On the doorstep in multicultural Britain

Good story from government minister Liam Byrne at a Demos fringe meeting this morning, down here at Labour Party conference.

Canvassing together with the Scottish dynamo Ian McCartney in his constituency, the pair encountered a typical local resident from this high ethnic minority area.

McCartney kicked off, talking his way through the traditional canvassing script, only to be met with a blank stare. So the local party chairman was called over and tried again, this time in Urdu, but with similar lack of success. A third attempt is made, this time in Punjabi. More blank staring.

Finally the woman says: "Don't any of you speak English?"

Comments

[Nick]

When McCartney was appointed Minister of State for Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs there was despair in the Foreign Office. Not because he had a bad reputation as a minister but because they knew it would be absolutely impossible someone who speaks english as a second language to understand a word he said. As this story shows it's hard enough when english is your first.