July 02, 2003
FORESIGHT IN LONGSIGHT
Poor migrants are always forced to take menial jobs:
Taxpayers are footing the bill for a translator because an asylum seeker elected as a councillor struggles to speak English.
Liaqat Ali scored a stunning victory for the Liberal Democrats in Manchester's Longsight ward last month in a backlash against the war on Iraq. Now it has emerged he speaks only broken English and needed an interpreter to sit with him at his first full council meeting.
Heh. Now it has emerged. Didn’t he give any policy speeches? The Labor councillor who was voted out is furious:
"It is ridiculous. He is not able to do his job because he can't read, write or speak English.”
The ex-councillor’s name: Sajjad Hussain. Manchester is quite the ethnic melting pot, as another item from Manchester Online confirms:
Shopping mall bosses have relented in a rent row with an African art and crafts shop after they were threatened with a spell from a naked witch doctor.
Perhaps Councillor Ali sorted it out.
Posted by Tim Blair at July 2, 2003 01:53 AMYou have to understand the British Liberal Democrats. Imagine The Democrats, One Nation, the Greens, the ALP Left, and a few wet Liberals all in the one Party. No set of positions are too incoherent for them. No opportunism too much. They did well in Manchester by targetting Muslim voters with their anti Iraq war message. (Liberal Democracy for Iraq is not something Lib Dems care for apparently).
They are the most pro European Party in Britain yet bizarrely they do their best in the most Euro-sceptic part of the country (the south west where fishing quotas are killing local industry). They trumpet self righteous political correctness in trendy inner city areas and play the race card in the counties. (They once beat a black Tory candidate by appealing to racist conservatives to vote for their 'local' candidate). They do the same in white areas of east London where they compete with the BNP for the scum vote. They are truly awful....
Posted by: Matthew at July 2, 2003 at 03:10 AMHear hear. The Lib Dems are the most grasping, mendacious gang of ratbags in UK politics. And their leader is a drunken Scottish buffoon. They're loathed by Labour and Tory alike.
Posted by: David Gillies at July 2, 2003 at 04:26 AMUpdate: look at this post by Oliver Kamm to see how witless said drunken buffoon actually is.
Posted by: David Gillies at July 2, 2003 at 05:56 AMGreater Manchester now officially has a large ethnic minority- white anglo-saxons. They were declared a minority in Greater Manchester about three years ago. (Manchester also has the distinction of having the highest theft rate for motor vehicles in the world- one every 1.3 minutes or so. A mate of mine there has a Cosworth Sierra that he only takes out if he is coming straight back home; the last time he stopped at a shop to buy some fags, came out and the vehicle was already on its way to another encounter with Old Bill).
Posted by: paul bickford at July 2, 2003 at 11:29 AMTim -- check your spelling. This didn't happen in Australia.
Posted by: Robert at July 2, 2003 at 12:32 PMWhat's so strange about "The Democrats, One Nation, the Greens, the ALP Left, and a few wet Liberals all in the one Party"?
They all have the same policies, with some differences about whether it is Farmers, Unionists or School Teachers that deserve to control all access to the bush.
Posted by: Patrick at July 2, 2003 at 02:04 PMThere's no need to labour the point. Tim's spellchucker is working just fine.
Posted by: Thorn at July 2, 2003 at 02:28 PMI wanted to get rid of my house cleaner but my wife insisted we keep her because, as she is a refugee from El Salvador, we were doing our bit to support the refugee community. At least I still get to vote for the continuing detention of illegal entrants including their off-spring.
She has a friend who has two daughters who are absolute stunners! El Salvador's loss is Australia's gain!
Posted by: Razor at July 2, 2003 at 03:00 PM