Ruth Kelly stirs up an interesting issue about translating official documents. For years now it has been the trend to assume that people are empowered by being able to participate and are enabled to participate by being informed of what's going on in a language they understand.

But I do, really, understand the logic that says people would be better integrated if they had to learn English. The trouble is learning English is not the same as being able to understand an official document. As the third of pensioners who are not collecting their pensions entitlement will probably mostly tell you, thirty odd page forms leave even native speakers of 70 plus years mystified.

Mind you, for centuries, government in this country as in many others, spoke and wrote in a different language from the plebs (though it might seem that way still) so we were united in not being able to understand official documents. So maybe Ms Kelly is right. All official documents should be promulgated in Latin, or better still, Norman French (though I'm sure Opus Dei would prefer the former), then we've all got an equal chance of not being able to understand them.