A London council has described children of Pakistani origin who attend the borough’s schools as “Pakis”. The term appears in an official council document that provides a breakdown of the ethnic background of pupils at the borough’s schools. Diane Taylor, The Guardian.

First it was a simple error (sic)

“The council is aware that a document produced by an early years development worker does contain abbreviations of various ethnic minority groups, however this was due to a computer error. The full titles were inputted correctly into the database but had been reduced due to the size of the cells. This was automatically done by the computer and was not displayed on the screen but was apparent when printed”. Diane Taylor, The Guardian.

And then it wasn’t

However, the word “Pakis” does not appear at the edge of the spreadsheet where half of “Pakistani” might have been chopped off but on lines with plenty of space or where other words follow it.

Later, the council said human error was involved and the manager of the council’s Sure Start programme had investigated. Diane Taylor, The Guardian.

What does this say about the culture at Redbridge Council – the use of racist language is commonplace – vote Tory and BNP and this is what you will get.