Party Vibe

its sad to see liberal nations introducing these daft laws pandering to populism.

and without penalties how can it be a law? however the only way to enforce such a would be to use covert microphones and CCTV and this would run counter to human rights anywhere in the world; unless they are expecting the law to be “enforced” by peer pressure (in other words intimidation).

Even communist and Islamic nations permit their citizens to speak a variety of different languages even if they have an “official” language – despite extensive censorship and surveillance.

This is dodgy territory and a step backwards, it is a form of neo-colonialism and can result in people being denied their right to cultural identity (such as in victorian Wales where schoolkids were made to wear a badge of shame and flogged for speaking Welsh in class!)

in previous days there were many both formal and informal pressures to speak English in all parts of the Empire (including the Celtic areas of the UK) and to use only Received Pronounciation (the “posh” accent that Trevor MacDonald and the Royal Family speak, also known as a “Home Counties” accent)

Regional accents, dialects and minority languages (such as Welsh, Scots and Cornish) were all discouraged or even outlawed at one point or another.

this already exists in the fields of private business, particularly where people with power can enforce personal prejudices by their business decisions

Incidentally Khalid Aziz was formerly a newsreader in the Home Counties and one of the first Asian television presenters (and he spoke with a Home Counties accent, as do many older Asians from my parents generation who were educated to college/degree level during colonial times.)

Most younger British Asians (including myself) now speak with a less formal accent known as “Estuary English” which is similar to Cockney. (My mum sometimes complains that I “do not speak properly” but she used to be an English teacher in Malaysia!)