The Big Gypsy Eviction

Dale Farm.

A thousand Irish Travellers -

Europe's biggest illegal encampment...

..right in the heart of Essex.

# Back through the years

# I go wandering once again...

Conflict has raged between Travellers, residents

and the council for ten years.

Next - they claim it's the biggest unauthorised Traveller site

in Europe, and they don't want it on their doorstep.

I've had death threats on national television,

but I won't let them intimidate me.

WOMAN SHOUTS

He's thinking, "Please get rid of all the Travellers."

I guess we're thinking, "Please get rid of him!"

Legal battles have been fought in the Court of Appeal,

the House of Lords, and the European Court of Human Rights.

The Gypsies have lost them all,

and now face an £8 million eviction.

There's not a person out here that won't fight for their rights.

They're not going to go peacefully. There's going to be a lot of lives lost.

THEY SHOUT

# Each of them was small

# I didn't have a coat

# And it was way down in the fall

# Just find the others laughing

# And making fun of me

# And my coat of many colours

# My mamma made for me...

Dale Farm -

the most contentious Gypsy site in the UK.

The Irish Travellers here own the land.

They've laid tarmac, built walls and put up chalets.

But it's green belt, and only half of them have planning permission to live here.

The council has vowed to have 400 Travellers off by May 2011,

eight months from now.

My one daughter lives there, next door.

'I've filmed Mary Anne McCarthy and her family

'over the last six years.

'She's lived here on the illegal site since 2002,

'along with her seven children, 20 grandchildren

'and four great-grandchildren.'

-And Tina lives over there as well.

-Another daughter?

Yeah. Another daughter.

And just straight across the road there, my oldest daughter, Marie,

she lives.

Dale Farm has given Mary Anne and her family a sense of settled life.

They use the local schools, hospitals,

and the Catholic church -

a far cry from her childhood.

I was reared up in a horse-drawn caravan,

travelling from coast to coast, as you'd say.

I was in Ireland at this time.

Then we came to this country in the '50s.

I got married, and that was the end of the wagon for me.

I have now what I never had in my life,

and I have to press a button, and I have electric light,

to press the kettle, and I have water, and toilets.

We never had that out travelling.

And the best part of it was when the childer was going to school,

and see that they could read and write

and come back and show me things,

and read... "Oh, Granny, wait till I read this story for you!"

-And can you read and write?

-Oh, I can read now.

-The childer learned me how to read and write.

-Really?

-Yeah!

I can pick up a news-... Not good, but I can read a newspaper.

-Can you?

-Yeah.

'Unlike the women on Dale Farm, the men refuse to be on camera,

'fearing it will make it hard for them to get work.

'Mary Anne's closest friend Mimi lives next door.

'They grew up in the old barrel wagons on the roadside.'

-How important is it to be here?

-Very, very important,

because I'm with all my family here.

And if we were moved from here, I'd lose my family,

-because we wouldn't all end up together.

-Mimi!

If Sharita's up there, tell her I want her.

-In our house?

-Yeah.

They're like all sisters and brothers here -

first cousin, second cousin, sister-in-laws.

They're all one community here.

'Mimi is one of the few Travellers here

'who has actually lived in a house.'

Excuse this place, now. It's untidy.

We spent five years living in one house,

and I think it was about three years living in another one.

But I couldn't stay there after Nina dying.

'Mimi's daughter Nina died in a motorbike accident

'two years ago.

'She was one of the rare Travellers who'd gone to college

'and lived a settled life.'

This was a photocopy,

but as the time's gone on, you can see she's starting to fade.

-Do you miss her now?

-Oh, miss her?

Honest to God, I could put a rope around my neck and end my life.

That much. But I can't do it for my family.

And if I done that, I wouldn't go to heaven. I wouldn't see her.

Because it's our belief, if you do that,

you won't go to heaven.

So what I did do for a long time, I scratched myself with a fork.

I used to rip my legs and... I wanted to feel pain,

because I thought the pain that was in here...

