Language drive falls on deaf ears

A Government initiative aimed at persuading every minister to master a foreign language to match the linguistic skills of European counterparts appears to have ended in failure.

It was exactly a year ago that Keith Vaz, then Foreign Office minister, wrote to his colleagues asking if they could find time to fit language lessons in between their busy ministerial duties.

Some of his less charitable colleagues saw the initiative as a colossal waste of time, distracting them from dealing with sub-standard train services, failing schools and long hospital waiting lists, but Mr Vaz told them: "It's important we as British citizens equip ourselves fully with the language skills so common in other countries."

However, it appears all Mr Vaz's noble hopes were in vain. The Evening Standard has been unable to find a single minister who owns up to having mastered another language.

When we approached Government departments to find out how many had taken up the challenge, there was an uncharacteristic reticence to part with the information.

A spokesman for Alistair Darling's Department for Work and Pensions said: "We do not respond to surveys." At Estelle Morris's Department for Education and Skills a spokesman replied: "We cannot give you this information."

A press officer at the Department of Health was apologetic: " I'm sorry, but all I can do is give you the formal response - we don't respond to surveys."

"We don't respond to surveys," echoed the spokeswoman from the Cabinet Office, headed by the well-known linguist John Prescott. She quietly added: "I think that's probably the answer you'll get from all the departments."

Indeed it was, suggesting an instruction had gone out from the Government's Rapid Rebuttal Unit, which handles unwanted press queries, recommending a blanket response to the Standard's enquiry.

Mr Vaz, who quit the Government last year after being investigated by parliamentary watchdog Elizabeth Filkin over allegations about his financial affairs, was not available for comment today. He had declared he would take up French classes to show the way.

But it should be remembered that at the time, Downing Street also gave its backing to Mr Vaz's initiative, which was aimed at marking the European Year of Languages. Tony Blair already speaks French and Italian, and therefore is considered a linguist among his Cabinet colleagues.

As Mr Vaz wrote in a letter to the Times: "Learning another language increases opportunities. It makes it easier to live, work and travel abroad. It makes the speaker more attractive to an employer.

"And it opens the door to new friendships and other fascinating cultures."