Roma is the capital of Italy... Slovakia? Does he mean Romany Gypsies?

I think that the Roma people call themselves that. So would we be less confused if he called them pikeys? /s

This seems to be cropping up a lot these days. Was some politician worried that the terms Pikey and Gypo would hurt their feelings?

Well it would be like using the N word to some.

Given that being a gypsy is a lifestyle choice rather than a racial, religious or DNA thing, there's a huge difference between insults.

I do think that many are ethnically different, coming originally from India. It would not apply to the new age traveller types though. I think that many of the Roma are catholics and so it is not a religious thing either.

They have an ethnic identity and their own language, they have been persecuted for centuries, and a bloke by the name of Hitler once made a very spirited effort to wipe them out.
Calling them pikey is no better than calling a Jew a kyke. Try that some time and see what response you get.

Their treatment in much of Eastern Europe is developing into a scandal. Slovakia has taken to corralling them into ghettos.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/easterna ... s-and-roma

So this is a perfect opportunity for the UK to show how they should be dealt with. I bet the entire Eastern Europe will be keen to learn how to deal with them.

I'm pretty much certain the entirety of Eastern Europe don't give a flying one about how we deal with them.

Across Europe less than 1 in 15 Roma children completes secondary school (only a quarter even enroll in primary schools). I think Koli, being from somewhere in Eastern Europe, dislikes my comments on the subject and may share the belief that is prevalent in that region that this imbalance is self imposed.

Either way, living in the UK they will at least be expected to send their kids to school. So we will have the beating of Slovakia and Hungry in at least one important aspect.