I needed to express it through blood.

But I'm still grieving for her.

Right next door to Dale Farm is the village of Crays Hill.

Some of the gardens back directly onto the site.

One of them is owned by Len Gridley,

the Travellers' most outspoken opponent.

Mr Crazy.

This is Mr Crazy Bear, the fella who does that...

Grizzly. This is Mr Grizzly's house.

-Where is Mr Gridley's house?

-Here.

-This is his back garden.

Look through here. You can see it. He lives over there.

He does nothing but insult us.

-He said we're gyppos, the whole lot.

-I can tell you what he's thinking.

He's thinking, "Please get rid of all the Travellers."

I guess we're thinking, "Please get rid of him!"

THEY LAUGH

'I've watched this site grow from eight families

'up to now, they say, between 86 and 90 families.'

'I've lived in Basildon most of my life,

'40-odd years.'

They see me as the enemy because I'm standing up to them

and saying, you know, "You've broken the law."

"You've devalued my property."

"I'll fight you through the courts and all through the law."

When I've spoken to them about it,

and said, "Well, you've taken £300,000 out of my pocket,

devaluing my property - I can't sell it -

I'm going to fight you in every way possible,

and mainly through the court and through the law."

And I said to them, "If I'd stole 3,000...

or £300,000 off you, what would you do?"

"Oh, we'd come and kill you." You know?

-You've had death threats?

-I've had death threats on television,

death threats in the lane from them, and everything else.

But, er... I won't let them intimidate me, you know?

I'll stand my ground. I haven't done anything wrong.

It's them that have broken the law, not me.

Six years ago, Basildon Council had a meeting

to decide the fate of the Travellers.

Gypsies and residents were invited to argue their case.

The village cannot accept this amount of Travellers.

If nothing gets done,

I think you're going to have a massive revolt

from the residents of Crays Hill.

WOMAN SPEAKS

All those in favour, please show.

All those against, please show.

Action has been carried.

The council voted almost unanimously to evict the Travellers.

Since then, the Gypsies have had five years of appeals.

WOMAN SHOUTS

Everyone's frightened of them because they try and intimidate them.

The rest of them living in the road, another 46 families,

are fed up with them, say things to me,

but they wouldn't say anything to a camera or a reporter

because they would worry about any reprisals

or any abuse they would get in the road.

They're scared, frightened, or whatever.

They know what goes on here. They've seen the TV programmes.

They've seen them on television, and their behaviour.

Who wants a Gypsy site next to them? No-one.

MARY ANNE He is a lonely, miserable person.

That's why he should get himself a woman,

and he'll be all right. SHE LAUGHS

He has had some threats, though.

No. We're God-fearing people,

and we would never hurt or harm nobody in that way.

Might call him a few names and all to that,

but that's as far as it would ever go.

Even to the childer we say, "When I catch you, you're dead!"

"I'm going to kill you when you come back."

And I don't. That's just their way of talking.

'Definitely they won't let him get away with it.'

If we are evicted out of here, they will...

He will get a slap. I'll put it that way to you.

-He will be dropped down the ditch.

-SHE LAUGHS

-What do you mean by a slap?

-They'll meet him in the lane,

some of the lads, pull him out through the window of the car

and just give him a few knuckledusters here and there

-and chuck him in the ditch, then walk on.

-Really?

Honest to God, Richard, it will happen to him.

They won't seriously hurt him. Maybe throw something over the back fence

-and burn him.

-SHE LAUGHS

As the countdown to eviction gathers pace,

activists from all over the world descend on Dale Farm.

-Hello, everybody.

-Hello.

You have to feel that you can take matters into your own hands,

that you're not just driven off with somebody else's whip.

If Dale Farm goes, we can say goodbye to a lot of other Traveller properties around the country.

Gratton Puxon is Britain's most high-profile Gypsy activist.

He's been fighting Gypsy evictions for 50 years.

Thousands of years of travelling

are behind us coming here today in this tent.

