The Government clearly has its eye on Tower Hamlets. Three weeks after Eric Pickles sent PwC inspectors to Mulberry Place, former Local Government Minister Bob Neill asked this in the Commons on Monday:
Robert Neill: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 3 March 2014, Official Report, column 694W, on polling stations, what assessment he has made of the effect of foreign language translation by local authorities on integration of non-English speakers into their communities. [190554]
And this is how Brandon Lewis, Bob’s successor at the Department for Communities and Local Government replied:
Brandon Lewis: In March 2013, my Department published new guidance for local authorities outlining how councils should stop translating into foreign languages. As outlined in the written ministerial statement of 12 March 2013, Official Report, column 5WS, such translation weakens integration; discourages communities from learning English; undermines rather than strengthens equality goals; harms community relations; and is an expensive waste of taxpayers’ money at a time when councils need to be making sensible savings. It is disappointing that councils like Tower Hamlets have disregarded that guidance, and reflects broader issues with the dysfunctional governance and divisive practices of the council.
I would add that in light of previous instances of electoral fraud, including impersonation in polling stations, postal voting irregularities and allegations of improper influence, Ministers in this Department have concerns about the practice of allowing foreign language translators/interpreters inside polling stations. The privacy of the ballot must be protected and voters inside a polling station should not be subject to any pressure or influence to vote in a particular way. In that context, the integrity of the ballot box and of the local democratic process requires independent and transparent scrutiny in polling stations by polling agents, council staff, the police and, indeed, passing members of the public who are also voting. This is undermined by polling room administration being conducted in foreign languages.
Takki Sulaiman, the council’s head of communications, authorised this statement as a response:
The council wants to ensure as many people as possible exercise their democratic right in the elections in Tower Hamlets on May 22 and in such a diverse borough this includes consideration for those who may struggle with the English language.
Data from the 2011 census states that the single largest ethnic group in Tower Hamlets is Bangladeshi at 32% of the population, followed by White British at 31%. The council provides written instructions in polling stations in both English and Bengali and at least one Bengali speaker will be available in each polling station to help anyone who does not understand the voting process. These staff have undergone enhanced training to ensure the integrity of the polls are upheld. They are strictly there to explain the process of voting and if necessary the content of the ballot paper. For example, they cannot point out a particular candidate even if they are asked to; instead they have to read out the entire ballot paper.
The enhanced training for polling station staff is one of several measures voluntarily introduced by Tower Hamlets to ensure free and fair elections. The council has gone further than any other council in London by producing a tough new protocol for all those involved in the elections and only last week the Electoral Commission praised our Returning Officer and the police for the anti-fraud measures they have taken in the run-up to polling day.
Earlier this month, Tory opposition leader Cllr Peter Golds wrote to the Electoral Commission to say this:
I am writing to express my concerns about the possible use of “interpreters” in polling stations within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in the May 22nd 2014, local elections. There are a number of reasons regarding this that are likely to result in serious electoral concerns at these elections.
The Electoral Commission’s existing advice in this area is that “returning officers may employ staff for the purpose of translating or interpreting in polling stations”. This is dangerously untransparent and presents a risk of undue influence by those employed as interpreters.
There is a justifiable public concern about what interpreters tell electors. The use of minority languages in polling stations prevents presiding officers and anyone else including election officials and other voters who does not speak a particular language from knowing whether the advice given is appropriate or is an attempt to influence the voter. It will be extremely difficult to know whether the interpreters are informing or advising the electors they are assisting.
In Tower Hamlets, this has been an ongoing problem. In 2008 Ken Livingstone was defeated in the London Mayoral election after eight years in office. However, this was not so in Tower Hamlets, where there were remarkable swings to him, not least in the Weavers ward where the following incident took place at the Virginia Polling station.
- A council employed election official was pointing out the position of Ken Livingstone on the ballot paper to Bengali women and then checking the paper after they had voted to ensure that it “was correct”. He was not removed until mid afternoon after repeated complaints had been made to the local Returning Officer and the possibility of Bengali speaking electors threatening a showdown inside the polling station.
I have read evidence from other parts of the country that this situation has been observed ranging from Twickenham to Halifax.
Significantly the Weavers by election held on this day, also resulted in a very unusual result. The gain by the Labour candidate Fazlul Haque, of the seat from the Liberal Democrats. This was quite extraordinary in view of the massive loss of council seats sustained across the nation by the Labour Party that same day.
