"'Bagpuss' Pickles has gone crackers!" Arturo declared. "It's either that - or he's hoping to be sent the products from the curry cookery 'lessons'!"
The article was written by Alan Travis, Guardian home affairs editor. It concerned:
... a UK curry college that would teach British workers the secret of perfect pakoras a showpiece of the government's integration strategy to be published shortly.
A curry college! What about a houmous nursery? A goulash primary? A zupa szczawiowa university? Maybe I am being a cynic, I thought, maybe I need to read more.
The article continued:
Pickles's "curry college", as it is being called, would see the government backing a school to train British people from all backgrounds to become chefs specialising in Indian food as an answer to the crisis in the £3.2bn curry industry triggered by the Home Office's ban on bringing in chefs from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.
Being a cat of refined taste - I wouldn't touch a curry with a barge-pole! Let alone a curry from a 'curry college' encouraged by 'Bagpuss' Pickles!
It seems that the 'Silent Man' Iain Duncan Smith is also in favour of this type of initiative. The article states:
It also chimes with the position of Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary. In July he appeared to echo Gordon Brown's infamous plea for "British jobs for British workers" but has since said that he rejects that in favour of a policy of "getting British workers ready for British jobs".
The idea is backed in the long-awaited integration strategy being hammered out between Whitehall departments, which says the government is to "support British excellence in the Asian and Oriental catering" sector.
Brunel and Stephenson must be turning in their graves, I thought! If we need to rely on youngsters learning how to make curry to get the UK out of its multifarious problems - Boy, oh boy; are we in trouble! Do Pickles and IDS really think that a curry college will kick-start the economy and produce a harmonious society?
The Industrial Revolution that made the UK into a world leader was dependent on innovation not on re-hashing old cooking recipes! There were new techniques in the production of textiles – cotton spinning using Richard Arkwright's water frame, James Hargreaves's Spinning Jenny, and Samuel Crompton's Spinning Mule. There was innovation in steam power through the work of James Watt. These were just two areas where the UK lead the world - not through using Mrs Beaton's cookery book!
You know that a country is really on the skids when two of its government ministers reckon it's even worth giving the time of day to a 'curry college'!
It seems, however, that the 'curry college' is only one part of a strategy. It is not just to get youngsters into the role of curry-cooks. Believe it or not, it is also part of the 'integration strategy'. This strategy is referred to in the article in the Guardian as follows:
The draft paper confirms the strategy will be broken down in four separate strands: establishing common ground; increasing social mobility; improving participation and countering intolerance and extremism. Among its proposals are believed to be:
• A new drive against "anti-Muslim hatred" in Britain and a recognition antisemitism is also growing.
• Events to celebrate the Queen's diamond jubilee and the Olympic Games that bring together different communities.
• An online integration forum, which includes a "barrier-busting site" to remove bureaucratic barriers and encourage different community and faith groups to come together.
• An initiative to establish common ground with Gypsy and Traveller communities.
Can any of this be achieved by getting everyone to eat 'home-grown curry'? Truly amazing, if it works! One mouthful of curry and we love all foreigners - including the French!
There is a telling quotation in the article:
Paul Goodman, a former Tory shadow communities minister, and executive editor of Conservativehome website, said the curry college plan was "very Eric Pickles". Goodman said: "He [Pickles] has a dream: namely to set up a curry college. It combines border control with foreign cooking. It would both help satisfy the apparently inexhaustible appetite for onion bhajis and prawn birianis while also providing justification for the squeeze on visas."http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/nov/18/pickles-curry-college-intergration-strategy?CMP=twt_gu
When Martin Luther King had a dream about integration, I don't think he was dreaming of curry!
Arturo and I were troubled by the image of 'Bagpuss' Pickles and 'Silent Man' Duncan Smith gorging on onion bhajis and prawn birianis. We went out to hunt for a tasty rat - or two!
'Bye'
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