“Dear Ree

well you have certainly shown just how ignorant you are to everyone. I have no doubt that you yourself, who speaks English, would struggle to understand English legalese. How would you therefore expect someone who speaks none or indeed just very basic English not only to understand a completely different judicial set up to the one that they have come from but also the legalese that goes with it? Ignorance is bliss, isn't it?”

“I am really impressed by the comments by some of the people here.

They recognise that migrants pay tax, they recognise that ANY foreign national could be wrongly convicted if a small detail of their defence slips through the net to an untrained non-interpreter. They also see that instead of the UK dragging its knuckles back into the dark ages, we should set an example to other nations that don't have an interpreting system.

The antics of Police forces and other public agencies in trying to flog off their translation and interpreting services to the cheapest bidder risks the increasing use of poor non-interpreters who are considered fit for purpose by commercial companies whose interest it is in to use such persons. This risks a great miscarriage of justice at some point, and if it happened on a major case, it would end up costing a great deal more than any saving that could be made.

Language, unlike medicine and law, is a field where the suppliers to our public services can get away with providing unqualified persons and no-one does a thing. It is a disgrace and is under threat of becoming commonplace after the Ministry of Justice announced in August that it would outsource from 2011. If that outsourcing is handled badly, we are in for a plethora of miscarriages of justice.

You have to remember: agencies, as opposed to properly-trained interpreters, pick their freelancers based not on understanding their levels of ability, because they can't. They're business people. They are programmed to make money and in order to make the maximum profit, they are unlikely to use the best professionals who charge fair rates based on their skills and experience.

Not everyone who speaks some of a language is an interpreter - which is a common misconception. It is no different to being able to understand basic legal issues off watching television to being a real solicitor, or operating a car on a basic level as opposed to being a F1 driver.

Interpreters who are trained are trained and examined by trained linguists and the exams are set and marked by trained linguists.

One thing I must point out is that although I support many of the comments made by Superintendent Harrod, he is incorrect in saying there is no central national database: there is. If it is the case that Leicestershire Police use an external supplier, it is worth considering whether that use is really less expensive than using independent, registered freelance interpreters directly.

I was told that in the east Midlands, a private company was used by the Police so if it has cost a large sum of money, it is worth considering whether it was a good idea or not to stop using the NRPSI - the national database that is mentioned - and use a commercial firm.

Oh, by the way, I am an NRPSI-registered public service interpreter in Spanish and Portuguese.

And I was born and brought up in Manchester ... ENGLAND.

The attitude towards the spending of any money on language services in this country shocks me, it really is depressing. The people who benefit from it are ALL of us, including UK nationals.”

“Ah well - another consequence of the "New Labour" government - RIP”

“Red, Leicester - god your naivety is off the scales its actually quite sweet I wish I could look at life through the eyes of child.

Do you not know J,Leic 46.2% of statistics are just made up! get real.”

“Don't bother j. - Daniel obviously doesn't know Leicester as well as he thinks he does and chooses only to see what he wants to see. Hordes of "illegals" trying to make his life a misery. Let him live in his awful world. I'll live in mine, one of colour, difference and diversity. It's much more interesting.”

“"you need to either be quiet or come back with some actual true figures, as me and my Ilk seem to know alot more than you about the real world."

Ah yes, the real world (not someone's personal opinon, oh no!) that cannot be backed up by any research, data, statistics, etc, just someone's "real life" personal experience. Well, explain this to me, when someone's personal experience differs totally from anothers, what do we do then?”

“"Firstly never ever patronise me by giving me credit as if somehow I should be learning from you as I would rather throw myself off a tall building"

I guess you'll always be as small minded, ignorant, and unintelligent as you obviously are.

ps I would love to see you attempt to do a dissertation on something. "What I say is the truth. No facts or evidence to back it up, it just is!".

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

“Daniel,

I was humouring you. You are a lying little shiiite, you know very well what you thought but you haven't got the spine to admit it. You haven't got an ounce of the intelligence I've got, you couldn't argue your way out of a cardboard box. Unfortunately you don't know quite how stupid you are, in fact you probably believe that you are more intelligent than me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Your argument consits of your opinion, no subtance beyond that, and you don't even know why you believe what you believe.”

“Red, Leicester - actually you just read whatever is put in front of you as a statistic and believed it, If all you've got to go on is an old report then your more out of touch than I have previously thought and like my original comment to you said does this report take into account illegal immigrants?? does it take into account short term visa's?? NO so you need to either be quiet or come back with some actual true figures, as me and my Ilk seem to know alot more than you about the real world.

J,Leic - "Full credit Daniel. You are honestly the first person I've come across who I've done that excercise with who didn't fall into the normal trap." Firstly never ever patronise me by giving me credit as if somehow I should be learning from you as I would rather throw myself off a tall building, secondly you dont have the intelligence to set 'traps' for people, you just think you do! I just could never relate to someone so self-righteous and smug as it actually makes my skin crawl thinking about it.”

“Yes it is, I was being attacked so I retaliated. I apologised for that. But well done for bringing it up again!”