Ballot papers are already designed to make it as easy as possible for people to identify the candidate of their choice, with the candidate’s name, party, and an identifying party logo all printed in large print. There is information in voting in different languages within polling stations. One has to question if an elector cannot identify a candidate based on all this information, how they are in a position to cast a vote.
One may also ask how many interpreters in a borough such as Tower Hamlets would be required. Bengali, Somali and the full range of European languages are spoken locally. Who would decide what languages and where?
The voting process itself is more or less universal. I have witnessed elections in a number of different countries. The elector gives their name, receives a ballot paper, marks the ballot secretly in a private booth and then places the ballot paper in a sealed ballot box. What assistance is required in a process as simple as this?
Tower Hamlets has a long and unfortunate history of electoral malpractice, which has rarely, if ever, been properly investigated. There is already an atmosphere of mistrust regarding the electoral process in this borough, born of too many years of inaction by the authorities. Local politics is increasingly fractured on ethnic and religious lines and a proposal such as this can only further damage community cohesion.
Unnecessary interpreters compromise the validity and transparency of the poll, and I urge the commission to reconsider this decision which will only add to the electoral concerns of residents of this borough.
The mayoral election in Tower Hamlets uses the second preference voting system and not many people, including fluent English speakers, understand it. I even had to explain it to the Tower Hamlets Ukip bosses when they announced they were standing a couple of months ago. For example, do you have to cast a second preference? Answer: No.
So I can understand that questions will be asked in the polling station and it is surely better to have the answers explained clearly and fully in a language they understand.
However, where do you draw the line? Does the council believe there are so many Bengalis living in Tower Hamlets who would struggle to ask a question about voting in English and who would struggle to understand an English answer?
Well, surely it must to justify its decision.
In which case, that is symptomatic of a much wider failure of policy and returns us to this section of Brandon Lewis’s answer:
such translation weakens integration; discourages communities from learning English; undermines rather than strengthens equality goals; harms community relations; and is an expensive waste of taxpayers’ money at a time when councils need to be making sensible savings.
Yet in Tower Hamlets, Mayor Lutfur Rahman still happily rubber stamps tens of thousands of pounds of council grants to fund free private Bengali Mother Tongue classes to youngsters who already struggle in English.
Far from being a Great Champion for the Bengali community, he’s like a bad parent handing out sugar coated sweets, with no brave and bold long term thinking at all.
Trial by Jeory 
I agree with Madmullah who wrote in the previous thread……
“If people can’t speak English there are practical arguments why they shouldn’t be allowed to take part in the electoral system”
If people can’t speak English how can they read manifestos of other parties and make an informed decision?
Surely they will vote on the basis of what they heard, what they watch and what they read in their language.
Which is probably more informed than most voters.
But there are people, first generation Bangladeshi who have worked hard all their life and paid their taxes but maybe 70+ now and can’t understand the preferential voting system. Why should they be deprived of their right to vote?
Correction: more misinformed than most voters
Andy..I am agog at your statement…. 1st Gen Bangladeshi who have worked all their lives and are now 70+ yrs…Let’s analyse that…worked all their lives…so they emigrated when they were in their 30’s ….that still gives then 40+ yrs to learn the language, if they emigrated earlie even more years…even if they didn’t emigrate till they were in their 40s…that still gives them 30+ yrs to learn the language…..I’d be really interested to know what work they will have done…NOT to have had any interaction with anyone outside of their community……For crying out loud. I learnt english within a year or two, my parents a little longer…I have never met anyone and I know a lot of non British immigrants from a variety of cultures who do not learn the language and some read it too, within, at the very most 5 yrs….In Italy you don’t speak the language…that’s your dilemma, so too in France…..
Is the argument being put here that anyone who cannot prove literacy in English should not be allowed to vote, that is we should introduce a literacy qualification? Does anyone think we should re-introduce the property qualification, ie if you don’t own any property you don’t get a vote (this was abolished by the UK government in 1918 as it was deemed undemocratic)?
No Randall, nobody said that illiterate shouldn’t vote.
It’s the decency which should make them abstain from voting.
Decency to understand….. that they are unable to make an informed choice.
