Bringing in gypsies will cause us more problems
By [chutchings]
WE should all be very concerned about this latest initiative to invite Eastern European gypsies into the county to fill job vacancies ('Let travellers and gypsies work here', Echo, January 15).
As a taxpayer, I find it baffling that we all have to foot the bill to provide amenities on gypsy sites.
Gypsies are supposed to be travellers, yet they roll into an area and stay there for years in some cases.
Why? If their culture dictates that they should roam and wander, they should do just that, and preferably in an area where they aren't going to wreck the landscape.
Bringing more gypsies into the country isn't a good idea.
They claim 'persecution' if they are punished in their country and racism when they are punished in this country.
If I was to commit the same crime in their country, I would receive the same, or a more severe punishment, and in this country, I would be prosecuted.
We have to remember that while some regimes in these people's countries of origin can be brutal by our standards, the level of crime committed is minimal in comparison to that in this country.
We all whinge and moan that our judges are too soft, that habitual offenders don't go to jail, and the ones that do get it easy, but when do we stop and say that if you commit a crime, you will be punished accordingly, regardless of race, creed, colour or culture, and if you happen to be a foreign national, you will serve your sentence and be sent home unable to return again?
More to the point, if there is a shortage of workers due to the exodus of Polish workers, these jobs should be filled by British nationals.
If the unemployed Brits don't take them, they should have their benefits stopped, and if there is still a shortage, we should make offenders work in chain gang- style work parties to fill the gap.
Even as a last resort, we should not be offering these jobs to migrant gypsies.
If this is the only solution that our local authorities and politicians can come up with, then we are in much deeper trouble than we thought we were.
MATTHEW HUNT Lincoln.
