You don’t have to speak English before you can start learning it in Britain

The BBC reports that an absurd rule introduced by the previous British government has been reversed. The rule was that  people applying to study in the UK had to prove that they had English language skills to an equivalent of GCSE standard. Whatever possible justification there might be for such a rule (apparently it’s to do with national security – say no more), it would have caused untold damage to the English language teaching industry, which deals with, believe it or not, people who want to travel to the UK to learn the English language so by definition they don’t speak it very well. This industry is worth about £1.5bn a year in foreign income to the economy.