And where are we going? That's what we have to decide.

Because it has to stop here.

It's set out in the European Convention on Human Rights

that no person shall be deprived of the right to education.

That was the voice of Gratton Puxon,

the itinerants' most controversial friend.

Gratton first befriended the Gypsies in 1962 in Ireland,

where he helped fight an eviction.

He then spent two years living on the road with the Travellers.

Was that very different from your upbringing before that?

I suppose so, because I was from divorced parents,

a small family - a broken home, really.

And, of course, the other thing that propelled me to Ireland

was the fact I'd been called up to serve in the British Army.

Being against war, having gone through the war myself,

I burnt my call-up papers and went off to Ireland.

-WOMAN SINGING

-For me it was like university.

I learnt a lot from it, you know?

-What did you learn?

-Well, I don't know.

To survive, and to believe in yourself,

that you could survive on very little

and with very little material things around you.

Now 72, Gratton is a veteran of dozens of evictions,

but none of them have been on sites the size of Dale Farm.

It is the biggest eviction of Travellers in UK history.

But we're also, perhaps, better prepared than ever before

to stop it.

SHOUTING

They will not only destroy the land and take it from us,

but will try to take our soul and our faith from us,

because we do continue to believe in a way of life

which is different from the settled way of life.

There's things been said in there that we didn't know nothing about.

-What kind of things?

-Things like, we were told in there

that the council cannot come in in the middle of the night

and bang on our doors. They can't tow us out into the bad weather.

They can't tow us out if we've young children running about.

We didn't know anything about that.

Meetings like this is very important to us,

because it's teaching us of what to expect,

and also what we can do and what the council cannot do.

Since 1994, councils no longer have had to provide sites

for Gypsies and Travellers.

Instead they were encouraged to buy their own land

and move onto it.

# Patches on my britches

# Holes in both my shoes

# And I hurried off to school...

Dale Farm has the same population as the nearby village of Crays Hill.

The village says it can't support such a large influx of people.

When I first starting filming here six years ago,

the locals were more willing to speak on camera.

Well, this is a poem by an unnamed Crays Hill resident,

and it goes, "We got pikeys in our back yard.

"They're thieving from night to morn."

"If it ain't nailed down they'll have it away,

Cos that's the way they were born."

"Council man says they're on their way."

"They will all be gone in the month of May."

"I don't know what planet he is on,

But I do know that they won't be gone."

"The planning laws, they are a joke."

"They don't apply to the pikey bloke."

"They build what they like and they always will,

"And the council are scared and so is Old Bill."

It's a disgrace for this government and this council to let them get away with it.

The only way to get them off is by force.

That really is the last option.

That's the only thing they understand, is force.

-They don't understand anything else.

-If it was in France,

they'd have water cannons in there blowing the hell out of them.

Now, as the eviction draws closer,

only Len Gridley seems willing to be on camera.

His main gripe is with the council,

who he blames for failing to evict the Travellers

and return the land to green belt.

The Travellers lost their last appeal in 2009,

but they're still there, over his back fence.

Today he's invited over the council leader, Tony Ball,

to try and encourage them to act.

-They've got all these sites, with their towers...

-Yeah.

..scaffolding towers with barbed wire all over it.

I see that's gone up recently. That's part of the barricade.

The rubbish and everything else you have to put up with coming over,

all the bottles...

general junk.

There's more bottles and cans.

-They come over on a regular basis.

-Mm-hm.

Don't know what a plastic pipe's doing there.

But that's why I had to put all this fencing up down this side,

to stop them coming in.

-But how high do you go?

-Sure.

You go eight foot high, it looks like you're in a prison.

We must act on the court decision in my view,

returning that back to green belt.

I think that the people don't... You do, Len,

-but others don't realise the actual scale.

-Yeah.

-We're looking at six weeks to three months.

-Absolutely.

500 people, possibly.

But if this is not cleared,

and it does get to a legal argument with the village and the council...

