[Livia]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

I think on your "national" channel, words like "pikey" which is a derogatory word used to describe a certain group of people, should probably not be used, it is offensive to that group

I think people get frustrated with it Niamh. Those people sometimes referred to as 'Pikeys' cause a lot of damage here, they destroy complete areas with their stealing and their dumping of rubbish, the police's hands are totally tied when dealing with them, so much more so than the Garda, according to some coppers I liaised with when I was working with an MP. They move onto a piece of private ground, a supermarket car park, a village green nothing's out of bounds to them, and they turn it into a rubbish dump. They pay no tax, they adhere to no laws, they close ranks if there is any kind of investigation into their wrong doings... but even so, it is demanded we show them respect when they give none. I'm not usually one for calling people names but the work 'Pikey' isn't used for all travellers as far as I can see. It's used for the scum of the travelling community who give the rest of them a bad name.

Morning, by the way...

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Livia

I think people get frustrated with it Niamh. Those people sometimes referred to as 'Pikeys' cause a lot of damage here, they destroy complete areas with their stealing and their dumping of rubbish, the police's hands are totally tied when dealing with them, so much more so than the Garda, according to some coppers I liaised with when I was working with an MP. They move onto a piece of private ground, a supermarket car park, a village green nothing's out of bounds to them, and they turn it into a rubbish dump. They pay no tax, they adhere to no laws, they close ranks if there is any kind of investigation into their wrong doings... but even so, it is demanded we show them respect when they give none. I'm not usually one for calling people names but the work 'Pikey' isn't used for all travellers as far as I can see. It's used for the scum of the travelling community who give the rest of them a bad name.

Morning, by the way...

Well, I think those coppers you liased with are wrong, the same does happen here I can assure you so I do know what you're talking about.

My point though is that even though you say that Pikey isn't used for all travellers, I think alot of people do use it for Travellers in general and it is a derogatory word used for a particular group and probably should not be used on the BBC.

Morning