The Hindu : Blunkett remark a `slip of tongue'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 26, 2002

International

International

Blunkett remark a `slip of tongue'

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON APRIL 25 . Britain's Home Secretary, David Blunkett, has become the first casualty of what is seen as a new political correctness sweeping the country in the wake of the stunning rise of the far right leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in France. Mr. Blunkett was accused of "pandering" to the right after he said that children of asylum seekers were "swamping" British schools and that henceforth they should be taught in the "accommodation centres" where their parents are held pending asylum decisions.

His remarks, in a BBC radio interview, echoed memories of the former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher's controversial statement in 1978, when as the leader of the Opposition, she warned that Britain might be "swamped by people with a different culture" if immigration was not checked. At that time, the Labour party took strong exception to the remarks and the then-Labour Home Secretary, Merlyn Rees, accused her of fuelling xenophobia for electoral purposes.

Mr. Blunkett, who has been dogged by controversies over his robust comments on immigration in recent months, was under pressure to withdraw his remark, even as Downing Street sought to play it down as a "slip of the tongue". His own party colleagues were infuriated, with one MP, Diane Abbott, reminding him "we are talking about children here, not raw sewage". Some 50 Labour MPs were reported to have signed a motion attacking his move to deny children of asylum seekers the "right" to attend mainstream schools.

Even the Tories, who favour a tough asylum agenda, were critical of Mr. Blunkett's choice of words in the prevailing climate. The shadow Home Secretary, Oliver Letwin, said he would not have used such a word — though he insisted that hard issues, however sensitive, should not be ducked in the name of political correctness. The Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman, Simon Hughes, said it was wrong to accuse asylum seekers of "swamping" the schools. "If suddenly a housing estate is built in a village and a large number of extra children come, you don't describe those children as swamping the village school," he said.

Human rights and refugee groups said that such language played into the hands of racist parties such as the British National Party which is fighting the coming local elections on an anti-immigrant agenda. "Rather than appeasing the views of racists, the main political parties should be distancing themselves from these views and showing leadership by informing the public why it is morally right to welcome refugees," said the chief executive of the Refugee Council, Nick Hardwick. A spokesman for the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants denounced Mr. Blunkett's remarks as "derogatory and offensive". The Home Secretary refused to withdraw the remarks, but told agitated MPs in the Commons that in the future he would use the word "overwhelmed", rather than "swamped". "I did not use deliberately emotive language," he said, while his supporters maintained that it was important to confront sensitive issues in a grown-up manner., lest they be hijacked by the right. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, had warned that if such issues were not discussed by mainstream politicians, there was a danger that people would be "beguiled by simplistic and usually false solutions from the far right."

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