What is the Conservative policy on Travellers?
The Tories want to clamp down on Travellers’ supposed abuse of the planning system. They propose to give councils more powers to remove caravans from land, encourage police to adopt a tougher stance towards illegal sites and review or scrap human rights laws that Travellers have used to defend their homes. They also want to make it a criminal offence for Travellers to trespass on private land. Why are Travellers in the news? Three reasons. First, new laws came into force two weeks ago, under the 2004 Housing Act, giving councils stronger enforcement powers against illegal encampments but also demanding they identify suitable sites camps. The latter requirement angers those people who do not want Gypsies for neighbours. Second, Travellers have become the latest front where the Tories believe they can pick up votes by cracking down on a maligned group unlikely to vote for them anyway. Third, the regular diet of anti-Gypsy stories in the tabloids has been hugely swelled by a campaign in t
