I have never understood why among some of my friends and acquaintances who would never utter a racist opinion about the Irish, Eastern Europeans, Afro-Caribbeans, Indians and Pakistanis or any other ethnic grouping are those happy to make public their disapproval of Gypsies and other groups who choose a travelling lifestyle.

They will group them all together as thieves, roadside litter louts and anti-social scroungers.

People who would rightly choke on the words “nigger” or “paki” will happily use racist terms like “pikey,” “gyppo,” “diddicoy” or “tinker” to describe members of the various itinerate groups.

It hasn’t been helped by a series of lurid fly-on-the-wall TV programmes whose researchers and producers managed to paint a colourful picture of a so called Gypsy life that — horror of horrors — included incest, various serious crimes and, much worse, really bad taste in wedding dresses.

Just who and what are these colourful and unusual people we often call Gypsies?

They are a traditionally itinerant ethnic group, living mostly in Europe, including Britain, but now also spread to the US, Canada, Brazil, Australia and many other lands.

They were once believed to have come from Egypt, which is why they were originally called Gypsies, but later research has them originating from many regions of what is today India and Pakistan.

Indeed in February 2016, at an international Roma conference, the Indian minister of external affairs declared that the people of the Roma community were children of India.

These well-travelled folk have a rich and living language of their own. Many of their most important words have been borrowed from Sanskrit.

When many people think even the term “Gypsy” is racist what should we call these groups of those who choose the travelling lifestyle? Less than 10 years ago the BBC banned comedy team Ben Miller and Alexander Armstrong from using the word Gypsy in a script.

Gill Brown, of the London Gypsy and Traveller Unit, summed up the dilemma at the time: “Romany Gypsies are an ethnic group so it depends on the way you are using the name. If you use the word Gypsy in the correct context it is not racist.

“However, it can still be used as a slur and that is racist. The word was used in a very racist and discriminatory way for many years.”

So what are the descriptive titles we should use? Some describe ethnic groups actually defined by British law.

One important basic principle is the difference between the terms Romany and Roma. The two words are not interchangeable.

Romany, Romany Gypsy is the description that Gypsy people in England and Wales apply to themselves. This term is not used to describe more recent incomers to Britain from central and eastern Europe who are more generally described as Roma.

Romany Gypsies are recognised as an ethnic minority group in both the Race Relations Act and The Equalities Act.

Roma is a word used as a catch-all term for European Gypsies. It is acceptable usage in Britain although across Europe you will find several distinct groups of such people including Manouche, Sinti, and Jeniche as well as Roma.

During the past 50 years increasing numbers of Roma people, particularly from Eastern Europe, have migrated to Britain. Indeed in some cities there are now more European Roma people than there are Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers.

Another recent complication is the word Romanian. It simply describes people who come from Romania and has no connection to Roma or Romany roots.

Scottish Gypsy Travellers share much in common with other travelling groups and have recently been recognised as a separate ethnic group in Scotland. The origins of Scottish Gypsy Travellers may be linked to Romany Gypsies and Irish Travellers as well as having some distinct routes of their own.

Irish Travellers, while having much in common in lifestyle and shared history with Romany Gypsy and Scottish Gypsy Traveller people, have different ethnic origins and do not come originally from India. They have been a distinct ethnic group within Irish society for centuries, existing long before the Potato Famine but growing during those tragic events. Irish Travellers are recognised as a distinct group in British law. Their name for themselves is Pavee.

New Travellers is a term used to describe people who have adopted a travelling lifestyle but who are not ethnically defined either as Gypsies, Scottish Gypsy Travellers or Irish Travellers. The travelling started for a few at the end of the second world war but is rooted in the growth of festivals since the 1960s. They were often known a New Age Travellers.

Now we have sorted that out let’s get back to those people who think racial abuse is OK for Gypsies.

These people tell me that Gypsies really do commit crimes and anti-social acts. Yes, I know some of them do.

The same is, of course, true of Tory members of the House of Lords, Roman Catholic priests, left-handed golfers and indeed any other group of people.

The key thing is not to decide because for instance, one particular Tory lord commits perjury all are equally guilty.

Even worse is the convoluted argument that they put forward that real traditional Romany Gypsies are in some way the salt of the earth and the folk they save their racist abuse for are less pure, lower breeds of travellers.

It’s all racism. It’s all based on ingnorance. The young men and women exercising their wonderful ponies in Westmoreland’s River Eden at the Appleby Gypsy Horse Fair earlier this summer are all different.

Like every other young person in Britain today they face all the challenges we all face through Theresa May’s austerity. Indeed, they face a few extra because of the life they live.

What they don’t deserve is racist prejudice even if it is of a particularly supposedly respectable type.