Government is failing to translate Covid rules | Emma Kay

Signs asserting ‘Stay Alert’ and safety guidelines are everywhere, dotted all over buses, businesses and on television. They are now stapled into our subconscious.
A newly arrived passenger wearing a face mask as a precaution against the novel coronavirus walks past a sign at Heathrow airport, west London with the British government's new 'Stay Alert' message on it.  (Photo by Tolga Akmen / AFP) (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)A newly arrived passenger wearing a face mask as a precaution against the novel coronavirus walks past a sign at Heathrow airport, west London with the British government's new 'Stay Alert' message on it.  (Photo by Tolga Akmen / AFP) (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)
A newly arrived passenger wearing a face mask as a precaution against the novel coronavirus walks past a sign at Heathrow airport, west London with the British government's new 'Stay Alert' message on it. (Photo by Tolga Akmen / AFP) (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP via Getty Images)

We have been swaddled in a thick cloak of information. The guidelines are there and we can access them whenever we want, wherever we want. However, this is not the case for everyone.

There is a severe lack of translated material for non-English speakers and this is leading to a critical blind spot in the personal health and safety for each and every one of us.

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Public health information on the coronavirus has been translated into 25-plus languages, but there are still those that have fallen through the widening information cracks.

More than 88 languages are spoken in the UK with an estimated 860,000 people who speak little to no English. It’s a shocking statistic that appears to have been swept under the pandemic rug.

Furthermore, anything that needs to be updated as new information arrives is not translated soon enough, so the material that is available is, worryingly, outdated.

Rules on face coverings and track and tracing have yet to be translated by the government.

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The massive task to translate this essential and lifesaving information to others has been undertaken by the charity Doctors of the World, who are struggling under the sheer weight of demand for up-to-date advice, legislation, support and how to stay safe.

They claim that the government has completely forgotten quite a large number of people who are being left utterly helpless.

This information needs to be there for the many multicultural societies within our shores.

You may think, why bother with all of this? What effect does it have on me? The simple truth is a lack of translated coronavirus guidance hurts everyone, no matter what language you speak. It hinders the safety of all of us.

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Inconsistencies like this will cost lives if we have large groups of people who have little or no access to the latest coronavirus information. It needs to be available for everyone, for all our sakes.

The Argos catalogue is a book of childhood memories

After 50 years the Argos catalogue is no more. With shopping online the new normal it is hard to imagine leafing through such a hefty volume to buy a vacuum cleaner.

Perusing the pages was as fun as scrolling through Instagram.

You enviously eyed the Tiger Deluxe Talk Cassette Tape Recorder, but knew better than to ask for it, being so hideously expensive.Christmas selections were pictures messily snipped from the pages and glued onto a shakily written Christmas list. A helpful child would have included page numbers.My parents had to trawl through to find the pink My Little Pony I wanted.The catalogue may be gone but the memories remain.

Haven’t we been punished enough without flying ants?

It seems Flying Ant Day has turned into Flying Ant Month.

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It feels as if trillions of flants (as they have become known) have been hanging around for much longer than usual.The official Flant Day was July 12 but there are still plenty hanging around.I’ve read reports of a man who ‘screamed in fear’ as thousands rose up from the leafy depths of his garden.These invader insects might be a nuisance for us but are a delicious snack for seagulls who have been seen flying around in droves and filling their bellies.My sister’s chickens have been similarly clucking and clambering over the garden, snapping merrily at their juicy treat.

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