Are you a 'True Brit'?

[Ed P]

Just a bit of fun – try the citizenship test!

link

[Drezha]

17/20. The Wales one got me.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[The Duke]

I flunked the Wales one too, beating the Spanish (which I should know) and how many on a Scottish jury.

Saying all that, I’ve said before, I don’t really “feel” English / British / whatever. I’ve never been a patriotic person. May sound strange as I was in the forces, but even then, I was never bothered. Maybe if we was fighting a force line Nazi Germany, etc I may feel a bit more British, but still.

The older i get the more I dislike artifical restrictions pit on us in the name of “freedom”. Which is BS, boarders are all about the oppersite of freedom, control.

Is there actually an official uk test forigners  have to take? If so I’d rather it be on basic laws and rules. And be more of a seminar.

I was just pondering the thought if foreign integration while I was typing the above. We moan that all the differnt communities are segregated from one another, and this is where tensions start.

I’m all for national service, love the idea, one that bring the youth of all these communities together. Let then get to know each other, but also any one seeking asalym under 34 (I think that’s the entry  age limit now) should have to do national service with everyone else.

Instant integration.

The quicker we can integrate communities the better. As a kid I and all the way through through service, I’d of probably been labeled as homophobic. I’d never met any one of that persuasion , or at least spent time with any. Then I went uni, and still to this day some of my best friends are gay.

One of them,  said the nice thing ever to me on day in a pub. Students pubs are a little strange, men/women, men /men, women/women, and I was just sat there watching, my friend turned to me and said I’m the least gay looking person ever. I liked that, but I think he was having ago at my dress sense.

[Drezha]

The Duke wrote:

I’m all for national service, love the idea, one that bring the youth of all these communities together. Let then get to know each other, but also any one seeking asalym under 34 (I think that’s the entry age limit now) should have to do national service with everyone else. 

36 for officer in the RAF and 30 for most trades I believe. Other services, I’ve no idea.

"Everything looks interesting until you do it. Then you find it’s just another job" - Terry Pratchett

[The Duke]

I was in the correct ball park. I know in the that 90s Royal Marine entry was 28, army was about 32. But soon after the RM went up as some one forced their hand. I can’t recall the details.

I was referring more to standard army intake, as that is what most NS would be.

Raf doctors I think is 59 years old, and can stay to 70. But you need to be a doc first. My lad who is in uni has applied for both Raf and Navy, as well as uni for his second course. But uni is last on his wish list. Both the Raf and navy, do the follow up MD course. So will save him about £40k in debts and he will be paid from day one. And not need another job.

He really struggled to study, work and err party while at uni. The costs today are stupid. Dad did tell him to side step uni and let the services pay all his education, 6 years ago. It’s a rare occasion a child said, you was right. Buy my god it’s satisfying. It’s like they think we know nothing, and have never done anything.

[Dave Rice]

18 / 20 Can’t see how that makes me a citizen.

[Ed P]

Snap Dave, I did not realise the Scots had so many people on their Juries.

[Bob Williams]

16/20. I am puzzled by the “citizenship” part. Most of my friends of other cultures are born here: one is 4th generation British-Carribean and I doubt that he could answer more than 10 of these questions. However, citizenship and nationality can be different things, especially in regard to ancestry: the knowledge that your ancestors have lived and died in Britain for centuries, is something that is not quantifiable and cannot be determined by one’s knowlege of kings, queens and political figures.

By a coincidence, today I learned that my paternal ancestors go back to 14th Century North Wales. I have work to do regarding my maternal ancestors, but I have found the stumbling block to be the 17th Century, during which they appear to have been exiled from France as Huguenots: French Protestants who may have chosen exile in Britain, over conversion to Catholicism or being burned at the stake.

How British am I? – Sixth – generation English, but proud of my Welsh ancestry, one of whom was born in Conwy, became Bishop of Lincoln, then Archbishop of York and political advisor to King James I. My gt-nephew and his two chidren are Scots born and live well north of Aberdeen. All I need is a N.I. connection.

