Cameron woos Tory Right with call to curb ethnic language

[Harold F. Schiffman]

Regarding the question Anthea poses, namely "googling has failed to find
the source for these figures. Does anyone happen to know it?

My experience with these kinds of figures, as cited by politicians, is
that they are fabricated, or of dubious origin.  US English is also guilty
of making up statistics like these.  It's like the claim that "Kannada is
an endangered language." Says who?

HS

On Fri, 26 Aug 2005, Anthea Fraser Gupta wrote:

> Here is a crucial quote from Cameron's speech.
>
> "
>
> English is becoming the world’s language of choice. Millions of people in India
>
> and Pakistan are eager to learn English. Yet in the UK in 2005 a significant
>
> number of our own citizens cannot speak it.
>
> A Home Office study found that while 26 per cent of Pakistanis and
>
> Bangladeshis in the UK are fluent in English, the equivalent figure for the US is
>
> 68 per cent.
>
> We need to ask whether Government and other bodies, by allowing other
>
> languages to be used in official settings, can almost encourage the belief that
>
> learning English is not necessary."
>
>
>
> Full speech at
>
> http://fpc.org.uk/fsblob/560.pdf <http://fpc.org.uk/fsblob/560.pdf>
>
>
>
> My highly inventive googling has failed to find the source for these figures. Does anyone happen to know it?
>
>
>
> Anthea
>
>
>