I just did British Citizenship Test Number 4. Fortunately I passed. I did, however, get two of the 24 questions wrong. I thought you had to be 21 to become an MP. I should have known as, as soon as I pressed the button, I remembered getting it wrong before. It’s 18. A good age for it, as teenagers know everything there is to know. Much better than getting an old person to do it. Personally I’d just roll dice, as I expect it would be just as successful as a way of running the country.
What interest rate should we have? Roll the dice. Budget for health, defence, education? Roll the dice. Prime Minister this week? Toss a coin.
Then I was told I had got the question about Scottish banknotes wrong. I hadn’t. The citizenship Test needs to rephrase the question, or alter the answer. If you define “valid” as “legal tender” (and what other sort of validity could they mean?) Scottish banknotes aren’t valid in England, but most people accept them. It’s a matter of courtesy rather than a matter of law. Scottish banknotes aren’t actually valid in Scotland either, if you check. Nor are Bank of England notes – they just don’t have a law on it, but they seem to get by without it.
The rest of it was OK, but I followed up with doing more questions and am quite surprised by how important it is that people applying for British Citizenship know about the Tudor and Stuart monarchs, including the difference between Mary I and Mary Queen of Scots, whereas most people who are born in the UK think they were the same person.
I’d say that if you want to become a British Citizen it’s more important that you know about queuing, driving on the correct side of the road and the right way to talk about the weather. All the history stuff can be picked up from watching quiz programmes.
The medallion is the one I mentioned a few days ago. It set me thinking about the Citizenship tests. Time flies – I just realised that “a few days ago” wa actually ten days ago.
harrow Council Citizenship medallion.
I couldn’t agree more about the Citizenship test questions. I do happen to know the difference between Mary I and Mary Queen of Scots but didn’t know you could be an MP at 18. So, I’ve learned something, though I’m a little to old to take advantage of that nugget of information.
That knowledge probably puts you in the top 10% of brits, and if you add your weaving expertise you are definitely one a of a small group. 🙂 Is your daughter interested in politics?
Yes, she is, though I wonder about the provenance of some of her ideas. She used to want to be a politician – before she realised what politics is like!
I read an interesting book once, by a long-serving back-bencher. It was all about how to get the best foreign trips and the best freebies with the minimum amount of work. An interesting read, and if I’d read it earlier I may well have had a go myself. 🙂
Do you remember the author?
Sorry, I’ve been racking my brains and can’t bring it to mind.
Thanks, anyway 😊
I wish us all good luck going forward in this crazy world. 🙂
Keep telling yourself it could be worse . . .
Because soon it probably will be. 🙂
Clearly one should become a politician when they just out of school. Beer pong is a thing that needs to be discussed on a parliamentary level
According to some of the stories, it probably is. 🙂
😉
Ten days is a long time in blogging and in position of Office.
Ten days is an elastic concept – not long for a holiday but a lifetime with an unsteady Pm in charge. 🙂
I remember fifty years ago when I was in Scotland that both English and Scottish bank notes were treated equally. But I was actually surprised that there were Scottish notes anyway. As for a citizenship test – it’s probably a bit late for me to try the Australian one.
I just did the sample Australian Citizenship Test on the internet – scored 95%. I expect there’s more to it than that . . .
https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/citizenship/test-and-interview/prepare-for-test/practice-test-new
I got 95% as well.
Congratulations. I would hate to see Bear made homeless because he lived with a man who couldn’t pass the Citizenship Test. I’d like to see how Bear answered some of the questions.
Some one mentioned that a standard test for memory loss in old folk is to ask if they know who the prime minister is. We might all fail that these days. You did very well to get 22 questions right.
The last few times they have had me in hospital they have given me an address at the beginning of the test and asked me what it was at the end. I*’ve been forgetting that for 15 years.