If I take you to court, my personal cost on this property

stands at 4.6 million,

because they've already admitted it.

-Crays Hill has been revalued.

-Yes.

-And due to the Gypsies.

-Yes.

The Travellers are living on borrowed time,

but normal life goes on.

Many of the Gypsies on Dale Farm are strict Catholics, and today

it's Mary Anne's great- granddaughter's First Communion.

-How's the day doing, Mary Anne?

-Great so far, thank God.

I'm really pleased and happy that I'm alive to see this day.

Cos I won't be around to see them getting married,

so I'm going to get drunk today, and I'll rock 'n' roll.

SONG: "My Girl" by The Temptations

'It's their Holy Communion, their christening

'and the day they get married.'

They are the big days. We really look forward...

We really celebrate them.

It's their day today, so we join in later on.

MUSIC CONTINUES

They're christened in white cos they're pure.

They gets their Holy Communion in white because they're still pure,

and they're married in white because they're still pure.

We don't believe in divorce. We don't believe in abortion.

Our religion is, you find a person that you love and like,

but you don't sleep with that person until after you're married.

You don't drink until after you're married. So that's how it is.

HE CHATTERS

You can joke and have a laugh about stupid things,

but still we keep our faith. We keep our religion.

SONG: "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga

I'm drawing my new face, after my facelift.

I'm going to get my nose pierced. That's my new face.

Mary Anne's granddaughter, also named Mary Ann,

has spent most of her life on Dale Farm.

And I changed my name to Susan.

Why did you change your name, Mary Ann?

-Because there's too many Mary Anns.

-There's a lot on this site.

-Yeah.

-I'm fed up of being a Mary Ann now.

-You're named after your grandmother.

We're all related somehow, and all named after my grandmother.

Like many of the kids on Dale Farm,

Mary Ann has grown up under the threat of eviction.

She was just 12 years old when the council first voted to evict.

I just hope that we don't get evicted.

If we do, I don't know what we'll do.

I know what we're going to do. We're going to park in Basildon.

We're not leaving. They might think that we're leaving,

but they've got another thing coming, cos we're not.

Because there'll be a fight in here.

-We will fight and fight.

-We will kill everyone!

We will... No, we won't! We'll try as hard as we can.

'Generations of conflict with the settled community

'have given these Travellers a strong sense of identity.'

Are they all Travellers, all these people?

-That crowd of girls is Travellers.

-How can you tell?

Believe me, you can tell.

They're Travellers.

What is it about those? Give me an example.

Just the way they dress, really, and where they're in groups.

You never seen the settled community in groups like that.

Oh, gosh, he's nice!

-WOMAN LAUGHS

-Which one?

The one with the curly hair!

-SHE WHISPERS

-Call me. 07799...

THEY LAUGH

MUSIC / BUZZ OF VOICES

-What is this place?

-Kenilworth Fair.

-What goes on in...

-A horse fair.

Nothing really much. Just stalls selling stuff -

there'll be hair clips, handbags,

clothes, shoes, jewellery...

-Are they mostly Travellers here, then?

-Only Travellers.

I think you're the only settled person.

PONY WHINNIES

'When I was their age, I had two ribbons, one either side,

'and a pair of white socks.'

You don't see socks or ribbons on children any more.

Now it's all these diamond hairbands and all this Come Dancing clothes

and diamonds. Naked clothes!

But it's lovely to see, and it's because they're young,

and I suppose it's how they should be.

-Were you ever in one of those?

-No. I was in one,

but never lived in one. Just in looking.

-What do you think when you see one?

-Oh, they're so small!

How they lived in them was beyond me.

PONY WHINNIES

Ahh!

What will happen if the eviction goes ahead?

-SHE SIGHS

-God only knows.

-I don't know what's going to happen.

-Will you go back on the road then?

Yeah. But where we're going to go is beyond me.

We'll be on the road 24/7. We'll have nowhere else to stay.

Family is a big part of Traveller life.

