Express & Star

Peter Rhodes: Complaining about filth? Then you're a racist

Complaining about filth? Then you're a racist. PETER RHODES on troublesome travellers, the death of an optimist and the long, long Eve of Destruction.

Published

THE latest Big Issue comes with a warning on the cover: "If you pay for this magazine, take it." Inside, editor Paul McNamee stresses: "If you give money and leave the mag, you're making the seller into a beggar." Well, that's part of the story. But the real issue is a long-running scam. It begins with a scally buying a copy of the Big Issue from a genuine, homeless Big Issue seller. The scally then positions himself in a nearby street, posing as a genuine seller but adds to his pitch a plaintive: "It's me last copy, mate. Mind if I keep it?" Honest, altruistic Joe Public pays up but doesn't take the magazine. Every time the scally pulls this off, he makes £2.50. How do I know all this? I fell for it a few years ago in Birmingham.

I REFERRED yesterday to The Eve of Destruction, recorded by Barry McGuire in 1965 which became an anthem for every glum teenager. But its warnings haven't come to pass and now it's 51 years and counting. I suppose destruction may indeed be coming but it's taking its time. An awfully long eve, isn't it?

IN any case, we should be wary of any song or other form of forecast which contains lines like: "Yeah my blood's so mad feels like coagulating." Especially when its only purpose is to make a rhyme (sort of) with: "I'm sitting here just contemplatin'." Eve of Destruction, which seemed so clever and profound when we first heard it. was written by P F Sloan. He was just 20, and it shows.

TRAVELLER children are photographed defecating in a playground near Dudley. A councillor complains. A traveller promptly accuses him of racism. Tell us the old, old story. It was madness for Britain's race-relations laws to recognise some travellers as a separate ethnic group. From that moment, in 2010, anyone complaining about any traveller encampment has faced accusations of racism, even when the travellers are British. This vexed issue was never a question of race or ethnicity. It is entirely about behaviour. And in the endless neighbourhood rows about filth and litter, important questions are never asked. Why are these children not in school? How many of them can read and write? Have they been vaccinated against common diseases? When did they last see a dentist? Most traveller families lead decent, responsible lives. But protected by the institutionalised paranoia about racism, a minority are getting away with blatant child neglect. The authorities' sole interest is in moving travellers out of their patch as quickly as possible. It is a national scandal and the travellers' kids are not the perpetrators but the victims.

"GARDEN city" is an oxymoron of our age. Plans have been unveiled for Britain's newest garden city at Ebbsfleet, Kent. It looks exactly like a city.

AFTER a Chinese breeding unit shows off dozens of new arrivals, the world needs a new collective noun for a once-threatened species. A cuddle of baby pandas?

AS one species recovers, another vanishes. Shimon Perez, ninth president of Israel, has died. He was the last of the Middle East optimists.

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