Joint letter from the UK Polish community to The Times

Sir,

Giles Coren's comment (Today I am make first column in Polski, Feb 2) is not only an affront to the many good, hard-working and honest people in the Polish community who today call the United Kingdom home, but also to the countless Britons who call Poles their friends.

If writing his opinion article in a belittling pidgin English supposedly spoken by Poles across the country is Mr Coren's attempt at satire, he has spectacularly failed to be amusing and succeeded only in being insulting.

However, considering his earlier writings on the Polish immigrant - the use of the racial slur 'Polack' in a previous Times article, and his declaration of 'Fuck the Poles' in the Jewish Chronicle – one must suppose that he is not interested in being amusing but has deliberately set out to hurt, inflame and offend.

His current portrayal of Poles as brutal drunks, burying Jews alive and 'dancing on their graves' is both sickening and saddening, and illustrates how little he knows and understands of the history of Poland.

Despite its frequently tragic past, Poland is a proud nation, the earliest to embrace democracy in modern Europe, with a centuries-old cultural heritage brimming with poetry, literature and art. As our British friends and colleagues already know, we are not the animals Mr Coren makes us out to be.

Signed,

Dr Włodzimierz Mier-Jędrzejowicz
Chair
Federation of Poles in Great Britain

Joanna Młudzińska
Chair
Polish Social & Cultural Association

Agata Dmoch
President
Midlands Polish Business Club

Elżbieta Kardynal
Founder
Midlands Polish Community Centre

Anna Kruczkowska and Margot Przymierska
Directors
Polish Artists in London

Dorota Zimnoch
President
Polish City Club

Łukasz Filim
Executive Board President
Polish Professionals in London

Maria Sikorska
Chief Executive Officer
Polish Psychologists' Association