Catholics Driven from their Homes by the State

A lady stands in solidarity with the Crucified...

No matter what you believe about gypsy communities, that is the long and short of what took place yesterday. Driving these Catholics, men, women, elderly and children from their homes wasn't cheap either. I hear that even those dreadful taser things were used. It can't have been pleasant for the children to witness yesterday's scenes.

For £20 million, perhaps the local authority could have found other land for them. They could have just given them £50,000 to buy a plot of land and let them get on with it, couldn't they?

There are days when reading The Telegraph just makes you want to take out a subscription to The Guardian. This was one of those days. I'm sure if the economic crisis got really bad and homeowners couldn't keep up on their mortgages and a significant proportion of the 'law abiding majority' found themselves in tents, caravans and vans, they'd soon have a different perspective on the draconian application of planning regulations by local authorities, but until that day, cruel prejudice and a rather dark human mode of justice will doubtless prevail.

Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith's blog post for The Catholic Herald today is short, sweet and to the point. There has been a lot of vitriolic nonsense directed towards the activists who campaigned for the gypsy community at Dale Farm. Personally, I'd have thought anyone who stood up in defense of these marginalised, misunderstood and often despised Catholic families who actually take Christ's teachings very seriously would be highly esteemed in Our Blessed Lord's eyes, but there we go.