Travellers in England

I watched a programme on television last Friday called "Living With the Enemy". I missed the start, but I think the basic notion is that they get two (or more) people who have some angst between them, and make one of them live the life of the other. I've caught snippets of ads for it before, so I think it's also about getting people who are rich/successful to take a few steps down on the ladder and see how the other half live.

This episode featured a woman named Didi and a man named Chris. Didi was a politician for the Conservative Party and lived a life with all the trappings (which I'm not knocking, just laying the background). Chris and his friends referred to themselves as travellers, they lived an itinerant lifestyle in their vans/trucks.

As I missed the beginning of the prog, I think I missed the background to the situation, but I pieced it together as best I could. It seems people like Chris are finding it increasingly difficult to live their lifestyle as 90% of their camping grounds are gone or blocked. Everywhere they go, the local councils evict them.

Chris and his friends wanted to let Didi in on their lot, with the hopes that she might come to accept and understand them a little better.

It all started off rather pleasantly, but this woman just could not cope at all, and by the end of the week, all parties involved were only too glad for it to end.

At the end of the week though, her attitudes towards these people had actually become even more hard line, Didi kept saying it was deplorable for people to live like this and raise their children like this, and so on. Chris said it was a matter of freedom of choice and living the lifestyle he and his friends had chosen to lead. Then Didi kept going on about the future, and where did he think he was going and what would he become in life. Chris said he didn't have some master plan, but he was happy with that and he just wanted to live his life in peace.

He was polite and tried to be very accomodating to Didi.

There is more to it all than that of course, and locals often don't like these people because they can be very messy and dirty wherever they stay, although as one of Chris' friends pointed out, this seems to be exacerbated by the fact that councils won't allow them to install their own adequate facilities (and deny all formal applications). It isn't just one sided though, and Chris and his friends aren't necessarily the good guys.

I couldn't help noticing the irony in all of this anyway. Chris' life would be no more acceptable to Didi if he were living in Africa. Ever since the British left their shores they've been trying to civilise the "savages" with their religion, cricket and Devonshire teas. I really wouldn't have been surprised if Didi had stepped out of Chris' van one morning wearing a pith helmet and saying, "run along Matook and saddle up the camels, I want to catch this blasted rhino by elevenses and then I'd fancy a hit of croquet with Smythe-Ponsonby after a Pims at the Officers' Club."

To some, it seems incomprehensible that anyone could ever live differently from the norm. The lives of people like Chris might seem peculiar, or rough around the edges, or whatever, but that's the choice of the individual, and so long as they are not hurting anyone, then let them make that choice for themselvs.