BRITAIN:The British government is to step up its efforts to take on "poisonous" far-right groups like the British National Party (BNP), communities secretary Ruth Kelly said yesterday.
Ms Kelly accused far-right extremists of promoting violence and division by peddling "myths and misconceptions" about Britain's multiracial society.
She acknowledged that a "new approach" was needed to ensure community cohesion, as multiculturalist policies pursued over past decades had sometimes "emphasised what divides us at the cost of what unites us".
She said that strong leadership was needed to correct "gross falsehoods" spread by extremist groups - particularly during election campaigns such as last year's local authority polls, when the BNP doubled its number of councillors to 52.
Ms Kelly was speaking at the launch of a new report highlighting English language skills as the key to helping immigrants integrate successfully into British society.
The interim report by the Commission on Integration and Cohesion floated proposals to require spouses from overseas to pass an English test before joining their husbands or wives in the UK. It suggested that translation services for migrants should be scaled back to allow a greater focus on English language tuition.
The commission was set up last year in the wake of the July 7th bombings. Its report identifies the inability to speak English as the single biggest barrier preventing migrants from integrating successfully in Britain.
Commission chairman Darra Singh warned that if immigrants fail to pick up the language soon after their arrival, they many never do so. He said the commission would produce guidance to local authorities to ensure that translation services help newcomers adapt to life in the UK after their arrival, but do not become a substitute for learning to communicate.
The commission is also seeking views on whether there should be a new entry requirement for spouses to speak English before settling.
Mr Singh said: "Just as mastering reading and writing for school children opens up the rest of the curriculum, mastering English opens up participation in British society and accessing employment.
"If you can't speak English - whether you are a new migrant or someone who has lived here for years, you are on a path to isolation and separation.
"Those who can't speak English find other ways of getting by, and if English is not learnt quickly then the chance of ever learning the language diminishes rapidly.
"I want to see what innovative schemes across the country are doing to combat this."
Ms Kelly said her department would study the commission's recommendations carefully in June before making a formal response to them. Ms Kelly indicated support for the commission's argument that translation services should not be allowed to become a "crutch", removing the need for migrants to learn the language of their new home.
In offering comprehensive translation services to help migrant groups with everything from housing to healthcare to finding work "there is a danger that we have failed to promote independence and inclusion in British society", she said.
She welcomed the commission's emphasis on celebrating shared British values and heritage. She said she would "study carefully" their other recommendations when she is presented with a final report in June this year.
But she told the launch, at Charlton Athletic Football Club in southeast London, that efforts to help newcomers integrate must go hand-in-hand with a struggle against the far-right to "win the hearts and minds" of communities from all racial backgrounds.
There was no room for complacency if Britain was to avoid the emergence of a far-right political figure like Jean-Marie Le Pen in France or Jörg Haider in Austria, she warned.
Extremists are targeting both traditional white communities and settled ethnic minority groups who now see new waves of immigrants arriving in the UK, said Ms Kelly.
"These are the communities that far-right extremists are determined to divide through the exploitation of myths and misperceptions," she said.
"The far-right is still with us, still poisonous," she said.