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and blunkett's off again. this has just been posted on the guardian's internet site:
"The home secretary, David Blunkett, was today embroiled in a row over his use of the word "swamped" in the context of immigration and asylum.
Mr Blunkett used the politically sensitive term this morning, as he described local schools as "swamped" by non-English speaking immigrants.
His off-the-cuff remarks were not condoned by Downing Street, who this afternoon clarified his comments as "reflecting a particular context", rather than describing immigration as an issue.
But his comment - ahead of today's debate on the already controversial nationality, asylum and immigration bill - attracted the ire of at least one Labour backbencher.
Diane Abbott said the home secretary's use of the word "swamped" sounded like he was describing raw sewage.
She told BBC Radio 4's The World At One: "I thought that David's use of the word swamping was unfortunate. We are talking about children here, not raw sewage.
"What these schools need is the money, and also the support. But actually the best place for asylum seeker children to be is in mainstream schools. It would be entirely wrong to segregate them."
Mr Blunkett said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, speaking of educating the children of asylum seekers separately while their applications are processed: "Whilst they're going through the process, the children will be educated on the site, which will be open. People will be able to come and go, but importantly not swamping the local school."
Former prime minister Margaret Thatcher was criticised for using the word swamped in 1978 when she remarked after a riot in Wolverhampton: "People are really rather afraid that this country might be swamped by people of a different culture."
Mr Blair's official spokesman later said Mr Blunkett "was not talking about immigration as a whole".
He said: "What he was doing was reflecting a particular context and a particular issue rather than talking about the overall issue of immigration.
"He was simply talking about what happens at ground level."
Today's bill will set up a pilot phase of asylum seeker accommodation centres, as the first step towards replacing the system of dispersing applicants across the country.
Proposals to deny children of asylum seekers living in the centres the right to attend mainstream schools have already enraged campaign groups.
Mr Blunkett also said a GP's surgery in his constituency had written to him saying they could not cope because a third of their patients required "intensive language interpretation".
"Now that is silly, that's disrupting the community. It causes friction, it is the, if you like, the firelighter for the BNP and others who want to cause mayhem," he said.
"And I want to stop that by providing a fair, rapid but tough system. People are not racist on the whole. There are racists in our country, we must face them down, we must take them on."
There was speculation that some Labour MPs would oppose some aspects of the bill.
The shadow home secretary, Oliver Letwin, said today he would not have used the word "swamping" to describe asylum seekers entering the education system.
"There is a terrible danger here of slipping into language that's emotive," he said.
"I think the most important thing in discussing this extraordinarily important issue is that we discuss it in terms which are sensitive and rational." "
we've voiced disquiet over blunkett's attitude before. you'd think he'd engage brain before mouth. at least for the next week or so. |
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