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Welcome to UKHIppy
UKHippy is a long running online community and of likeminded people exploring all interpretations on what it means to be living an alternative lifestyle -- we welcome discussions on everything related to sustainability, the environment, alternative spirituality, music, festivals, politics and more -- membership of this website is free but supported by the community.
Yeah I dont think you are the only one man,what a load of tossers,liars and public school twats,come the revolution we shall put the lot of em on trial for talking bullshit!
I just dont give a shit about politicking, Brexit and all thats contained within, too busy getting on with life to have my ears turned towards it. Wont bother voting not that I can becuase I wont register to vote. Due to the way we live we are not really acceptable to them as they refuse to recognise us as a cultural minority group and make laws etc to prevent us going about our lives lawfully so feck them, why vote for those that will hang you out to dry.
I just dont give a shit about politicking, Brexit and all thats contained within, too busy getting on with life to have my ears turned towards it. Wont bother voting not that I can becuase I wont register to vote. Due to the way we live we are not really acceptable to them as they refuse to recognise us as a cultural minority group and make laws etc to prevent us going about our lives lawfully so feck them, why vote for those that will hang you out to dry.
It takes a long time to make change happen. I think views have changed towards folk like us. Van living, off grid living is now considered acceptable by all classes. Just not with NIMBY’s.
Gypsies eventually got rights and recognition, but at a time when they were treated like Native American Indians and placed on awful Gov sites. If we are to be “included” let it be on our terms albeit with compromise.
Drug use nolonger separates us from members of the settled community. We have a great heritage of hippy, peaceful footprints that have laid a foundation for acceptability.
Are we really a “cultural minority.” We have just as much in common with most settled folk. We often work at some point within the system. Pay taxes, use facilities, rely of services. Very few go to the grave living in the back of a truck being constantly harassed and moved on. Most of us end up back in bricks and mortar living as settled folk. So we could say most of us are only temporarily a cultural minority or we get lucky, buy a bit of land and start to make it home, try to better our lives with domestic structures/facilities and no longer live as a cultural minority, but living like the pioneers of those settled folk on housing estates or farmers.
Where we fall down is we often “choose” to remain silent. Avoid voting for a-path of change.
OK if it’s a lack of a residential address stopping us qualifying to vote ~ there are ways around that, but it requires sticking our head up and being counted.
I think the word lawful is often misplaced when we describe our “often” way of life. More often than not. We reside on land that’s not residential or Highways built for transport. There are lawful stopping areas/sites. But like the rest of society. It comes with a price tag ~ rent ~fee and restrictions etc.
That’s where most of us find difficulty, paying for it.
Years ago we campaigned for animal rights, legal highs, greener living, peace. Small steps have been made, but more than ever these issues are at the forefront of political discussions.
A tree won’t grow if the seed is left in the packet, just because we fear no one will bother to water it.
It takes a long time to make change happen. I think views have changed towards folk like us. Van living, off grid living is now considered acceptable by all classes.
I'd like to believe that but i dunno. When i was living in my van in the UK i often got everything from polite hassle to downright abuse (from all classes) when i parked up. If i ever live in a van again it definitely won't be there.
I'd like to believe that but i dunno. When i was living in my van in the UK i often got everything from polite hassle to downright abuse (from all classes) when i parked up. If i ever live in a van again it definitely won't be there.
I wasn’t implying views have changed towards folk parking up just where it’s convenient for us. eg Common land, laybyes, friends fields.
I was talking about the use of a “adapted/converted/designed vehicles for habitation.”
These types of vehicles still are required to be sited “sensibly, lawfully” for general acceptance/approval.
Views have changed towards the concept of micro living, Eco living, off-grid living, re-purposing.
I agree views have substantially changed and off-grid,micro homes and lifestyles are more popular and acceptable,ive got two friends who used to slate me for living in a trailer who have now sold their homes and living in motorhomes because theyre sick of being relentlessly milked by the system. Council tax and growing levels of personal interference by officialdom being the primary motivation for ditching bricks and mortar.
On the whole though views of us by the general population havent shifted much. People are sometimes envious of the lifestyle but mostly resentful or jealous, theres a degree of subtle passive aggressiveness or outright abusive to you like youre robbing them personally because you choose not to live as they do.
Youre robbing the system and theyre paying for you, thats their attitude....no different to their views on Irish traveller community.
As far as im concerned im entitled to live as i do. I pay a landlord to stay where i am who is paying through the nose for council tax and business rates from the money he/she makes from me. I pay for my own electrickery and gas i pay fuel tax, vehicle tax, and VAT on what i buy so how am i scamming the system?
To be fair i dont give a fuck though. The system has stolen everything i owned when i worked and gave me zero help in recovering from that, getting back some sort of independent life has been all through my own efforts.
Now im retired and people can think and say all they like. Im not changing how I live.
I think after the election is done with we will see more creeping interference in how we live as nomads and off-gridders. I think we will see more regulation through roadworthiness of our homes and imposed safety certification on gas electricity,heating systems etc in the same way canal boat owners are. Its already begun in the US, Australia and NZ. A move to more byelaws prohibiting living on the roadside or anywhere other than designated leisure sites and rigorous use of planning laws to prevent long-term stay. Refusal of insurance companies to provide compulsory insurance for vehicles if theyre used as homes.
The system does not like people it cannot directly control.The politicians will do anything they can to regulate us or stamp us out.