Speak ENGLISH! Minister orders councillors to stop using BENGALI in official meetings

BRITAIN'S most controversial council has been ordered by ministers and the country’s election watchdog to ensure only English is used in official meetings. The twin demands to Tower Hamlets council in east London have been made by Local Government Minister Brandon Lewis and the Electoral Commission after concerns about the frequent use of Bengali by councillors and other officials.

Insults and heated conversations are often traded in Bengali in the council chamber, while some councillors struggle to read official statements or make themselves understood during debates.

At one meeting last year, observers were left stunned when a resident asking a formal question to Mayor Lutfur Rahman in a council meeting spoke at length in Bengali. He was interrupted by a town hall clerk who told him he could return to finish his question at the next monthly meeting with a council-subsidised interpreter. At another meeting last year, ex-Labour councillor Abdal Ullah formally complained about being called a “shurer batcha”, or “son of a pig”, by a fellow Muslim member.

The reports have been read with alarm in Whitehall where ministers realised there was nothing in statute or common law that currently requires English council meetings to be conducted in English. A senior source at the Department for Communities and Local Government said the issue had simply not arisen in the country’s history before.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/485993/Speak-ENGLISH-Minister-orders-Tower-Hamlets-to-stop-using-BENGALI-in-council-meetings

The reports have been read with alarm in Whitehall where ministers realised there was nothing in statute or common law that currently requires English council meetings to be conducted in English. A senior source at the Department for Communities and Local Government said the issue had simply not arisen in the country’s history before.




Then they are legally obliged to have interpreters for ENGLISH speakers.

Are the interpreters good friends/family of theirs?