The House of Commons Education Committee has conducted an inquiry into the Education Challenges facing children and young people from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller backgrounds
The Committee invited written submissions which address any or all of the following areas:
The educational challenges faced by children and young people from Gypsy, Roma and Traveller backgrounds, including those in fixed housing.
How the Government’s £1 million education programme for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children should be targeted.
Whether other initiatives and recommendations are needed to support the educational attainment and employment outcomes for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children.
It also invited to give oral evidence our Chair, Lisa Smith, Pauline Anderson of The Traveller Movement, Emma Nuttall of Friends and Families of Travellers and Baroness Whitaker of the all-party committee on Gypsies, Roma and Travellers. You can watch the session below and read our written submission.
New book for young readers with fairground context
Nestled quietly by the railway and the river, in the Showman’s Yard, a treasure trove can be found … but only by those who really look, and really listen.’
Follow Mary Ann and her travelling Showmen family as they defend their yard from developers. The generations work together to help everyone understand that Grandad Henry is right: ‘not all treasure glistens’.
While it’s great to have national newspapers and cabinet ministers speaking in support of Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, it has taken the lowest form of humour from Jimmy Carr to achieve it.
‘When people talk about the Holocaust they talk about the tragedy and horror of six million Jewish lives being lost to the Nazi war machine. But they never mention the thousands of Gypsies that were killed by the Nazis. No one ever wants to talk about that, because no one ever wants to talk about the positives.’
Jimmy Carr – His Dark Materials
Bluntly put, he’s saying, “I find it funny that over half a million Roma and Sinti died or were exterminated.” That’s it; that’s the joke. He makes a very comfortable living from that quality of material. He had a previous effort using the olfactory sense of the Gypsy Moth. Edgy? No, clumsy.
Carr’s hate speech was even too much for Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, who previously claimed ‘left-wing snowflakes are killing comedy’. She said is was ‘abhorrent’ and ‘just shouldn’t be on television’.
Zarah Sultana who has consistently supported Gypsy, Roma and Traveller rights and the All Party Parliamentary Groups for Gypsies, Roma and Travellers, and for the Prevention of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity have called on Netflix to remove the hate material.
Jimmy Carr's "joke" – that a "positive" of the Holocaust was the slaughter of 500,000 Gypsy, Roma and Siniti people – is disgusting beyond words. Mocking racist genocide has no place in comedy or a decent society.
I call on @netflix to remove this grotesque material.
Together with the @GenocideAPPG & 126 parliamentarians, we’ve written to @NetflixUK calling on them to remove Jimmy Carr’s race hate material against Roma people. Netflix’s approval and funding of this material legitimises and perpetuates discrimination and racism. pic.twitter.com/bgWRA4NcS1
— APPG for Gypsies, Travellers and Roma (@APPGGTR) February 9, 2022
The Traveller Movement has started a petition also calling on Netflix to remove the offensive material with a target of 25,000 signatures.
Robin Marriot, the son of George and Mary Marriot, contacted ACERT to share the story of how John and Yoko Lennon supported a caravan school on a roadside camp in Bedfordshire.
I came across your report concerning the above schools. My Dad, George Marriott, a disabled WW2 veteran, and my Mum, Mary, herself disabled, although not Gypsies themselves, were heavily involved in Gypsy Welfare in Bedfordshire from the mid 1960s until the 1980s, due to the inhumane way in which Gypsy people were being treated throughout the county.
Gypsy protest @ Harlington 1969
As you know, at that time, with no permanent sites for Gypsy families, it was impossible for their children to receive even a basic education and my Dad had the idea to take education to the children via roadside caravan schools. But how to fund them? I was 19 years old at the time and a Beatles fan. I was aware that John & Yoko Lennon were involved in a number of projects outside of making music so I suggested that my Dad should write to them and ask for financial help to start up the caravan school project.
Some time later, out of the blue, on 1 December 1969, a telegram was delivered saying, “We are behind your project. Will send money immediately. Love John & Yoko.”
A cheque for £100 duly arrived and my Dad negotiated the purchase of a second hand 32 foot long caravan that would be sited on the roadside close to the M1 bridge on the Caddington to Luton Road. Local press covered the story which was picked up by the nationals.
Much to my Dad’s embarrassment The Daily Mirror incorrectly reported that the Lennons had donated £1,000 so he immediately contacted them (John & Yoko) to alert the to the incorrect report.
A few days later a letter arrived from John & Yoko with a cheque for £300 and a “PS” saying, “Use it well, but don’t tell!”. With the additional funding a second caravan was bought that Mr Gerwyn Davies, a supporter of the cause over many years, allowed to be sited at his school in Kensworth.
Unfortunately the Caddington school was burnt and destroyed by so called “vigilantes” or brainless idiots as my Dad referred to them. I remember well Gratton Puxon and Tom Acton and their involvement, as well as Jeremy Sandford the author of Cathy Come Home and Yehudi Menuhin the violinist.
I was pleased to hear that Gerwyn and Mrs Davies are still with us. My Dad was a great admirer of him and the way he embraced “The Cause” in spite of the unpopularity of the project among local residents.
As a footnote, when my Dad died in 1996 the Luton News and Dunstable Gazette (they referring to him as the “Gypsy Champion”) reported the event. To our surprise a number of Gypsies attended the funeral, some of them were by this time adults who had attended the schools and been taught to read and write !