They are not being deprived of their right to vote. Having a right to vote does not come with the right to any translation service. Sadly, both the Council and its ‘arms length’ housing management organsiaiton, Tower Hamlets Homes want to squander our money and waste precious resources to pander to those who are too lazy to learn the language of the country in which they live in the hope it will buy them votes. For all the good reasons from Central Government stated in the post about why translation services should not routinely be provided, it’s still going ahead. Pickles has banged on about this in the past but still nothing is done. A bit like his rhetoric about East End Life – all waffle and no action.
I agree Jay Kay….I fear a lot of hot waffly air from Pickles et all…. and no ruddy action…..
‘Yet in Tower Hamlets, Mayor Lutfur Rahman still happily rubber stamps tens of thousands of pounds of council grants to fund free private Bengali Mother Tongue classes to youngsters who already struggle in English.’
Sorry, that’s bollocks, Ted. When have you met a Bengali kid in the East End who can’t speak English properly? They speak English perfectly well, in cockney accents, and Tower Hamlets gets better GCSE English results than practically any other borough.
Dear Mr or Mrs OldFord1,
I suggest you float down from your tower and go and talk to staff in Tower Hamlets primary schools…or have you?
Besides, this:
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/neilobrien1/100136067/as-english-stops-being-the-first-language-of-most-london-children-is-britain-ready-for-the-great-integration-challenge/
And anyway, yours is not an argument for these classes to be paid for by the taxpayer.
It wasn’t intended to be – although I can make a perfectly good one.
Yes you are right OldFord1. Bengali kids in Tower Hamlets get really good GCSE results in Bengali. 🙂
I don’t get it….?
I didn’t realise kids could vote…….
Despite the publicity about the results in Tower Hamlets, it’s certainly not the case that every primary school in LBTH gets great results and good OFSTED reports. Indeed I was told about one that got a poor report because they had classroom assistants whose own grasp of English was very poor.
Sometimes the words which suggest everything is wonderful in PBTH need to be checked out against the reality.
Sorry. With lots of direct experience I can inform Oldford1 (who is a man deeply in denial) that most boys (girls are usually better) far from speaking English “perfectly well” are often unable to spell or read above the age expected of a primary school leaver. In the classrooms at schools in the boys communicate either in Sylheti or a broken form of pidgin English full of slang and Bengali words.
You are in denial or wilfully misrepresenting the truth or both.
In Bow where I have lived for years, the Lib Dem group spent all their time fighting opposition, pretending to “help” community causes but just made the situation worse by begin divisive. The Lib Dem group then showed up at election time to take our votes and then we hear they used imposter voters by using dead peoples votes… it’s disgusting.
I think translation is needed when there are insincere politicans around. It’s wrong to blame local people who have paid taxes their whole lives and whose children have grown older and add the country, only to then be pushed and shoved around and told they are not worthy. Have some decency.
‘Tower Hamlets has a long and unfortunate history of electoral malpractice, which has rarely, if ever, been properly investigated.’
No, it’s been investigated more than anywhere else – they’ve just never found any evidence.
And I wasn’t aware Ken Livingstone had ever stood for election in Halifax…
Yes there has. Andrew Gilligan exposed the whole corrupt mess on TV back in 2010. The problem was that the Tories were quite happy to let the whole mess stew as it was a Labour mess. Things have gone too far with Rahman believing that he is bullet proof and can get away with anything.
The powers that be have had enough and the moves against the Islamist takeover of schools in Birmingham and the attention given to Tower Hamlets is proof positive that a cross party decision has been taken.
ohhh my gosh…you really do live in cuckoo land….next you’ll say that you too had a sexual encounter when you were six with an Alien…. hmmmm
I am going to zoom into your last two paragraphs with just a quick comment in response.
Tower Hamlets council has been providing funding to provide mother-tongue classes from as far back as I can remember. As a child myself, born and brought up in the borough, I too benefitted from this provision. I fondly recall former Labour Leader Cllr. Denise Jones being involved with a mother tongue project called ‘Khelaghor’ who used Mulberry School for girls for its after-school and weekend classes and activities. I also recall having to attend mandatory French classes for three years of my secondary school life, and have I ever benefitted from such? NO.
Basically, the Labour (and Lib Dem) leadership of Tower Hamlers council over the last four decades atleast, have funded mother tongue classes and interpretation services, including the term when Labour Mayoral candidate John Biggs was a councillor and leader of the council.
So it depresses me and upsets me to now read in your blog that it is now supposed to be some sort of crime or inappropriate allocation of council funding, simply because it is a Bengali Muslim leader (Mayor Lutfur Rahman) continuing such allocation of funding?
