THE eviction of the families encamped at Dale Farm in Essex is polarising opinion, and it is sad that in 21st Century Britain such extreme violence is required to end a problem that has not been solved by negotiation.

However, at some point the rule of law has to be enforced.

It is true that travellers are one of the most stigmatised and maligned minorities in the country. But if they are seen to be breaking the law and getting away with it, if they are seen to have one law for themselves and another for everyone else, prejudice and hostility against them will increase.

All should be equal under the law.

It is also true that travellers are underprovided for – one estimate says that a fifth of them have nowhere to live. It is also true that this Government’s policy – Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has scrapped regional targets for the number of travellers’ pitches councils need to provide – is making life harder for them. And it is true that many travellers feel that the planning system is weighted against them: 90 per cent of their applications are rejected compared with 20 per cent of the settled community’s.

However, living in illegal settlements will not improve matters for them. Improvements will only come through sensible dialogue.

Basildon council – whose eviction operation will cost taxpayers up to £22m – is not blameless. Perhaps it should have been tougher on the travellers’ expectations ten years ago when they first moved into the disused scrapyard. But the council has been trying to straddle an inflammatory line: if it were to have cracked down on them earlier, it might have been accused of persecuting a minority and not affording them the sort of civilised discussions that should form part of the planning process.

Yet the full brainpower of the courts has analysed the council’s position and deemed it to be lawful.

Just as rioters cannot be allowed to riot, so people – from travellers to supermarkets – cannot be allowed to build willy-nilly.

It is to be hoped that the authorities have thought through the eviction: where will these people – their children, their sick and their elderly – go when they are evicted?

And the danger is that Dale Farm will further stigmatise the travellers and make it harder for them to get lawful fairness.