But it's also important to Len.

I can't believe how well it's lasted out there today.

-Hi.

-It's all right.

-Yeah.

Oh, he hit that hole! HE LAUGHS

He hit that hole.

Are they going to be much longer out there, folks?

We'll have to push them jet skis down in a minute.

It's going to get wet now.

-This a typical Sunday afternoon?

-Yeah.

Most of my nieces and nephews and family stay out on the beach

for the jet ski and the buggy.

'The whole family go out together, usually,

'anything from eight of us to 22 of us.'

Bit like the Travellers. We're all a close family.

We go out together, do everything together.

'We share everything together.'

My sister married a Traveller that we'd known all our lives, 40-odd years.

You know? An English Traveller, brought up in a caravan.

Now she lives in a house with all her children.

He lives in a house. You know? It's...

That's how life is now, you know? You've got to change.

There is a big distinguish between the Romany Travellers

and these Irish so-called Travellers.

I've got no problem with the Romany Travellers.

Talk to them, have a cup of tea with them,

meet them quite often in the caff, you know?

Got no problems, you know?

But these people just want to be called Travellers,

and they're no Travellers more than I am.

# Sure, come, my little son

# And I will tell you what I'll do

# Undress yourself and get into bed

# And a tale I'll tell to you #

As the weeks and months count down for Dale Farm,

time is up for a smaller site down the road.

You're not coming in here.

The council have always linked this site to the one at Dale Farm.

The Irish Travellers here own the land,

but it's green belt, so they can't live on it.

This is my land. You're not supposed to come on this land.

You cannot come on the land and put us off this land.

This is our property. We paid for this.

The bailiffs, Constant & Co, specialise in Gypsy evictions.

Stand at the back of the road. Do not budge from this road!

Pull the handbrake! Pull the handbrake!

They've been given the contract by the council.

Their job is to remove permanent structures,

tarmac and dwellings. Constant's have also won the contract

for the eviction at Dale Farm.

You shouldn't be stopping me. I am kind of an official person.

Gratton Puxon's my name. I'm well known to the council.

What I'm trying to do...

Although they're not letting Gratton through,

some of his protestors did get on-site.

They've got to an age when they can't keep being moved on,

and they can't keep living under the stress of eviction.

-Get out of the way.

-Do not touch me! Do not touch me!

-Stop it! You're hurting me.

-Get up, then.

You're hurting me! Leave me alone! Leave me alone! You're hurting me!

-Stop it!

-Are the police here?

She's an old lady! Get off of her!

Let go! Don't put your hands on me, mate.

THEY SHOUT AND ARGUE

How's it looking now?

Because of... In what way?

The Travellers here are less inclined to put up a fight

than some of the activists.

They decide to pack up and leave of their own accord.

The police's role in an eviction is to keep the peace.

But the Travellers see them as being on the same side as the bailiffs.

You're wanting an escort, because it's dangerous getting out

onto the 127. That's what I was told. You'll go out together.

-You just be quiet.

-Yeah, OK.

We don't want to be followed down the road and moved on and on.

I'm not interested in that. Form yourself up.

It will take probably about ten minutes

for the traffic guys to slow down... HE REPLIES OFF-MIC

Then I'll give you the shout that it's clear,

and you can drive off, and off you go.

-I'm very interested in that at the moment.

-All right. OK.

So that's the way that we're going to do it.

We'll give you a thumbs-up. Off you go,

then they will allow the rest of the traffic...

Gratton, you're a pacifist, you're an activist.

Is it, like, important for you to have a cause?

I suppose it is, yeah. I suppose it gives me a reason to live.

I believe in direct action,

to the level of force that's needed to stop something

which I feel is an injustice, but I'm against warfare.

-So you believe in direct action...

-Yeah.

-..in terms of Dale Farm,

-trying to stop the eviction.

-If there's no other way,

and they confront us with ...destruction of our homes,

and destroying the children's lives.

This is the law gone mad,

and this is a law that has to be stood up to.

