Slave Labour?

So, those naughty travellers have been picking up vulnerable people from dole queues and the like and, on the promise of providing them with paid work, force them into modern day slavery. Actually, I thought that was government policy. Oh sorry, they only force the long-term unemployed into performing unpaid 'work experience' with big firms under threat of losing their benefits. Not surprisingly, there's no shortage of employers, (including many big High Street names like Primark), queuing up to take advantage of this supply of government subsidised indentured labour - what capitalist could possibly pass up the chance of having a workforce they don't have to pay? Anyway, getting back to the travellers, they're one of the popular press's favourite objects of hate, with right wing politicians also jumping on the bandwagon when they need a few reactionary votes.

Which is why I can't help but feel that the timing of the police operation against the alleged slavery is significant. Right now the threatened mass eviction of travellers from the Dale Hill site (which they own) by Basildon Council is threatening to engender some sympathy for them. Then, on the eve of the evictions, the headlines are conveniently dominated for a couple of days by a story which casts travellers in general in the worst possible light. It's like when they want to cull badgers - the hunting and shooting brigade always engage in a campaign to discredit the cuddly kids favourites, saying that they spread TB, mug old ladies, sell drugs and rape hedgehogs. In one fell swoop they're transformed from 'Old Brock' into Britain's Most Wanted. Getting back to the travellers, I don't claim to be an expert on their culture, and I'm well ware of the less salubrious side to their activities, but I've had enough dealings with them to know that, ultimately, they're just people. I really don't understand the level of hatred directed toward them by many sections of the media, simply because they choose to pursue a different lifestyle to the middle class tossers who condemn them. I'm just waiting now for Basildon Council to announce that they're going to relocate the travellers in a nice new 'camp', with security guards in towers on the perimeter fence - to keep them safe, obviously, and that they're laying on special trains to take them there...