NEWS RELEASE EMBARGO 10.00am, Saturday 21 September 2002
ATTENTION News, politics, social affairs
DAVID BLUNKETT "BLETHERIN' KEECH" SAYS STUC GENERAL SECRETARY
Addressing the Annual Black Workers Conference of the STUC, General Secretary Bill Speirs said:
"The pronouncements of Home Secretary, David Blunkett, are becoming increasingly worrying. His latest comments, that refugees and asylum seekers from Kosova and Afghanistan should "go home" are damaging, to say the least.
These are parts of the world which remain very dangerous indeed. If they aren't, perhaps Mr Blunkett could explain why the British taxpayer, for whom he has such deep concern, is shelling out millions of pounds to maintain British troops in both areas?
These remarks come on top of his demand that Asian parents and children should speak English in the home. There are so many things I could say about this. Why single out Asians for a start? And when he was an Education Minister, did he never spot that bilingual kids consistently do better educationally not least in language skills than monoglot kids?
Anyway, since he was speaking as the UK Home Secretary, why was he giving such a big plug to the promotion of English, hardly a language under threat? What about Gaelic in all its forms, or Ulster Scots, or Scots?
I hope that the Home Secretary understands me when I tell him, in my native tongue, that over the last week he's bin bletherin' a heap o' keech."
ENDS PLEASE NOTE EMBARGO
Tel: 0141 337 8100 / Fax: 0141 337 8101 / Email: bspeirs@stuc.org.uk
The STUC Black Workers' Conference will be held over the weekend, Saturday 21 / Sunday 22 September in the Salutation Hotel, Perth.
For further comment, contact:
Bill Speirs