The Hovefield Travellers have gone back on the road,

back to the life they knew before they settled.

Even though Hovefields is seen by many as a test run for Dale Farm,

the two sites are very different.

There's only about five or six families down there.

Look at how many families is here, Richard.

And who was in Hovefield? A couple of elderly people,

at the end of the day. Look at the youths that's here,

and the power that's here!

There's not a person out there that won't fight for their rights.

I mean to say, at the end of the day, it is our ground.

We own Dale Farm.

If that...Constant & Co bailiffs come in here,

they're not coming in and getting an easy fight,

I can tell you that. This'll be the roughest...

They'll never do another eviction again after this one,

if it do take place, and that I can promise you.

Since 2005,

the Travellers here have been preparing for a fight.

Dale Farm is 20 times larger than Hovefields,

and the Gypsies here have a very different attitude towards eviction.

CONGREGATION SINGING HYMN

-# As it is in heaven

-# As it is in heaven

-# Give us this day

-# Give us this day

-# Our daily bread

-# Our daily bread... #

Will your religion help you if there's an eviction here?

Yes. If the government and Basildon council frowns on us,

almighty God will shine on us, so I believe in Him.

Who's the highest?

The almighty God. He will help us and look after us.

-Even if you're back on the road?

-Yes.

-He'll still be there?

-He'll always be there to mind and protect us,

and show us the right road to go.

-Have you ever felt that He has forsaken you?

-No.

Oh, God, no. He would never do that.

No.

God does, um, mysterious things.

'Traditional Gypsy caravans.

'They got very old English families here.'

Four days after the eviction at Hovefields,

Len Gridley is wondering what it will mean for the Travellers

at the end of his garden.

There's been an eviction now. Hopefully they've made an example of them,

and hopefully we will see, in the next month or so,

a 28-day order issued on Dale Farm to clear the site

before this Christmas. They've got to do it very quickly,

otherwise it's going to be the winter time.

Over the past ten years, Len has meticulously documented

Dale Farm's expansion from eight to 80 families.

This is the fourth helicopter he's rented,

costing £500 a time.

He's spent tens of thousands of pounds of his own money

fighting the Travellers.

Then circle our way back up the 130. RISING WHINE OF ENGINES

'Even the residents' association and the parish council,

'it's all sort of hide away, you know?

'All say things and do things,

'have meetings and everything, but the meetings get nowhere

'because they won't speak out.'

This is a good one for you.

It's all been cleared. All the way up the road, been cleared,

along the back here and all along here.

So how do you feel, seeing that it's been...

Well, they've taken some action and cleared the site

and got rid of the Gypsies,

but this is not turning it back to greenfield sites, you know?

This is...a rubbish tip.

You know? It looks a bombsite.

If we're moved out of here, Richard, I will go home to Ireland.

I'll go back home.

How do you see your future now?

How do I see my future? Richard, no-one predicts the future.

We just take every day as they come,

and thank God that we're allowed to see it.

Mimi's daughter Nina died two days ago today.

She's buried in a cemetery near the house they lived in

while Nina was studying nursing.

But Mimi wasn't her birth mother.

She informally adopted Nina from a fellow Irish Traveller.

-You said to her birth mother... You asked if you could take her?

-Yeah.

-She gave her to me.

-Because...

She'd other children, Richard, and...

she'd an alcoholic of a husband.

I love you, my angel.

'I took her when she was seven months old.

'I raised her up as my own child.'

I got her her First Holy Communion when she was five.

I always thought in my old age I'd have her to look after me.

I really never worried about getting old.

And do you worry now?

I don't worry, Richard. I'm not...

really bothered, Richard, whether I live or die.

-Really?

-To tell you the truth.

-You have your family on Dale Farm.

-I have, Richard.

But when she was alive, she was everything I had.

I didn't look into my family or anyone else. She was my family.

She was my life story.

Go. Quick!

All the flowers is gone off of it.

