Now here is food for thought

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....s-stand-majority.html

Who has got it right Communities Secretary Eric Pickles or Rob Berkeley, director of the Runnymede Trust race equality think-tank?

/// Communities Secretary Eric Pickles accused the previous Labour administration, and its equalities minister Harriet Harman, of taking the country down 'the wrong path' by encouraging different communities to live separate lives. ///

/// Migrants will be required to speak English, the number of official documents translated into other languages will be reduced and councils will be allowed to hold prayers at the start of meetings.///

/// Rob Berkeley, director of the Runnymede Trust race equality think-tank, said Mr Pickles’ announcement marked 'a dangerous and ill-advised reversion to assimilationist policy where all differences of ethnicity and heritage are subsumed into a majoritarian "mainstream" './//

[Gromit]

The Christian faith will be restored to the centre of public life. I hope not, that would be a terrible waste of money. People can beleive in whatever fairytales likey like, but no taxpayers money should be involved in promoting it or practising it.

I fear Pickles has bitten off more than he can chew. He seems lost for anything to do, maybe he could become Obesity Minister.

[Brenden]

Does that go for all faiths triggs.

[sandyRoe]

Imagine some council in east London or the north where Christian councillors aren't in the majority.. Will they be forced to endure some foreign mumbo-jumbo if Pickles gets his way?

[Ankou]

where religion leads conflict follows.

[d9f1c7]

yes abolish all forms of mumbo jumbo, religion has no place in schools.

[anotheoldgit]

Gromit

/// The Christian faith will be restored to the centre of public life. I hope not, that would be a terrible waste of money. People can beleive in whatever fairytales likey like, but no taxpayers money should be involved in promoting it or practising it.///

There are some that believe Darwin's theory is a fairytale, why should Adam and Eve be any less believable, besides there are many taxpayers who would be perfectly willing for some of their money be spent on promoting Christianity.

/// I fear Pickles has bitten off more than he can chew. He seems lost for anything to do, maybe he could become Obesity
Minister. ///

Just because you don't agree with another's point of view, their is certainly no need to issue out personal insults, or is that your inbred 'Nasty-Left' attitude, seeping out once again?

[scowie]

Seeing 4 out of the first 7 posts here having the phrase "mumbo jumbo" in them made me chuckle! :-)

Maybe religious education classes should be renamed "mumbo jumbo awareness" classes! :-p

[anotheoldgit]

Well some of you have had your bash at Christianity, any thoughts on the main subject matter?

i.e. encouraging different communities to live separate lives, requiring them to speak English and reducing the number of official documents that are need to be translated into numerous other languages.

[anotheoldgit]

"mumbo jumbo" (tones of the witch doctor here) I would have thought that this phrase would have been long been sent to join all those other non PC words, that are now in the 'Bin of Political Correctness'.

[FredPuli43]

How many languages does the United States have for its forms and official documents? At a guess, only English and Spanish, but Spanish only sparely. Historically, the US has long had more immigration , from more countries, with more languages, than we have had.

[Gromit]

From my inbred nasty left point of view I think the 'problem' is overstated. Most foreigners can speak english or have access to a friend or relative who can do so. The cost of providing information in other languages is going down as the information is more freely distributed over the internet and email. My television has instructions in 15 languages but I dn't feel compelled to complain to Samsung.

I don't believe there is a single community in Britain that has to live separately because they cannot speak english. There are areas of large immigrant populations, just as there are areas of high white British populations. It is a natural choice, but integration not assimilation should be encouraged.

[flip_flop]

I'm not 'nasty-left', I'm nice-right, and I couldn't agree more if I tried with Gromit's first paragraph.

[Gromit]

Fredpuli,

Spanish only sparcely used in the US? I don't think so. There are 45million people who speak spanish as a first language in the US.

http://en.wikipedia.o...the_United_States.svg

[flip_flop]

Damn - simultaneous postings.

I agree with Gromit's first paragraph of his post timed at 4.07pm

[sp1814]

FredPuli43

Having recently returned from Los Angeles, I can confirm that not being able to speak Spanish is a *definite* disadvantage. There were occasions where I found it difficult to make myself understood (but then again, that may have been down to my own accent).

With regards to Mr Pickles - it will be *extremely* difficult to restore the Christian faith to the centre of public life, because he is talking about reversing a trend of the past 50 years.

[sp1814]

Another point worth considering - we shouldn't be thinking that either we have multiculturalism *or* with have uni/monoculturalism. The two are not necessarily multually exclusive.

For instance, Muslim management consultants from Clapham will share *some* cultural identifiers with Catholic orthopedic surgeons from Newcastle...just not many. There will be cultural identifiers that you will never be able to eradicate, because they are built into our dna, either through race, religion, creed, sexuality etc.

Everyone in the country may speak English in public, watch Eastenders and shop at Iceland for party food, but alongside that, there will always be identifiers that separate us.