That is of course unless you are now confirming that John Biggs has told you he will not continue to fund interpretation or mother tongue provision if elected?
Shahid Ali.
That was then this is now. It wasn’t possible to foresee the damage that mother tongue teaching would do to the development of a couple of generations of young Bangladeshis.
There are millions of people around the world paying good money to learn English and I constantly meet young Bangladeshi in East London who struggle to express themselves in the language.
Thanks Cllr Ali.
More whataboutery.
What on earth has national curriculum French lessons got to do with this?
We’re talking about publicly funded Mother Tongue lessons run outside of schools by private tutors. Completely different. If you want the option of Tower Hamlets schools to teach Bengali as part of the curriculum, then that’s a different matter and to be honest, you’d have my support.
By the way, why are you introducing Lutfur’s religion into this?
I was hoping for a answer rather than a detour response Ted!
Are you implying that Lutfur Rahman’s administration is inappropriately allocating funds for mother tongue classes?
Are you at the same time implying Labour run Tower Hamlets council under Labour’s John Biggs leadership did not do the same? Infact, it will be interesting to find out how much was allocated then, and how much has been allicated now?
Come now, Shahed, whataboutery is a symptom of the desperate debater. You can do better than that.
Yes, I do think it’s inappropriate to fund private Mother Tongue classes. I’ve said so many times.
And you know what, I’ve no idea whether 20 years ago a Biggs council funded them and to be honest I don’t care. It was a many moons ago.
It seems to a consistent theme of the Lutfur camp…to try and dig up stuff from the Nineties. Why waste your time? I’m sure you did things 20 years ago you wished you hadn’t. Didn’t you?
Here we go. Veiled allegations of racism and Islamaphobia from Cllr. Shahed Ali. Didn’t take long.
As chair of education 1993-94, I confirm Cllr. Ali’s comments; we believed that there were sound educational reasons for doing so, but did attempt to monitor the quality of the classes (& thus whether or not they would be funded – I daresay the socialist left considered us racists for such audacity).
Cllr. Ali may not have used his French per se, but I would be very surprised if he hasn’t benefitted from it, not least in his interaction with his fellow man or woman.
I would hope that 20 years on the rationale of mother tongue classes has developed – gerontocracy will ultimately loose the battle and the sooner it faces up to that the better, but bilingualism is valuable in itself. English will invariably be the first language of the United States of Europe, but with respect for its other languages, and if the UK pulled its weight in the EU instead of snivelling and whinging we’d get there a lot faster.
Interpreters in polling stations are hardly significant in the overall conduct of elections in Tower Hamlets. As I have said before, the first step would be to take voter registration and electoral adminstration out of the hands of the borough – and employ no one who had worked for the borough or its agencies in the process. As a Liberal I do not generally approve of identity cards, but in the special circumstances of LBTH it may not be unreasonable for voters to identify themselves. These problems stem mostly out of the Labour party, so put no faith in Bunty Biggs sorting things out.
Oh boo hoo. Sorry you’re “upset” (maybe sue?) and for your depression I recommend a very long holiday somewhere hot and sunny at your own rx
Oh boo hoo. Sorry you’re “upset” (maybe sue?) and for your depression I recommend a very long holiday somewhere hot and sunny at your own expense.
UKIP will put a stop to all translation and interpreters. We will stop employing bilingual staff. We will stop the mother tongue lessons. We will remove funding from all groups and organisations that are designed to benefit any particular race, community, religion, etc.
We will use the executive powers of the mayor to implement a rapid “slash and burn” of the areas we consider to be non-essential to the role of a local authority, in line with our libertarian ideas of minimal government and individual liberty. There will be hundreds of redundancies as departments are slashed and programmes are shut down.
But we will protect the funding for genuine programmes which relieve suffering, help the poor and the elderly, kids clubs, education, job training, etc, but only if they are open to the whole community.
But unfortunately your intervention could take the votes from Labour to let Rahman back in. Have you considered that when you planned your exercise in electoral vanity?
Yes but Labour are cheekily chiming in the debate now as if they were champions of integration all this time, without actually pledging to abolish these classes… typical realpolitiks expected of them.
And you speak as if voting for Labour will bring in a tide of changes, when we all know that the crap we are seeing now is what Labour started and their bastard child is merely continuing.
