And anything else they can lay their hands on too! The popular image of gypsies is one of a trail of old iron and rubbish, thieving, drunkenness and violence. A raggle-taggle people who are disliked for the mess they leave, distrusted and even feared for their powers of foretelling the future and putting on curses. Is it any wonder then that ' authority' sees gypsies as a problem to ' tidy up ' - first into camp-sites, then into houses? But as Jeremy James found out, gypsies equally see us, the house-dwellers, as a problem and a threat. What is it that the gypsies really want? What is the way of life they so passionately want to protect? Why is there so much distrust of this minority - only 50,000 of them compared with 50 million of us - who ask for little more than to be left alone, free not to conform with our particular values?