A couple of years back, I had to do some "multicultural awareness", training. This, of course, was mandatory for my job.It could be the town that speaks the most languages in the country. In Milton Keynes, the local council has to provide translations for at least 100 different tongues, including obscure West African and Indian dialects.
Critics say the scale of the language service the Buckinghamshire new town, is a graphic demonstration of the impact of immigration on life in towns and cities across the UK. They want the growth of translation services to be curbed to save public money and argue that officials should be providing less help to those who decline to learn English.
The Milton Keynes Community Language Service, run by the town’s council, has seen the number of interpreters it uses multiply 15-fold over the past decade, officials said yesterday. It has 300 under contract. While ten years ago it was thought enough to provide interpreters for speakers of 12 languages, there are now 105 available, including related services such as sign language for the deaf and braille.
Less common languages and dialects on offer include Twi, the second largest language in Ghana; Teluga, spoken in India; and Yoruba, used in Nigeria. A further 20 interpreters are being recruited and the centre plans to add Pashto, an Afghan language, by the end of the year.
The centre provides a 24-hour service – that is often free – to immigrants helping them understand housing, health, police and legal matters in Milton Keynes and the neighbouring towns of Luton, Bedford and Northampton.
All have seen large-scale immigration in recent years. Most local authority translation services are a heavy burden on the taxpayer.
The Local Government Association says they are one of four key extra costs faced by local government because of high immigration. The Metropolitan Police estimates its interpretation service costs £20million a year.
Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘The sad fact is many council translators end up dealing with people who have lived here for years without learning English.
‘It’s ridiculous that people are claiming benefits for years but can’t even fill in a form about themselves in our national language.’
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Basically it consisted of some frizzy haired saggy titted hippy in a badly made cardigan, telling us all immigrants could do no wrong, and deserved extra special treatments as some of them were fleeing hardship and disaster in their own country. And even if they were here illegally they deserved, housing, benefits, free hospital and schools, and every other need for their lives, and of course we should not expect them to work or pay for any of it.
I'd switched off by that point, and was doing the crosswords under the desk. The she started going on about how the health authority should provide interpreters for all the languages under the sun, and that we should not expect anyone moving to Aus to learn English, not if they didn't want to. Everybody by this point, especially a guy who went on o become a big mate of mine, Amit, who's Gujarati, were becoming either gobsmacked or irate.
So I asked a question.
In Welsh.
At first she was puzzled. Everyone else got the joke.
She asked me to repeat myself, so I did. She looked more puzzled.
Amit cottoned on; "He said; he's only going to speak Gaelic from her on in, so you'd best get an interpreter" (I clarified for him later.)
She was a bit nonplussed at this, but carried on.
I continued to ask questions in Welsh, most of which were not actual questions about the course, more about her sanity, and ugliness.
Following the course she reported me.
Luckily no one else on the course was prepared to back her up. She didn't take that course again.
Guess who's now official Welsh multicultural referee for the mental health service