Anyone know the Tory position on this? Or is it too controversial for Cameron’s politically-correct brand of conservatism?
I’m guessing you’re probably not aware that in a lot of areas one of the largest employers is the local Council – or that this benefits the local economy in terms of the percentage of people in work.
So when you talk about a “slash and burn” of council jobs, one set of people you will always alienate are all those council workers who live locally.
Guess what? They also have votes! There’s also rather a lot of them – certainly enough to make a difference to the outcome at ward level.
So if you want to get votes as opposed to turn people off you might want to have a slight rethink on that policy.
Or be more specific and say what exactly what services you will cut – and don’t leave ALL the local people working for the council thinking it might be their job that goes.
While you’re at it brush up on the Council’s statutory and discretionary powers and identify what services the Council MUST provide and which services are optional and not all Councils provide.
You might then find you have a more logical basis for making a better worded and more refined point on this topic – as opposed to scaremongering – or just making yourself look very silly indeed!
As you’re only standing 14 candidates for the council, then even if there’s a blue moon and pigs fly and Steve McQueen gets in as Mayor, any UKIP Mayoral budget to do any of this will just get voted down by the other councillors.
Sounds like the English malaise of ‘what’s the point of voting, it wont make any difference’. Try to understand that no matter what the odds are for, or against UKIP candidates winning, they will receive unprecedented popular support and changes will be made.
If you can’t see that UKIP has genuine momentum behind their campaign, such that I think it can lead (not act as fodder for) the anti Lutfur campaign.
Labour is definitely the wrong party to be entrusted with such a task, as half of their party is in cahoots with their erstwhile leader.
With tories counting themselves out, even though they have a formidable leader in cllr Golds, it’s up to Mr McQueen to lead the charge. Even if they UKIP fails to win, it will mark a swing away from the machavellian politics of labour and its offspring and surely will mark the begining of its end.
Andy. Do you any know Bangladeshis of any age in order to make your claims?
Oldford1, which is who you are today it seems. Like the Marxist left you are constantly caught in all sorts of conundrums because you are convinced, or seem to be, that Ted Jeory and Andrew Gilligan ” have it in” for certain people in this case Lutfur Raman.
This leads you to having to defend the indefensible rather like the old Communists were stuck with Joe Stalin and the SWP with Trotsky and having to explain away the Respect fiasco.
Nobody, as far as I know, is against the teaching of the Bengali language as long as it is not done out of the public purse and not as a part of the curriculum in schools. When it’s lunacy began in the early eighties it was a part of the politically correct culture which has hamstrung several generations of people from ethnic minorities.
It got to the stage in Tower Hamlets that English was taught through the medium of Bengali and any criticism was denounced by the far left which ran the teaching unions as racist.
The standard of Bengali taught in these private schools is also sub standard and in my pretty much daily interaction with Bangladeshis I have constantly to correct not only English spelling, grammar and pronunciation but Bengali also.
If the language of Shakespeare is rarely heard in the pubs of the East End that of Tagore is also noticeable by its absence on the Bethnal Green and Whitechapel Roads.
The fact that you hear young Bangladeshi speaking with cockney accents, they are in fact speaking Banglish but more of that later if needs be, doesn’t mean that their command of the English language is any more than enough to perform the lowest skilled jobs where of course they are in competition with Eastern Europeans and others hence the high rate of unemployment.
Robin Wales in Newham is totally correct in refusing to provide finance for mother tongue teaching and interpreters and hopefully after the 22nd of next month the same regime will prevail in Tower Hamlets.
I agree…my Italian school on Sat mornings, were paid for by the Italian community themselves,from Sunday mass collection, the Italian consulate and the Catholic church…the same for my friend who was Polish even in those days…their community, their consulate, special festivals set up and run by the Italian community also raised funds for the Italian community to send OAPs on a day trip or whatever….Why does LBTH feel it is right for a non core teaching be paid for by the state……Hey guess what….I’d like to learn how to horse ride….will LBTH pay for it for me ???? Why not ???
The problem with interpreters at polling stations is that they were not just explaining the process, they have also been telling voters for whom they should vote. Who will monitor the interpreters?
Exactly..it is fair to say that the Bangladeshi community is still influenced and run internally by a Feudal Patronage system….. You may be considered for a home for your family IF you vote XXX…its very similar to how the Maffia runs things in Southern Italy
Madmullah: my sister works in Newham and say it’s worse over there. Literacy is low and standards lowering by the day in the Robinocracy. Change is needed there because it would be Wales’s 4th term ! ! !
