Racism. And class-hatred.

Here we go again: I had to do a dangerous double take whilst riding on my bike when I first saw this poster for the latest Channel 4 series 'inside' the Traveller community - and its even most offensive companion featuring a couple of scantily clad young Traveller women.

I cannot think of any other ethnic group that the media would dare portray in this way. 

Maybe in multi-cultural PC Britain, the closed world of Traveller communities is the only minority left that can be safely sneered at and scape-goated with impunity.

I'd be the first to admit that I know bugger-all about Traveller communities - but I do know snobbery and racism when I see it.

One curious thing  though -  the supposed characteristics of Traveller culture that are pilloried and ridiculed in this program are a sort of caricature of the much broader white working class 'chav' stereotype: More money than taste. Violent. Uneducated. Vulgar. Orange... You get the picture. 

Here's a thought - maybe the media-middle class know they couldn't get away with such a vicious  portrayal of the working class as a whole - so they displace their snobbery on to a smaller group who it's safe to isolate.  Either way it's ugly and leaves a bad taste.