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Speak English at home, Blunkett tells immigrants

Home Secretary David Blunkett of Britain has landed himself in a new controversy after several groups took strong exception to his suggestion that immigrants abandon their mother tongue at home and speak in English to their children.

"The parents should speak English to their children to prevent schizophrenic rifts between generations," Blunkett had said in an essay for a book called Reclaiming Britishness, published on Monday by the Foreign Policy Centre.

Blunkett said children should be encouraged to talk with their mothers "in English as well as in their historic mother tongue".

A home office spokeswoman, however, tried to ward off the issue by saying that Blunkett would "never tell people what to do in their own homes", but community groups were furious and said the home secretary should stay out of their private lives.

Beverley Bernard, acting chairperson for the Commission for Racial Equality, said, "The commission has always supported the view that proficiency in English is a springboard for future independence. This is true for ethnic minorities as it is for the white working-class people."

"But the suggestion," he added, "that we might proscribe what, how and when a language is spoken in people's private homes is not acceptable. It is much more important to respect what defines the different communities that makes Britain a diverse society."

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