Our council tax is going on Mother Tongue’ foreign culture

Dear Ed, AS a result of so-called “democracy in action,” seven out of the eight Local Area partnerships in Tower Hamlets have deemed spending money on language courses in what the council's freesheet East End Lies’ labels the Mother Tongue.’ But Bengali is not a native language, so let’s cut the PC rubbish and say so

Dear Ed,

YET another disturbing article has appeared in the latest edition of Tower Hamlets council’s East End Life’ freesheet, about the recent You Decide’ events staged by the Town Hall and its Local Area partnerships to decide how to spend public money for each area.

Seven out of the eight Local Area partnerships have deemed to spend council tax money on what it labels the Mother Tongue’ to encourage children to take their Bengali GCSEs early.

But it is surely the job of the State to take a view on what is actually right. Incentives through public money for teenagers and their parents to maintain separate identity is not justifiable.

The Bengali language is immensely important in Bangladeshi culture, but is not for the UK taxpayer to fund such sentiments.

Can you imagine the outcry if council tax money was spent on early GCSEs for Polish or Latvian immigrants?

Let’s cut the PC rubbish. I look forward to the Advertiser’s scrutiny of this disgraceful pandering. Perhaps our local paper should demand that this expenditure, along with the boasts that crime is falling’ and GCSE results are improving, is highlighted on one of the new lamp-post banners that have just popped up describing the utopia’ that is Tower Hamlets.

Tony Edwards

Cardigan Road, Bow