Pontins has admitted operating a blacklist of Irish surnames to exclude Gypsy and Traveller families from its holiday parks.
Families with surnames such as Boyle, Connors, Delaney, Dogherty, Murphy and O’Reilly were told by staff there were no slots available if they tried to book.
The blacklist of mainly Irish surnames, drawn up under the heading “Undesirable Guests”, was placed on the company’s intranet and distributed to staff with the instructions “we do not want these guests in our parks”.
Pontins staff really shouldn’t have to put up with someone insisting that if Hitler came to power then this is the sort of camp he would be put into.
Maybe Pontins would like to keep their Parks relatively civilised? Pikeys set up shop in a village about 2 miles from where I live 3 years ago and as well as dumping their crap all over the place, turned the local into a no-go zone.
If only we could ban the f**kers from the whole country….
I don’t disagree with a policy of people coming to an enclosed environment being given a better chance of the quiet enjoyment of their holiday by excluding troublemakers.
But to put on their intranet a policy that will deliver the company into the hands of marxistic scum trouble-makers is double dumb. How do people as thick as that get to be in charge of businesses?
They needed to establish a troublemakers file including all manner of criminals who have prev tried their luck at holiday camps and gypo trouble makers. Or put some corrupt Plod on the payroll to do a few crime computer searches.
But “people with Irish names” sounds like some stupid snob job likely to be ineffective anyway. Gypos can give false names and info as easily as anyone else.
Just don’t let the caravans through the gate.
One of the mysteries of the ‘travelling community’ is where they get their supply of old Jaguars from as they always seem to leave one behind in a field, wheels removed and up on bricks, when they leave.
A certain 3 professors would of course not be caught dead at somewhere so declasse as Pontins.
Boyle’s lawless.
There are better ways to keep the wrong sort out – a rule stating a maximum one pet per booking, or a formula to exclude high numbers of under 25s during school holidays. Proof of MOT and insurance might work too.
Strangely enough, this aroused the “never easily aroused” wrath of a Potato in Ely. It surprised me. I thought he would appreciate being on a blacklist
Mr Ecks,
“But to put on their intranet a policy that will deliver the company into the hands of marxistic scum trouble-makers is double dumb. How do people as thick as that get to be in charge of businesses?”
Indeed. Call centres are a constant turnover of people. Most of them are going to be right-thinking people who think gypos are thieving bastards, but you’re going to get the odd milquetoast wanker on there. And it only takes one to blab and that’s the whole thing screwed.
The right answer is that you bake this into the software. A couple of trusted geeks maintaining a “bad customer” list and all the people on the call centre know is that the booking is declined. You’d be able to run it for years before anyone found out.
Or you do what Bongo does: figure out aspects of being a Pikey that don’t explicitly say “stop booking Pikeys”.
Proof of MOT and insurance might work too.
Proof of council tax payment.
Anyway, by some mysterious process this doesn’t fall under the “Lol, build your own holiday camp”
In France each department is obliged to set up camps for a certain number of “travellers”. When said travellers park on any other land the police have powers to move them on. But they don’t move.
Enter the fisc; then they move on pretty sharpish.
The French countryside has been modified by apparently pointless ditches around fields and large rocks in the middle of bridle paths.
And given that pikeys are expert in moving in to a field and building a camp from scratch over a bank holiday weekend, one wonders why they feel the need to go to Pontins in the first place. Busman’s holiday?
How many hours / days until the shrieking turns not the blacklist itself, but the term “blacklist”?
You’re reminding me of Quentin Durward, that I read many many years ago. They just used to hang ’em in the brave old days of yore. At least so the tale claimed.
Phillip “The French countryside has been modified by apparently pointless ditches around fields and large rocks in the middle of bridle paths.”
In England also
American here.
Always wondered, what fraction of Travelers are actually ethnically Roma?
Among “Irish travellers”? None. It’s a lifestyle similarity, OK, cultural perhaps, itinerant etc. But nothing genetic about it at all.
Roma do exist but they’re different. This particular story is about the Irish travellers.