It's Gypsies, Romanies, and Travellers History Month. I'll be singing traditional songs by GRT people, about English Romany and Scottish Traveller history, to various groups of people. And I'll be listening especially carefully to othered people.

#GRT #GRTHistory #FolkSong #FolkMusic #antiracism #racism

I was suspicious of The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes because of the positive blurbs on the front cover from Spectator magazine and right-winger Robert Macfarlane and I was regrettably correct. This is the most middle class, white, male take on trespass I can possibly imagine. By page 21 Hayes is dismissing the 1932 Kinder mass trespass as irrelevant to the ruling and middle classes, who are the author's exclusive interests. He doesn't mention the larger 1896 Winter Hill mass trespass at all. By page 70 Hayes claims legislation against the people he wrongly calls "Roma", i.e. people who name themselves Romani and Kale and Gypsies, is based on their physical mobility not racism or cultural differences, although he does subsequently give a brief acknowledgement to "social mobility" (there's another dodgy GRT claim too, that I don't have time to deconstruct now). Oh, and until page 98 the "trespass" he personally participates in is all either permitted or semi-permitted by the legal power-holder and is an optional leisure choice, never a geographical or social necessity.

Not looking forward to reading his takes on Greenham Common tbh. Should I just stop reading and donate the book now? Or read that section first to find out if I can tolerate another 250 pages of this?

#trespass #TheBookOfTrespass #UK #books #reading #GRTHistory #WorkingClassHistory #RightToRoam