Fire this useless representative

In a world where we have to worry about which ‘Yoof’ walking along the road has the biggest knife or gun under their jacket, one can only be grateful that we have people like Joseph Jones, a spokesperson for the Romany, Gipsy and Irish Traveller Network, looking after our interests (or is that just the interests of those that are Romany, Gipsy or Irish Traveller).

I wonder if this fine, upstanding member of the Romany, Gipsy and Irish Traveller Network, would be making quite the same fuss about racist remarks being made by Romany, Gipsy or Irish Travellers?

Joseph Jones should be hung out to dry by those he represents, as he’s clearly not the man for the job if the best he can do is watch children’s TV and pick on something that was created six years ago, when attitudes were quite different to those prevalent nowadays. His approach is typical of nothing less than coward that wants to be ‘Seen to be doing something’, while doing little more than indulging some ‘Points Scoring’, and discrediting those that do the job properly.

Want to bet he’d be nowhere to be seen in the face of a street full of yobs hurling racial abuse at some poor individua, but will be at the head of the queue waiting to complain about a defenceless glove puppet?

In my home country, Travellers et al are referred to as Tinkers (something I only learned from another discussion – I only ever used Gypsy), a term I see is missing from his organisation’s title, which means that I will probably be next in line for his attention, even though the term is our usual reference, and not used as an insult.

Basil Brush is being investigated after a complaint was made about an alleged racist joke in the puppet’s BBC series.

A complaint was received by the police following a recent screening of an old episode that features the fox telling jokes about gypsies, reports Metro.

The episode, which was originally shown six years ago, features a sketch where a gypsy woman tries to sell Basil some wooden pegs.

A police spokesperson said: “We can confirm we have received a complaint about a TV show featuring Basil Brush from a member of the public in February. The complaint was logged as an incident of a racist nature.”

Joseph Jones, a spokesperson for the Romany, Gipsy and Irish Traveller Network, said: “Racist abuse of black people is quite rightly no longer deemed acceptable, but when a comedian makes a joke on TV about pikeys or gypos, there’s no comeback.”

The Romany, Gipsy and Irish Traveller Network want to get a grip of their spokesman, have a quiet word, or get someone with sense of reality and responsibility into the job post haste, before they become a laughing stock.