I hope you don't put a curse on me Bexter. Yes, you are a nice shade of brown having briefly seen you before Superfly scared you off! Shame you couldn't stay!

Years and years ago, there may have been a difference between gypsies and pikeys due to the way people earned a living and possibly moved around to do so. There is rarely such a thing as a goldsmith, blacksmith or iron-monger anymore. Times have changed and I don't think the majority of this board have ever seen the sort of travellers your ancestors were in today's society. I'm not sure they exist.

People make judgements from experience and if people had bumped into decent travellers, then they would say it on here. However, it seems that pikeys are in are nighbourhoods and according to everyone who has had the misfortune of bumping into them, they are not very nice. People like Seth admit they are not nice, but still forgives. And that's so nice of him.

I'm glad you don't find the word pikey offensive because a) you're not one and b) neither were your family. I would semi understand if you were offended, so why do the PC people get so worked up about it when they have no links with the travelling sort or more than likely have ever met a decent pikey??

I'm half Irish, my mum's family are unusually dark skinned and must have Spanish or dare I say it traveller ancestry. I don't know. If someone called me a pikey or Paddy, I don't give a s*** because I am English and proud. That's why I can't understand how you've been mildly bothered when we've had these discussions in the past.

Er, excuse me, why have I been brought into this debate? I made one post on the first page and then made a decision not to get any more involved, having been through all this on more than one occasion.

So Penge, please don't use my name to illustrate some half-baked point you to wish to make. It's not fair to bring my name into this when I have deliberately stayed out of the argument this time.