I think Cllr Shahid is right – who needs French when Bengali is the mother tongue needed and spoken by locals.
Also, I don’t buy into Lutfur giving undue preferance to Bangla groups – Bangladeshi groups are still propotionately underfunded in this borough.
Seems people have to ‘be white, act white’ and nothing else goes.
I’m glad it’s changing.
Actually a lot of people need French. The ability to communicate in at least one European language other than English is far more advantageous than being fluent in Bengali.
“Bangladeshi groups are still propotionately [sic!] underfunded in this borough”. That is so wrong it is laughable.
Have a look at: http://towerhamletsitsyourmoney.co.uk/ Do Ctrl-F and try mosque/bangla/islam/carrom and see how many grants come up.
Quite why 6 grants totalling £14.7k for carrom boards were needed I don’t know. And £3k for 8 boards (£375 each) when the MOST expensive one on Google Shopping is £261. Someone is having a laugh.
And that’s only grants.
It would be interesting to know how much of section 106 income went for the benefit of specific groups.
Click to access S106_Portfolio_Register%20august%202012%20FOI%20final.pdf
Further to my earlier comment. East London Mosque FB page encourages to sign the petition below as the planning application proposes extension of mosque which will increase capacity by 30% paid by the developer at no cost to mosque. Surely this has something to do with section 106?
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1EbuXHXSrBU86s_KKxCX2wvEIGCCUncxUcJk2lEJVRks/viewform
Why are you happy to limit a communities ability to grow beyond its origins…why keep them focused with just local accessibilities..and NOT say EU wide or even globally…I am amazed that you are wanting to keep a community under your sole control and not allow them to choose….. weird
What is your point Jacob, if there is one?
As I’ve said repeatedly [when this comes up] I emigrated to France in 1977. I was expected to learn/know French and that was my expectation too.
I’m not a Tory-boy in most senses, but we need to wean ourselves off from council translation services and use the cash to teach people English. If they don’t want to learn the language of the country that they have chosen to come to, there are questions to be asked.
My French is an immigrant’s, some bad grammar and appalling accent, perfection is not the point, functioning within the chosen society is.
I don’t think they do language translation for Mullahs
This Mullah doesn’t need a translator.
Hugh: people are ‘functioning’ as you say. It’s just getting to the next level of English isn’t always easy.
Plus, not everyone want to turn into a wannabe fake European ‘coconut’ overnight.
I don’t think good English is the same as a ‘coconut’ really. Also people should be absolutely free to chose their behaviour and attitudes.
I’m not very posh but I speak ‘posh’ because it was aspirational in the 1950s/1960s. As such, I’m often treated with dislike by people who are not perceptive enough to see this, so there’s a huge difference.
I have one black friend who was criticised for dislike of reggae, that’s ridiculous. If someone non-white wants to do the whole white middle-class suburban thing, that’s fine, but no-one is coercing them. No-one should call them ‘sell-out’ or ‘coconut’ either for something harmless that they have chosen.
Incidentally, on a lighter note, my ex who is from Singapore calls ethnic Chinese who have left their roots totally ‘bananas’, for the same reason, though I’ve tried [and failed] to stop her. Identity is a pretty complex thing and I certainly don’t want a London filled with clones varied only by colour either. I do want improving levels of spoken and written English though.
If people choose to live here, them should learn the languages and customs of this country.
I suppose the same should go for all the thousands of British living abroad – stop speaking English, we will not translate anything in English, learn the local language or else…. a) leave the country, b) be subjected to hatred, c) lose any rights you thought you had
Yes Jacob that is the case. I know of many European countries where if you want to interact with the state to use its services you either learn the language or bring your own interpreter at your own cost.
In many countries because of the importance of English this isn’t necessary and Bangladesh is one instance. It is only in the smallest villages well away from Sylhet that there might be a lack of English speakers. In Dhaka and Sylhet and all of the other big cities English is widely spoken and directions and business names are in English as well as Bangla.
For some reason English doesn’t seem to be a problem there but is in Tower Hamlets and then only in polling stations. There seems to be something wrong here but I can’t quite put my finger on it. Can anyone help?
Jacob. Your grasp of the issues and language is so poor I assume that you are oldford1.
