UNEMPLOYED people who cannot speak English will have to show they are learning the language or lose benefits, the government has announced.
This is the latest government scheme for cutting its expenditure by bullying the poorest and most vulnerable section of society.
This is not directed at white migrants from Australia, or new Zealand who speak English, or to cheap labour workers from eastern Europe who don’t speak English but cannot claim benefits for a year.
This is directed at British citizens from the Indian sub-continent, and is in fact a mean and racist measure.
In fact, large numbers of white English children are leaving school unable to read, and write or speak English beyond text-talk, a fact that Welfare Minister, Murphy, should be deeply ashamed of.
This is ignored in favour of attacking migrants.
When Britain was building its Empire, none of the victims of that enterprise were in a position to tell the white imperialists that they must learn Urdu, Arabic, Punjabi or Chinese, so as to be able to communicate or fit into their society.
Their society was reshaped with the use of the rifle butt, and from Ireland to India local cultures and languages were in the main despised, if not suppressed.
Even your modern British petty bourgeoisie, when it swoops in its thousands to buy property in Provence or Portugal or some other idyl, are not told that they have to become French or Portuguese or go home – they are tolerated despite the fact they drive property prices up and tend to arrogantly behave as if they were still in Britain. They certainly do not learn French or Portuguese.
What Murphy and the government are doing is picking on the weak, and handing an additional weapon to racists to make life even more difficult for law abiding non-English speaking workers.
In the great tradition of English hypocrisy those that are about to be starved of benefits will be told that they are receiving this treatment for their own good.
Welfare minister Jim Murphy said yesterday that the measures, to come into effect in April, would benefit Britain and individuals.
The sanctimonious Murphy, taking up the pose of a workhouse master who makes the poor break stones for a meal to give them character, said yesterday that it is ‘unacceptable’ that ethnic minorities in Britain earn on average a third less than their white counterparts.
To rectify this he is gong to make the alleged lazy so and sos learn English or suffer – for their own good of course.
Murphy said of the below average employment rates: ‘This is a social injustice in our society which is not only bad for individuals, families and their communities, but is a barrier against social cohesion and is bad for Britain.’
There you have it. Non English speaking British citizens from the Indian sub continent and other places are bad for Britain.
What is Murphy going to do if they fail to learn proper English in the required time – deport them.
Murphy’s war on the non-English speakers is due to start in April.
From April, new guidelines will require job centres in England to focus on encouraging the take-up of English courses. If the offer is refused benefits will be stopped.
Murphy must be told that the education system needs to be developed for the benefit of all, including backward sections of the indigenous population without penalties and punishments for the poor.
The truth is that Labour is making scapegoats of the Indian and Muslim population and blaming them for the problems of British capitalism. There must be votes to be won in demonising middle aged Indian ladies who cannot speak English.
Fight racism by bringing this government down and replacing it with a workers government that carries out socialist policies.