This was an issue in Wales long before it ever became an issue in England. Had politicians been willing to face the problem honestly and take constructive steps instead of brushing the whole issue aside as the concern of a few Welsh "hotheads" then perhaps the whole immigration debacle in England would never have occurred.
Unless there is a sustained willingness to be open and honest about the vital place of language in fostering meaningful communities, and a determination at the top levels to act positively, both the English and Welsh will continue to be threatened with swamping, the English by immigrants from outside the UK and the Welsh by immigrants from England.
The native language of Wales is Welsh (though we're now officially bilingual) and the native language of England is English.

"When there have been significant numbers of new people arriving in neighbourhoods perhaps not able to speak the same language as those living there, on occasions not really wanting or even willing to integrate, that has created a kind of discomfort and disjointedness in some neighbourhoods."

That will be Spain then.

Why should the taxpayer be responsible for the English lessons of economic migrant dependants?

apuleius, try trading the article properly for who is currently entitled and why it makes sense. Then think a bit.

mcquade,

Spot on, I as a tourist am always trying learn more Spanish and yet there are getto's of Brits there that have been there for years and never bothered to learn the language!

Having said that everyone should try.

Stuart Eels:
I was thinking just that, the English expats in Spain that I have come across(there are obviously some that do learn the language and intergrate) are terrible at learning the language and becoming a part of the community.

On this basis, I am not sure how we can be so morally indignant to immigrants to the UK.

There would have been none of this if the trade union closed shop had never been abolished. Requiring the production of a union card is no different from requiring the production of a British passport or a work permit. The closed shop was as important for that as it was for giving the Tory forty-five per cent of the industrial working-class a moderating influence in the selection of Labour candidates for the safe Labour seats in which they lived.

New Labour's repudiation of the trade union movement was very much like its repudiation of Clause IV. That Clause did not mention nationalisation, although it certainly allowed for it; it had been framed so that people who already had nationalisation in mind could read that presupposition into it, even though no one could have read that presupposition out of it. But Tony Blair and his fan club thought that it was about nothing else.

So, in repudiating it, they repudiated public ownership in order to repudiate everything that public ownership delivered and safeguarded, notably national sovereignty, the Union, and the economic basis of paternal authority. Likewise, in repudiating trade unionism, they repudiated controlled immigration and the moderating influence of the wider electorate in the affairs of the Labour Party. Mercifully, that last, at least, reasserted itself in the victory of Ed Miliband over the Blairite candidate.

does anyone care about Wales? (bad joke)... Thing is I don't think theres much incentive in Wales for them?

Overall i support the plans on paper anyway and agree immigration is a wider issue tied into other public services... however, it all depends if they are gonna implement it successfully...

It's a long time coming and Labour should have dealt with it...

Some on the political-left really do need to wake-up and take notice. Multiculturalism has failed, along with Labour's religious fascist appeasement both will no longer be tolerated. Politices has changed and some on the left are playing catch-up.