The woman that killed her took the wrong turn.

Then she swerved to go back, and my girl hit the side of her car,

and flew across and hit this pole.

I promised her I'd never cry no more, Richard,

but when I comes here... I can go to the cemetery.

Yeah, it breaks my heart going there,

but, you know, when I comes here...

..this is really stabbing, like a stab in the heart, Richard.

Oh, God, Richard, this is the last place she was.

This is the last sight she got of anything.

Oh, I've got to get out of here. I'll stab myself with the scissors.

Come on.

You all right?

SHE SOBS

# It's snowing out there in the gloaming

# I've sat here all night, watched it snow

# The kids will be thrilled when they're waking

# And look at the fields deep and white

# But the snow makes me think of my Nina

# She's lying there deep in the snow... #

-I can't.

-Ah, that was lovely, Mimi.

-I can't.

It's Saturday night in Mary Anne's chalet,

and she's surrounded by family and friends.

The May deadline is around the corner,

but the Travellers are defiant.

We're facing a massive eviction, Richard.

My heart is breaking, but nobody knows. That's one thing about me -

I have a good sense of humour, and without that I'd be dead

long before now.

No, that's not the boogey man. That's the bailiffs coming in.

THEY LAUGH

-That's Constant & Co.

-Constant & Co, as they're knocking at the door.

Give us ten minutes to go!

-What are you feeling about an eviction now?

-I'm so excited!

THEY LAUGH

When the time comes we'll be crying. There'll be tears down like that.

But we'll be ready.

Come on, baby, come on, baby. Come on, baby, let's have you!

THEY LAUGH

# Constant & Co, Constant & Co

# You're gonna be dead, you are, yeah, yeah

# Constant & Co... #

HAPPY CHATTERING AND LAUGHTER

It's March 2011,

and Basildon Council have called a crucial meeting

to vote on whether to spend the staggering £8 million now needed

for the eviction.

This would be a third of the council's total annual budget.

Fearing trouble, the riot police have been called in.

-CHANTING

-It's a waste of money, Richard,

because we're going to end up in this car park

and every other car park in Basildon.

-We'll end up in this car park here for a week.

-You reckon?

I don't reckon. I know 100 percent.

-Save our home!

-We can't just vanish off the face of the Earth.

We're human beings like everyone else.

We just want what everybody else wants -

a quiet, peaceful life.

There's one notable absence, though.

Len Gridley has decided to stay at home,

to avoid further antagonism.

£8 million! It's crazy to actually go ahead with that.

The risks are so tremendous.

The eyes of the world are going to be on Basildon,

and the administration should be ashamed of themselves.

Why was it right to take the action at Hovefields and clear the sites

and yet not at Dale Farm?

Wrong is wrong, and there cannot be one rule for one

and another rule for another.

Can I see all those in favour, please? Show, please.

CHEERING / APPLAUSE

All those against.

CHEERING / APPLAUSE

Thank you. The vote is carried, and good night to everyone.

The council have approved the additional funds for the eviction.

All that's left is to give them their 28-day notice

to get off Dale Farm.

We'd no chance in there, Richard. We'd no chance whatsoever.

The group on our side really spoke...

I don't have to tell him. He already knows about that.

And what about the other stuff? Let 'em come in, Richie.

-Let 'em bring the bailiffs in.

-Gas bottles, yeah?

And we've other means as well. But let them bring in the bailiffs!

Everyone is going to be there for the eviction,

and they're not going to go easy.

We're staying - right down to the very last one.

-Really?

-Richie, you know us. How many times have you been down there?

You knows the score of what's going on down there, Richie.

They think we're just going back into our trailers and go?

Trust me, Richie - Basildon'll go up in fire...

..before we go.

# Patches on my britches

# Holes in both my shoes

# And I hurried off to school

# Just to find the others laughing

# And making fun of me

# In my coat of many colours

# That my mamma made for me

# Coat of many colours

# That my mamma made for me #

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail [email protected]

.