I totally agree with it feels patronising and kinda degrading, not to mention completely useless. When Brexit takes effect I guess I’ll have to take my bags and money (and taxes 
) and move to a different place that doesn’t enforce such nonsense.
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Interesting, I knew most of the history questions but failed a few on the mechanics of government. Who knew Civil Servants can’t stand for elected office!
However at 20/24 in 3 minutes means I passed the test.
Is there any way that someone who’s a British Citizen by birth can take this pledge in a legally binding way that can be submitted to the government or legally witnessed by a government official?
I’d like to so that I can say yes to the following question on US form DS-4079:
- Have you taken an oath or made an affirmation or other formal declaration of allegiance to a foreign state? Yes No
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I scored 24 out of 24 and history was not my favourite subject at school. Seems I either remember all of that boring stuff or maybe I just read a hell of a lot. One or both. 
No if your a British Citizen you fortunately don’t have to be subjected to that.
Well, nothing stopping you from making an oath, is it? The question doesn’t imply that has to be a “government sanctioned” oath, or one administered by government officials. If you swear any oath of allegiance to this country, you should be able to truthfully answer “yes”, or am I missing something? Probably best to do it in front of a witness or two, just in case it ever comes up, though…
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Good point!
Reminds me of the probably apocryphal quip attributed to various wags, Churchill, Bernard Shaw etc - the US immigration forms used to ask if you were entering the US to overthrow the government and one of them put ‘sole purpose of visit’!
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‘Life in the UK’, loads of stuff about the royals 100s of years ago. Very relevant…
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It’s hilarious, I work with a lot of immigrants (university) so I’ve seen them studying for the test… it’s silly. While I know enough to pass most of the practice tests I’ve seen, very little of it is ‘essential for life in the UK’.
On the other hand, do we want a test as easy as the American one? Which is so ridiculously easy almost anyone in the world who speaks English could pass it (I’m not saying all English speakers could get all the questions - it also has some stupid irrelevant history questions, just that over 60% of them are very easy like ‘what is the rule of law?’, and it only takes 60% to pass; the overall question mix is similar but a passing mark is much lower).
Why do we actually need a bullshit test? The real and only test should be whether you are contributing to the economy (ie working and paying taxes). Everything else should be irrelevant.
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TIL. Isn’t it still illegal to advocate for republicanism?
To be fair, I’d consider that an ‘easy’ question. There are six possibilities and almost everyone knows we don’t have free university. It says to pick five. Just pick the other five and keep your political views on the meaning of freedom out of it, and you’d pass 
Fair point. To play devil’s advocate, the test isn’t to determine if you should be able to legally live and work here (that’s granted by a visa, which you don’t need this test for). The test is to determine if you are ready to legally become British and arguably there’s more to that than simply contributing to the economy.
Now, I also know it’s required for ILR, but again, while that isn’t legally becoming British, it is making yourself a permanent part of the country. Surely there’s more to that than economics?
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I do. Here’s my test:
Do you live here?
Do you pay your taxes?
Do you obey the law?
Hint - the correct answer is yes.
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Forget this whole post, whilst I intended it to spark friendly debate and thought, on second thought it was the kind of thing that could be twisted to support ideologies I really hate.
Scrap the test!
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Ideally, yes.
In my last job I spent 30 years interacting with people from all walks of British society. I think that roughly 70% would qualify as having a basic understanding of what they are voting for. And to be fair, I think that the proportion of those who chose to live here who have such an understanding is probably higher.
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I agree, I deleted my post. It was intended more as a devil’s advocate post to spark conversation on the meaning of citizenship; but I realised a lot of ideologies I really strongly dislike could see it as supportive - and it wasn’t at all.
The key is better education and engaging people, not gate keeping voting booths.