@Sacro@SonVlad@seledka_vodka@robblackie "English proficiency is required for British citizenship"
yet you translate official envelopes into Bengali 'to make sure it’s understood'?
That’s not policy - that’s hypocrisy.
Either enforce the language rule or stop pretending it matters.
Nick Timothy, a leading Conservative MP, thinks that it's somehow an outrage that an envelope has some Bengali writing on it.
A bit like how countries like Spain publish many things in English for people whose Spanish isn't perfect.
@pjcboro@robblackie Did you never look at the languages of America? Africa? East Asia? Plenty of Spanish, Portuguese, French, Latin derived languages. All through colonialism.
@SonVlad@Sacro@robblackie Your stupidity and confidence (the combination of the two) will cause you a lot of difficulty in life, in general.
Confidence won't allow you to recognise your own stupidity and improve.
@Sacro@robblackie You threw out the word colonialism as the reason English is the world language as if you had a wider point to make.
Funny how it didn’t work for Latin, Danish, Russian, Spanish, French, Dutch, isn’t it?
Makes me think you’ve got some issue.
Is This Plausible?
I am Morgan Macsweeney
I am Chief Of Staff to the Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
I hold a top-secret security clearance
I own a mobile phone
I use this phone to conduct Government Business
I use this phone to message with Lord Mandelson
My phone is tracked by GCHQ
There are protocols for officials using personal phones to conduct Government business
My communications are monitored to ensure they are not intercepted
My phone is "stolen" a month after Lord Mandelson is sacked
The police do not investigate
The phone is not tracked down
The police are too busy to track down the phone the most senior member of the Prime Minister's team - someone with a top-secret security clearance
I do not contact my service provider to block the stolen phone
I do not consider asking GCHQ to do this as a national security priority
I do not ask for a replacement sim
I do not buy a new phone
I do not activate my new phone with the new sim
I do not log-in to my Google account
I do not select "Restore"
I do not download WhatsApp
I do not recover my messages
Nobody, ever, who had their phone stolen was ever able to get their messages back.
@UKLabour@Keir_Starmer
DO YOU THINK WE ARE ALL STUPID?
It is the cover-up that will take you down
@Sacro@METhompson72 WhatsApp posts don't sit on the device though. You simply log into your account in the same way you do with Facebook, X, etc.
I assume if Morgan MacSweeney had an account, the fact that his phone was stolen didn't lead him to forget his login details.
@Marcusofamber@LC_RFC92@Sacro@robblackie You should never be in the position to have to pay the surcharge (and have the visa that requires it) if you need translators in the country.
The Spain comparison is intellectually dishonest. Spain publishes things in English because millions of middle-class tax-paying Europeans choose to retire or relocate there. That is not remotely comparable to importing people from Bangladeshi villages who cannot read basic English - and then handing them British citizenship anyway.
I'm a migrant. My parents and family invested heavily in my English education before I ever set foot in Britain. I attended the British Council, studied the language seriously, and became an Anglophile before I became British. And I’m telling you - there is no excuse - none whatsoever - for granting citizenship to people who require government communications in Bengali. It isn't kindness. It isn't humane.
It's stupid.
British citizenship should not be bestowed on anyone who cannot engage with democracy in English, Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, or Irish. That is the baseline. Anything beneath it is a failure of the state toward the people already here - including migrants like me who earned their place properly.
What you are actually arguing - whether you realise it or not (but I think you do, oddly enough) - is that someone else's convenience should override national interest. You’re dressing up ideological capitulation as tolerance. It isn't. It's the British political left subordinating the British people to serve those who made no effort to meet Britain's most basic civic standard.
I have genuine respect for the social democratic tradition and what historical Labour figures built in this country. But the modern left - Labour, the Greens, the Lib Dems like you - have turned their backs on the British national interest entirely.
Which is why I don’t believe you’re fit to govern this country ever again. Your political lifeline, your legacy, your lineage - stops here.
@robblackie Don't care what happens in Spain. That's the business of the Spanish.
We shouldn't be sending out information in languages other than Welsh or English plus Gaelic in the Western Isles.
@robblackie British people can’t vote in Spain
British people pay their way in Spain.
English is the world’s common language thanks to the internet, Hollywood, and aviation.
Apart from that, great comparison.