![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mcgillianaireLast week I ranted about hospital workers who cannot speak English and it looks like the government agrees with me. Starting October, government plans announced a couple years ago will take effect, forcing skilled workers from outside the EU to demonstrate "an ability to understand and use familiar everyday expressions and very basic phrases, to introduce themselves and others and ask and answer questions about basic personal details", in English. One presumes that failure to achieve the basic level of English will block skilled labour from immigrating to the greatest country (in the Western world). Unfortunately, the rules will also apply to sportspersons. In theory, this could result in some of the world's best footballers being refused work permits because their vocabulary begins and ends with: "the referee's a cunt!" or "how about a bonus, manager?". Useful phrases of course, but it might not be good enough for the powers that be.
Hopefully the big people will gloss over sportspeople's poor grasp of Received Pronuniciation and concentrate on preventing workers in conversational and interactive jobs to filter through the system. After all, a footballer's primary job is to do the talking on the pitch. One's command of English is hardly an issue, especially when the rules don't apply to EU citizens and when half the Premier League clubs are managed by Europeans who 'conveniently' leave press conference duties to their English deputies while importing half their previous club's promising talent. A nurse's primary job on the other hand is to deal directly with patient needs (the vast majority of whom are English-speaking, or at least we assume them to be) and people in my position. If such critical employees cannot speak English, the NHS suffers. And we can't let the NHS suffer. It's the greatest publicly-run institution in the Western world. Or at least it used to be. Well done Big Brother for heeding my prayers. You may just be rewarded for it in the next Election! And the NHS can shine again. Jai Angleterre!
Hopefully the big people will gloss over sportspeople's poor grasp of Received Pronuniciation and concentrate on preventing workers in conversational and interactive jobs to filter through the system. After all, a footballer's primary job is to do the talking on the pitch. One's command of English is hardly an issue, especially when the rules don't apply to EU citizens and when half the Premier League clubs are managed by Europeans who 'conveniently' leave press conference duties to their English deputies while importing half their previous club's promising talent. A nurse's primary job on the other hand is to deal directly with patient needs (the vast majority of whom are English-speaking, or at least we assume them to be) and people in my position. If such critical employees cannot speak English, the NHS suffers. And we can't let the NHS suffer. It's the greatest publicly-run institution in the Western world. Or at least it used to be. Well done Big Brother for heeding my prayers. You may just be rewarded for it in the next Election! And the NHS can shine again. Jai Angleterre!
