Puxon, Graham

Puxon, Graham

Graham Puxon

3 June 2006Comment

The past twelve months have seen Travellers turfed off their own land, and their homes destroyed, by zealous bailiffs. Against a backdrop of local hostility and gains for the BNP in last month's local elections, Grattan Puxon reflects on the impact of the rise of the right on his community.

A pensioner like myself, an elderly man accosted me outside the railway station: “Hey, Mr Gypsy - you. You're a lot of land-grabbers! We don't want you in Crays Hill.” “If you mean Dale Farm,” I said, hiding my anger, “Travellers bought that land.” “Come off it,” he said, coming up closer. “Fucking thieves the lot of you. You should be put off there.”

In the exchange that followed, he said he was voting for the British National Party and wanted Gypsies deported or dead. It was two…