Date   : Sat, 20 Nov 2010 21:26:04 +0100
From   : rick@... (Rick Murray)
Subject: [OT] Who'da thought...

On 20/11/2010 20:43, J.G.Harston wrote:

> I'd force everybody to sit a citizenship exam in their late teens,
> regardless of ethnic background and place of birth, and only award
> citizenship and voting rights to those that pass. ;)

Late teens? What about those, later in life, who decide that their 
country sucks so find somewhere "better"?


It is an interesting point on citizenship rights. Would you deny said 
rights to a native of the country if they should fail the test? Would 
this be because of apathy or bad education?

Who sets the test? The level of questioning depends, surely, on the 
anticipated outcome. It wouldn't be difficult to set a test that many 
actual Brits would fail. Or alternatively create one that you and I 
would fail by stuffing it full of pop-culture, WAG, and football 
references...


I never wrote about it on my b.log, but I took the British citizenship 
test and scored around 66%. Some of the questions were bizarre and 
seemed aimed at social security scroungers, while THREE questions were 
unanswerable due to missing or incorrect answer options (this has since 
been fixed). Ask me why, as a singelton, I would give a damn about what 
allocations pregnant women can receive? Would it not be better to 
include some questions regarding the rich history of the UK? Which king 
burnt the cakes? Or how about the guy with his throne in the water... or 
the arrow in the eye... Do Wales and Scotland have *official* languages 
that are not English? Is any train ever on time? What's the phone number 
for the emergency services? You know, USEFUL stuff.


As for voting rights. Mmmm... As my wage rose over the past five months 
due to night augmentation, my "situation" has changed, so we've just 
received a ?400 tax bill to be paid by the 15th December. Thanks a lot, 
guys. That's Christmas wiped out. I think I ought to change my religion 
and pretend Christmas never existed. Mmmm, is there a religion with 
Monday as its holy day? I don't like Mondays, lobby to not work them... ;-)
Anyway. ?750 in taxes, and I *still* have no rights to vote in France. I 
can vote for local elections, but could anyway. But for the Big Guy In 
Charge, I can't. Interesting disbalance.


Best wishes,

Rick.

-- 
Rick Murray, eeePC901 & ADSL WiFI'd into it, all ETLAs!
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