Apparently the word 'pikey' means 'cheap'... well, according to the BBC.,
Basically, traveller groups complained that the use of the word pikey was racist, but BBC Trust ruled that its use related to the contemporary meaning of the word as 'cheap' rather than specifically related to travellers.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/jeremy-clarkson-cleared-bbc-trust-5349445
Jeremy Clarkson has been cleared over his use of the word 'pikey' on Top Gear by the BBC Trust.
The presenter - who is currently suspended from the BBC2 show following allegations he punched a producer - put up a placard with the words Pikey's Peak on the motoring series in February last year.
Viewers complained that the sign was "grossly offensive and racist" to the "gypsy traveller community", whose children are subjected to the word as a term of abuse in schools.
But the Trust's Editorial Standards Committee (ESC) concluded that the word had been used to mean "cheap", rather than as a term of racist or ethnic abuse.
The ESC said that that the word "had evolved into common parlance among a number of people to mean 'chavvy' or 'cheap' and, depending on the context, viewers would not necessarily associate it with the gypsy and traveller communities".
But complainants said that it had been "disingenuous of the BBC to argue that there is no intended racist reference when using the word" because in its previous uses of the term, Top Gear "had made clear that 'pikey' refers to gypsies and travellers".
whether it's offensive to travellers - I'm not a traveller, so not quite over to me to say.
But as for the use of the word - I don't watch Top Gear, but on hearing the word 'pikey' I wouldn't really have thought of it as meaning anything other than related to travellers.
So, interesting to hear it ruled that other viewers would
'not necessarily associate it with the gypsy and traveller communities'
Maybe I'm the odd one out and just not up with to speed with the contemporary use of words :P