Loose connections.
The Daily Telegraph’s xenophobia continues unabated.
Pensioner told her electrical safety report would be written in Polish.
Stella Sheen, 70, said two Polish workmen arrived at her home in Islington, north London, to check if her wiring was safe.
She said that when she requested a copy of the safety certificate from the council electricians, she was told that she would not be able to read it if she did not understand Polish.
The Telegraph, ever eager to find a news story which shows how the country is being overrun by ‘foreigners stealing our jobs’ took care to contact Brian Potter, Chair of the Federation of Islington Tenants’ Associations, who said:
“It’s absolutely disgraceful that tenants are not being provided with electrical certification after works have been carried out.”
There are a number of things they didn’t care to report.
These reports are done for the benefit of the landlord – in this case the ‘Homes for Islington’.
Homes for Islington do provide a copy of the report – in English – to the tenant, as a courtesy.
I checked into this one because I wondered who was paying for the translation if it was true that the housing association were sending out non-English speaking contractors to write reports in Polish. Needless to say, it isn’t.
No contractors’ employ non English speaking operatives, but they may employ staff who do not have English as their first language. All operatives have to speak sufficient English for health and safety purposes and whenever working in the home, there will be at least one member of staff with a good level of English.”
After safety reports for example electrical testing are reported (in English) by the contractor to HFI’s electrical engineers, an official report and certificate are produced. This landlord record can then be made available to the resident.
I suppose ‘Contractor declines to hand over his notes before reporting to his employer and appears to have a Polish accent but speaks enough English to explain to pensioner that he can’t hand over his notes’ just doesn’t have the same ring about it.
August 29, 2010 at 02:46
-
I never spit.
That a fifty-fifty would get you the right answer means that you know
already – and that xeno-phobia is not a psychiatric condition but one that is
based on experience.
- August 28, 2010 at 23:11
-
Spit it out then, Electro Karen. What nationality were they? Nigerian?
Russian? I’m all intrigued now!
- August 28, 2010 at 16:12
-
It’s not the Poles you have to worry about.
I’m wrestling with a rather testing issue of a credit card fraud in my
name. It appears that persons of a certain nationality to whom I sold my last
home intercepted a credit card of mine sent to that address two years after I
left. A 21 day spending/cash withdrawal binge followed, racking up a debt from
zero to
- August 28, 2010 at 09:34
-
The comments are even worse. If I wouldn’t know better, I’d take them as
satirical, as well as the ratings …
- August 27, 2010 at 22:01
- August 27, 2010 at 19:40
-
and all those damm doctors writing prescriptions in Latin…
- August 27, 2010 at 16:17
-
Those Polish workers were up to the same
thing seventy years ago!
- August 27, 2010 at 19:34
-
And weren’t we glad of it! One of my flying instructors was Polish. His
trademark was to say “I’ll tell you once, I’ll tell you twice but don’t
expect me to tell you a second time”!
- August 27, 2010 at 16:13
-
Except white males. If you
- August 27,
2010 at 15:46
-
Everyone’s a victim Kingbingo.
Except white males. If you’re one of those, you’re the problem…
- August 27, 2010 at 15:29
-
Plenty of times I have been handed paper from contractors which I presume
is in English that I can’t read because of the handwriting. Am I a victim?
{ 11 comments }