I quote from the coverage on The Guardian’s website on Wednesday morning:-

“10.38am: I’ve just been speaking to the Guardian’s Johnny Howorth, who’s witnessed scenes of “abject chaos” at Dale Farm this morning. The clashes of earlier have now given way to a stand-off, he says.

At present, there seems to be more or less a stalemate between protesters and bailiffs and the police who are figuring out what to do next.

There’s a real sense of despondency on behalf of the Travellers … They never thought it would come to this.” (Emphasis added).

And yesterday afternoon they all just filed out.

So – someone please tell me why they couldn’t have done that 10 years ago when they were first notified that they were there illegally, or 8 years ago when John Prescott gave them 2 year’s grace to leave voluntarily, or when they lost any one of their decreasingly credible challenges in Courts?

The clue is in the last sentence of the quote. I’ve spent a good many years in enforcement and the most common emotion is complete shock that, despite all the warnings they’ve received, this is actually happening to them. Enforcement is always something that’s done to someone else.

One last observation. Dale Farm resident Kathleen McCarthy said: ‘The memory of Dale Farm will weigh heavily on Britain for generations.”

Don’t bank on it, dear. You were already tomorrow’s fish and chip wrappers long before they shot Gaddafi.