Councillor can't speak English...so best form of defence is attack: CRY RACISM!

[Solly]

The Liberal Democrats are defending their decision to support one of their Manchester councillors who cannot speak English well enough to take part in council meetings.

The city council is paying for an interpreter to work with Councillor Liaqat Ali, whose first language is Urdu.

The Liberal Democrats represent the Longsight ward - where 42% of the population are from ethnic minorities.

Mr Ali - who is a Pakistan citizen who has applied for asylum after being forced to leave the country after several attacks on his business - won the seat from Labour by 152 votes in the local elections in May.

An inquiry has begun into claims the leader of Manchester City Council has "failed to promote good race relations".

Councillor Richard Leese has been reported to the Standards Board of England (SBE) after a row over the authority funding a translator for a councillor.

Mr Leese was referred to the SBE - the body that monitors ethics in local authorities - after proposing Councillor Liaqat Ali's party should pay for the translator, rather than the council.

Can't speak English, how pathetic that this man can hold a seat and attempt to govern.

Next, he sought asylum after his business was attacked in Pakistan. How many businesses get attacked in the UK and yet the government do ****-all about crime? Go and claim asylum from the UK? No that wouldn't be allowed, so why have we let this clown to govern over people whose language he doesn't even speak.

And then for him to claim racism because a council leader has spoke his mind about what a daft situation this is and asked for the political party (Lib Dems) that nominated him to pay for the translator rather than the taxpayers...just gets worse and worse.

These liberal times.

[Az]

reminds me of a time when one of our MKs has been carrying a speech in the house, and when other MKs started to ask him questions, he didn't know hebrew well enough to answer.




oh, and yes, this is wrong.

[C0ckney]

well his party should pay for the translator, it should be his problem if he can't speak english.

[Hueij]

Can't speak English, how pathetic that this man can hold a seat and attempt to govern.

Well, to avoid this maybe only pure-bred British whites should be allowed to vote? You know, only the Boddingtons?

But where is the crying about racism in the articles you quoted?

[C0ckney]

An inquiry has begun into claims the leader of Manchester City Council has "failed to promote good race relations".

Councillor Richard Leese has been reported to the Standards Board of England (SBE) after a row over the authority funding a translator for a councillor.

Mr Leese was referred to the SBE - the body that monitors ethics in local authorities - after proposing Councillor Liaqat Ali's party should pay for the translator, rather than the council.

there perhaps...

[Az]

Well, to avoid this maybe only pure-bred British whites should be allowed to vote? You know, only the Boddingtons?

you're doing a great injustice to all those immigrants that have successfully integrated or work hard to integrate into British society.

[Hueij]

That's crying?? Whoa...

[C0ckney]

what would you call reporting someone to a 'race relations authority' for daring to suggest that if somebody in office can't speak english the taxpayer shouldn't be forced to fork out for a translator?

[Hueij]

Well, wasn't it the taxpayer that elected him in the first place?

And Az, it wouldn't matter to Bods if they were fully integrated or not. At least I never noticed his beloved BNP making the difference...

[Az]

And Az, it wouldn't matter to Bods if they were fully integrated or not. At least I never noticed his beloved BNP making the difference...

Not the issue here.

[problem_child]

This is obviously ridiculous, and suports my theory that whole PC thing was invented by certain people to make anybody who isn't 'normal' (white, male, English) look like hordes of screeching unreasonable bastards that spend their time making ludicrous and unreasonable demands on the poor defensless normal people of England.

Might come as a surprise to you Bodd, but the rest of the human race are not all lunatic fringe-case PC special interest groups who thuroughly support this kind of thing. If idiot Lib-Dem tossers have lost sight of common bloody sense, don't blame it on other 'ethnic minority' immigrants who have bothered to learn the local language, and do have the right to participate in the democratic process to which they also contribute taxes.

[C0ckney]

Originally posted by Hueij
Well, wasn't it the taxpayer that elected him in the first place?

that's not the point, and you know it.

[Hueij]

Originally posted by Azazel

And Az, it wouldn't matter to Bods if they were fully integrated or not. At least I never noticed his beloved BNP making the difference...

Not the issue here.

Oh? I thought that it was the central issue of every post Bods makes...

[Az]

This too, isn't the point. let's debate the issue at hand.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Hueij
Well, to avoid this maybe only pure-bred British whites should be allowed to vote?

Shouldn't you be able to speak the lingua franca of the country you run for government office in before you take office? Granted this has been somewhat relaxed since Chretien took office but still...