MAIL ON SUNDAY COMMENT: The benefits of speaking one language



The simplest test of a recent arrival's willingness to integrate in a new country is his or her willingness to learn the language

The simplest test of a recent arrival’s willingness to integrate in a new country is his or her willingness to learn the language.



Even tourists usually take the trouble to find out how to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’.



A long-term resident has a far greater obligation to understand, and to make himself understood.



So, when someone is seeking to receive benefits paid for out of the heavy taxes levied on his hosts, it is right to expect him to apply for them in the language of the country where he has chosen to live.



Encouraging our neighbours to learn our language is not a punishment, but a positive benefit.



If we can’t communicate with each other, then we will always be strangers rather than true neighbours.



No doubt the human rights industry and the professional multiculturalists will try to undermine this excellent initiative with unfounded claims of ‘racism’ and ‘discrimination’.



If they do so, they will expose themselves as the enemies of common sense, of reason and of justice.



Len McCluskey’s Union, Unite, should immediately abandon any thoughts of besieging private health chiefs in their homes.



This technique, used in the Grangemouth dispute, cannot easily be distinguished from intimidation.



Len McCluskey's Union, Unite, should immediately abandon any thoughts of besieging private health chiefs in their homes

Its victims recounted incidents in which they feared for the safety of their families when mobs appeared on their doorsteps.



Anyone prominent in public life must expect a certain amount of hurly burly, heckling and protests in public places.



But homes and families are not legitimate targets, and only crude bullies would think they were.



The vast effects of the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act on our constitution are still making themselves felt.



One astonishing unintended consequence is that there is now almost nothing to put in the next Queen’s Speech.



There are excuses for this. Until the Coalition, most recent governments lasted only four years before they ran out of political steam.



Now they are compelled to wait around for 12 extra months, weary, stale and lacking much voter support, like schoolchildren after the exams are over.



Perhaps the long-term solution is four-year Parliaments, or a return to the old system.



But in the meantime, there are plenty of idle hands, tongues and minds at Westminster, and the party whips are going to be working very hard to prevent splits, rebellions and walkouts as the weary weeks drag out their slow length until May 2015.



Persistent rumours claim that no fewer than three French presidents have unsuccessfully asked us to cover up the murals of Waterloo and Trafalgar in the House of Lords during their visits to Westminster.

Some say Winston Churchill’s funeral train left from Waterloo Station (rather than the more practical Paddington) partly to annoy General de Gaulle.



But it seems the days of teasing our neighbours are over.



President Hollande (who has other things on his mind) is to be spared the sight of sculpted British Lions mauling French cockerels, and of a huge looted bust of Louis XIV, which are among the splendours of Blenheim Palace.

