YOUR reporter was at Dale Farm again yesterday, one of a number of visits she has made for The Economist over the past five years to what has become an iconic symbol of gypsy and traveller tussles with planning laws.

In 2006 the matriarch of the site, Mary-Ann McCarthy, declared herself worried at the prospect she would soon be on the road again, as her chalet, and 50 others on the Irish traveller site near Basildon, in Essex, was situated on land that the families owned, but on which they did not have planning permission to live. A few weeks ago the families lost their final legal challenge. Yesterday was supposed to be eviction day—after many phoney wars—for the residents of Dale Farm.



Dale Farm has changed for the worse over the past five years. Then, the plots were neatly kept, and the chalets and caravans immaculate. Now the site is littered and pretty much deserted. Most residents, including Mrs McCarthy, left last week, leaving behind a hardcore of those who refuse to move and others who are too sick to move without support.



One such, Margaret Gammell, sitting in her modest chalet, weeps as she says, “We have nowhere to go and we don't even have a van to drive away in. This is all we have. I never thought we would come to this.” Mrs Gammell has a heart condition and diabetes; she doesn't know where next month's medication will come from—or where her blood tests will be taken if she is to go on the road again.



Outside her chalet, during the day, another problem becomes glaringly obvious. The residents who remain (some 40 or so, including around 20 children, judging from an unscientific headcount), are heavily outnumbered by around 100 so-called “activists”. They are all fed vegan food and drink endless cups of tea flavoured with “oat” milk, funded, it appears, by the residents themselves, in a number of (not completely) voluntary collections. The activists counter that they, too, contribute generously to the communal pot and that all donations are freely given.



The overwhelming majority of self-proclaimed activists wear masks on their faces. A number have chained themselves to various obstacles they have erected near the gates to Dale Farm. Anarchist slogans are written, in neat handwriting, above the two activists who have locked themselves to the main entrance to Dale Farm. One, a young Frenchwoman who gives only her first name, Emma, has chained herself by the neck to the gate. The other, a putative film-maker, Dean Puckett, has locked his left arm to an oil barrel. If the bailiffs attempt to enter the site from the front, the protesters say, the two activists will be harmed.



Mr Puckett says he supports non-violent resistance. He acknowledges, though, that his presence, and that of the other activists, has created a split within the gypsy and traveller community. Indeed, early on eviction day Candy Sheridan, the vice-chair of the Gypsy Council, a representative body, condemned the action of the activists, saying that they were doing nothing useful for the cause of residents at Dale Farm. Mr Puckett retorts, “Candy needs to listen to the residents here. We're supporting them. She doesn't represent them.”

The presence of the activists is an ominous warning of trouble ahead for those who advocate a negotiated solution to the many problems facing gypsies and travellers. Mrs Sheridan, a veteran campaigner and a former district councillor in North Norfolk, advocates an end to their (often self-imposed) isolation and instead an engagement with what they call “the settled community”, including political involvement and education for gypsy and traveller children. Joseph Jones, another member of the Gypsy Council, agrees, saying, “This [activist presence] is not helpful. There could be a solution but the activists aren't going to get us a solution.”



But other campaigners, most notably Grattan Puxon, also a member of the body, encouraged the activists, many of whom are at best ambivalent about the use of violence to attain their ends, to come to Dale Farm around a month ago. Mr Puxon readily agrees that “different views have come to the surface” in the Gypsy Council in the run-up to the eviction. But he believes that the presence of the activists has put pressure on the local council to change its mind—and that the international media presence outside the barricades has focused attention on the plight of gypsies and travellers facing eviction throughout Britain. Those who favour talking and integration fear that they have lost the battle—for now at least.



They may well be right. Your correspondent witnessed small children making cement bombs (albeit with plastic bottles and balloons) yesterday, protesters carrying a leaky car battery towards the front gates and makeshift barricades being erected throughout the camp. Many observers fear that action from the bailiffs will be met with violence from some inside. Some of the residents still at Dale Farm confide that they are no longer in control of the situation and fear asking the activists to desist from further protest—as they have been asked to do by the judge who, yesterday, gave the Dale Farm residents a brief stay on the eviction while certain conditions are met by the council.



Things are likely to get nastier and more violent before the inevitable happens and the last few residents are forced to leave Dale Farm. This outcome will probably alienate those Britons who believe that gypsies and travellers have many legitimate grievances—but also believe in the rule of law.