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Firle Bonfire Society burn travellers in effigy

Ex

15:37 / 18.11.03

There have been some arrests in the Firle Bonfire case.
The original incident was the burning of a model caravan with a family painted inside it at the Firle bonfire celebrations. Some locals have defended it, arguing the symbolic burning of effigies is a traditional form of social commentary and harmless release (they regularly burn local and national politicians - and the Pope - in effigy in Lewes). But given the context of abuse and violence facing traveller communities, it has also been seen as blindingly offensive.

I'm primarily interested in whether the charge of inciting racial hatred will stick - several defendents have argued in the local press that the travellers who visited Firle were not Romanies, or members of another racial minority, and the incident was therefore not racist. I think it's an interesting test case for how this law will be applied.

Also - has this had widespread publicity? I'm about 20 miles from the village.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

17:25 / 18.11.03

Well, I heard about and blogged it around when it happened, it made it onto the national news part of the BBC website. It was misjudged I think, but there's that place that burns effigies each year, last year it was Edwina Currie because of her 'revelations' about Major. Give them all a slap and some community service, it just looks like something that got a bit out of hand...

21:13 / 18.11.03

Effigies of the Pope, Tony Blair, etc. generally symbolise offices and ideologies -- fair play for burning in the name of social commentary, I think.

Effigies of people who live in caravans symbolise ... real people who live in caravans. Racist or not, how is that inoffensive?

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

02:11 / 19.11.03

The thing that gets me s that it never occurred to anyone that it could cause offence. I mean, it's not just somethig you do by accident, is it? A fair few peple put in a fair bit of time, and not once did anyone think "hold on a minute, someone's gonna get pissed off?"

09:42 / 19.11.03

Yeah, you'd think that with the supposedly unassailable moral values of the great british public, somebody might have paused for a minute to wonder "hang on, isn't symbolically burning a family alive a bit fucked up?"