LOCAL authorities in Britain spend a lot of money trying to make themselves understood. The council in Southwark, part of south London, offers translation into 70 languages;
the authorities in Crawley, near England’s south coast, spent £600 translating a lifestyle magazine into Urdu at the request of one citizen. Haringey in north London regularly posts translated versions of documents which nobody downloads. Such excesses have prompted Eric Pickles, the communities minister, to urge councils to stop wasting money on foreign tongues and encourage people to master English. But even when they are using Shakespeare’s tongue, councils have a communication problem. They have been urged to stop using terms like “horizon-scanning”, “functionality” and “coterminosity” that baffle the public.
That is one of the reasons why local authorities and religious communities have trouble getting through to one another; and they do need to talk. A group of Christian legislators, drawn from both chambers of the British parliament, has just issued a report about co-operation between councils and faith groups; it finds that the relationship is extensive but often dysfunctional because the two sides can’t make each other out. Up and down Britain, churches and other religious groups organise food banks, debt advice centres, and care for the elderly. Sometimes this is done in loose co-operation with the council, and sometimes services are formally contracted out. I hope to describe some of these partnerships—what works and what doesn’t—in future postings.