Jacob what are you talking about?
a) Nobody is forbidding anyone to speak their own language. Merely expecting to learn the language of the country they chose to live in.
b) Nobody is asking anyone to leave. But if someone doesn’t like it here and is unwilling to accept the way of life in the host country then they should be encouraged to leave.
b) Nobody is subject to hatred. But if someone behaves like a jerk then they should be allowed to be criticised and punished.
One feeds the pigeon and what he gets? A big crap on his head……
Guess what Jacob, in Italy that is the case….When I needed some legal help I paid for the translator…likewise when I was in Thailand…I had to pay for an English speaking doctor…like wise with my visit in Egypt and Turkey….. I think your argument is frankly baseless
I used to work at election time since 2006 and since then (if not earlier) The polling stations were set up to have at least one Bengali speaking clerk. Yes there was an isolated incident in the General Election of 2010 I seem to recall where we had to replace a clerk due to political connections but I’m fairly confident that all clerks worked hard and fairly. The bigger issue for us was trying to get people to vote individually, rather than having several people in a polling booth. And, as Ted saw himself, the occasional personation.
The Electoral Services team at Tower Hamlets and the officers on duty do all they can to make the poll run smoothly but they can only do so much – and I’m not sure how binding the protocol is going to be. If someone steals the election, it wont be the Council’s fault.
BTW – Ukip refusing to give bilingual staff a job? Better forget my GCSE French!
Blingual in the job description. Apparently the council is advertising lots of their jobs requiring English-Bengali speakers. It doesn’t matter if it is Bengai, Polish, Mandarin, Urdu or whatever, we want to stop this.
I agree with an earlier call saying that we need ID cards or carry ones passport for voting at LBTH
Being one, whose identity was stolen in the past, I believe ID cards would sort out many things not just voting in LBTH.
Madmullah: who says we have to follow other European countries?
Political language is intanglible and difficult to understand for most people, least of all because most politicians are ‘liars’. If translation helps untangle the ‘vote Labour only’ borough we’re in, it can be a good way of changing that.
Although I’ve noticed it’s usually threatening looking Labour ‘gangs’ who surround the polling stations looking shifty and wanting to force Labour down people’s throats.
When in a hole Jacob, stop digging. Your last sentence shows just how stupid you are.
The Council never learn. Having translators in the polling stations is going to lead to further allegations of vote fraud.
Madmullah: no I’m not ‘oldford1’.
You must be the perfect example of ‘coconuts’ they are trying to engineer in this borough.
In fact your grasp of English is so damn fine you’re being awarded a certificate where you have the opportunity to shake hands with the newly elected Mayor – lackey you !
Thank you for the compliment as to my English. The rest of that which you have posted is unintelligible. How about taking some of the genuine points that are being raised here and trying to answer them?
Candidadtes, their agents, or their ‘polling agents (who can sit in the polling stations and observe what is going on all day) can challenge the behaviour of anyone they think is commiting an offince in the polling station. I’ve done this in the past and had a translator removed from his post by the presiding officer (person in charge of the polling station) because I was told that he was misleading voters. #justsayin
Please on behalf of us complain on the day in every instance
It is wholly wrong to have paid interpreters of any foreign language in Polling Stations. Period.
It is time the government stopped pussy footing around with “guidance” and used the constitutional powers it has and issue an urgent statutory instrument (through the Privy Council), making it 100% illegal immediately. No ifs, no buts.
While we’re on the subject of French – this poll suggests there might be a few more UKIP voters out on polling day…….
http://www.comres.co.uk/poll/1167/itv-news-index-european-election-poll.htm
(This one is for ITV News and actually relates to the European Elections – but once somebody has made up their mind to go to the ballot they might very well vote in other elections too…..)
French should be dropped for Bengali in the national curriculum… or even for Arabic? That would help control some of the tripe being taught in after school classes by 3rd rate tutors.
Eh? “French should be dropped for Bengali in the national curriculum”…
What if non Bengali kids want to learn French?
They can learn it in after school classes, from a CD from the library, watch French TV until it kicks in?
Jacob. There is no point to respond to your silly comment.
So rather a question.
Are you here to piss the world off?
I’m just questioning if a completely different Tower Hamlets is possible.
(Sorry if that pisses you off)
[…] week saw the negative effects of interpreters in polling booths being widely reported. This gets to the heart of a crucial question. Should LBTH be spending large sums of money on […]