Liberal commentator Matthew Parris says travellers must be told their way of life is over and they have no place in modern Britain after a group takes over a car park near his Peak District home
- Matthew Parris calls to stop ‘forcing local authorities to create Traveller sites’
- Ex-Tory MP says there is ‘simply no place for the true nomad in modern Britain’
- He delivered his broadside after a group set up camp in a town near his cottage
A leading liberal commentator has shocked the chattering classes by calling for a blanket ban on gipsies, claiming Travellers have no place in modern Britain.
Newspaper columnist Matthew Parris, an ex-Tory MP who has carved out a career as a critic of his former Conservative colleagues, delivered his broadside after a group set up camp in the Derbyshire town Matlock, near his cottage in the Peak District.
‘There is simply no place for the true nomad in modern Britain,’ he writes in his latest Times column.
‘It isn’t their fault, it isn’t our fault,’ he writes. ‘But life here involves having an address, being contactable, keeping children in school, paying tax on your property, accepting responsibility for a defined patch of real estate as proprietor or tenant.
Travellers’ vehicles parked in the large car park yesterday – they say they have nowhere else to go and are fighting an eviction notice
‘The way we live in this country is cruel to the British Traveller.’
He concludes: ‘I would have to tell him that his way of life is finished. It cannot be otherwise.’
Mr Parris, who was Tory MP for West Derbyshire from 1979 to 1986, shares his home with partner Julian Glover and a herd of alpacas.
His columns frequently focus on his domestic life – he also has a home in Spain – and the joys of rural living… until now.
He writes: ‘We should stop forcing local authorities to create Traveller sites, phase out the ‘ethnic minority’ rights of people who are not a race but a doomed mindset.’
Calling for social housing to be provided for Traveller families, he adds that if any refuse, there should be ‘a gradual squeeze on anyone who tries without permission to park their home on public property or the property of others’.
Newspaper columnist Matthew Parris, an ex-Tory MP who has carved out a career as a critic of his former Conservative colleagues, delivered his broadside after a group set up camp in the Derbyshire town Matlock, near his cottage in the Peak District
He adds: ‘This should be done with as much humanity as is consistent with telling a group of people honestly that their lifestyle offers them and their children no future, but their country wants to help them change it. There is a place for them but no longer for their way of living. Is there a party, is there a politician in Britain, with the courage to say so?’
Homeowners and businesses in Matlock are demanding answers about the Travellers from Derbyshire Dales Council, which is going through the courts in an effort to evict the visitors and around 20 mobile homes and vans.
One trader, who declined to be named, said the town could lose out on vital tourism because of the presence of Travellers in the scenic town’s main car park.
‘We have five million visitor days and the car park where the Travellers are now parking is on the main road into town,’ he said.
‘If people can’t park on there and don’t know the town, then they are just going to drive on to Bakewell rather than stop.’
One trader, who declined to be named, said the town could lose out on vital tourism because of the presence of Travellers in the scenic town’s main car park. The town centre is pictured above
Matlock’s mayor, Liberal Democrat Councillor Steve Wain, said: ‘We are reviewing the alternatives for the one family with temporary permission and are currently going through the court process to evict those who shouldn’t be there.
‘It’s not ideal but we are at the mercy of the courts right now.’
A restaurant owner said: ‘It could be months before the court takes action because there’s probably a backlog of this kind of stuff after Covid. It’s the last thing the town needs really.’
One of the Travellers said last night: ‘We’re not doing any harm – we’re only here because we’ve got nowhere else to go so we definitely don’t want to be evicted.
‘If one family can get temporary permission to be here, then the rest of us should get it as well.’
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