Commissioner, why not Gujarati?
Scotland Yard has launched a drive to recruit more officers who speak a second language, in an effort to increase confidence among London’s minority community, in the Police. This is surely a welcome initiative which will offer additional advantage to the police officers. The police officers will know more about the day-to-day happening within the minority communities, which is most needed at the moment.
The languages which will feature in the month long pilot campaign that began on Monday (July 20th, 2015), include Yoruba, Hebrew, Arabic, Hindi, Punjabi, Italian, German, Turkish, Greek, Spanish, Polish, Portuguese, Sinhala and Bengali.
Besides these 14 languages, a large number of Londoners also speak Gujarati and Urdu. “We need to recruit and deploy officers with knowledge of secondary language in areas and localities where these languages are spoken,” said Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
Commissioner, you must be aware that in Harrow, Brent, Barnet, Haringey, Newham, Wandsworth and several other Boroughs in London, almost 400,000 people of Gujarati origin reside.
According to a study by Oxford University, Gujarati language has a wider reach and is more popular than Hebrew, Greek, Spanish, Sinhala and several other languages. The question arises-why have you (THE COMMISSIONER) not included Gujarati language? The London based British-Gujaratis also need to be part of your language strategy to increase their confidence in policing of this great city called London.
All that glitters is not gold
Not perhaps even brass. Gold is losing its value worldwide! On Tuesday, Chancellor George Osborne in the Parliament announced further cuts of around 20 million pounds. Yes, the Conservative Party has a mandate. Albeit, a very tiny majority in the Commons.
In the last five years, the British exchequer has improved its position, primarily, because of severe cuts, to drastically reduce budgetary deficit. It was to an extent necessary also. On Monday, more than 40 Labour MPs defied the leaders to vote against the welfare cuts, proposed in the budget. If the MPs represent their constituents’ point of views, then they have expressed people’s pain and anxieties. This is not surprising. Let us look at some detailed study of ‘the austerity.’
According to Financial Times, £18 bn were cut by local authorities, in real terms, from 2009-10 and 2014-15. This amounted to a reduction of 19 per cent. The first casualty was the care provided to the elderly people, aged above 65 years. Again, almost 20 per cent elderly people have lost access to the care services. Similarly, the numbers have gone up for the children in need, which has increased from 695,000 to 7,81,200. This again is an increase of 12.5 per cent.
Numbers of Health and Safety Inspectors have depleted by 18 per cent. Local authority road in disrepair have increased substantially. Budget proposal are going to hit hard the poorest of the poor. The chancellor and the government perhaps are losing the essence of a mature and conscientious democracy of a fairly prosperous country.
If have-nots have to sacrifice more, then the social fabric will damage beyond repair. The objective may not totally be unacceptable, but, the route or strategy devoid of compassion is not befitting of the Great Britain, today.
- CB
