, sadly, they are folks without land, like many others. They need This was wonderful, rhyme, nice stanzas.