On second thoughts, no. I don’t. And I consider myself to be no more British than my mate Vijay, a 6’6″ Sikh, third generation British and with a really daft, really British sense of humour that matches my own.

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Ed P]

I agree, the test speaks nothing to the real traditional values and basic tenets of conformity and treating other (of both sexes) as you would wish to be treated. Neither does it address the things everyone needs to know in order to survive in the modern UK environment.

It is mainly just a history test that means very little. Who cares if Henry VIII or Richard I brought Wales into the Union?

[Dave Rice]

Bloody Huguenots, coming over here and nicking our transubstantiation.

I was reading somewhere that they reckon 1 in 6 of us has some Huguenot in our ancestry.

[Les.]

Oh yes! There is a British Citizenship test.  https://www.gov.uk/life-in-the-uk-test  Tamara had to take it (the Manx version has a couple of Isle of Man specific ones, otherwise identical apart from the extra syllabus) and she worked solidly for three months on it. Not sure many of us would pass it without spending a lot of time reading the book.

That plus the language requirements SHOULD help make for more homogeneity in the future.

I think a big factor regarding islamist terrorism stems from the fact that so many muslim immigrants over the previous years have had the man out working and acquiring some english language, whilst wife and mother in law stay in the house with no english contacts whatsoever. When there are kids, they learn English at school, and take over the role of responsible translator for the family. Meanwhile wife and mother in law emotionally dwell entirely in the old country, so have nothing to pass on to the children regarding responsible british life, whilst not understanding anything the kids acquire at school. A recipe for schitzophenic development.

I got 14 out of the 20, but since history was my worst subject, I thought that was good. I got the Jury one wrong, went for 8, which is something like the number used over here.

Les.

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

I am going to post on this this time because it keeps comming up. My home town is Wembley Middx and it has been utterly invaded. Figures for the 2011 census show the population is 93% non white British and the figures are wrong because you don’t fill out the censuse if your not ment to be here. None of the new arrivals have any interest in integration or even in speaking english. They really ARE just out for what they can get.

[Spedley]

12/20  Never was good at history at school, didn’t see the relevance with the present. (Still don’t for much of it, however it doesn’t seem as distant as it used to)
Most of my answers were guesses (i.e. got test every 3 years wrong after 70, I thought it was 2 years) but many of the guesses you could make from familiarity, e.g. EastEnders.  To do that you could argue you’d need to be a citizen.

i7 4790s / 8GB / 480GB SSD / GTX 980 / 34" UltraWide : i3 4170 / 8GB / 480GB SSD / GTX 770 / 24" Samsung : i3 4130 / 8GB / 500GB Spinner / GTX 1050 / 23" Acer : Q9550 / 8GB / 1TB Spinner / GTX 580 / 22" Acer : i7 720QM / 8GB / 1TB+2TB+500GB Spinners (server) : i5 4570 / 8GB / 60GB SSD / 1TB / GeForce 210 / 22" Dell It's getting warm in here!

[Boris]

Probably because I’m old, absorb and remember totally useless facts, and like quizzes/puzzles ?

Never trust an atom - they make up everything !

[Boris]

Dave Rice wrote:

I was reading somewhere that they reckon 1 in 6 of us has some Huguenot in our ancestry.

 

Far worse than that – I have a blood link to Jimmy Young (my dad (some sort of cousin of his) couldn’t stand him as a kid way back in the 20’s !)

Never trust an atom - they make up everything !

[Bob Williams]

I was as annoyed about that as you, Jason, then I read the Wiki page:    https://tinyurl.com/ycavoe9r

Scroll down to ‘Ethnic Diversity’ and find that, in the 2011 Census, only 5.3% of the population of Wembley, were White British. Just 792 people, and you can bet by now that most of them are gone. I have already stated here and elsewhere that I have friends from many different cultural and racial backgrounds, but I would not like to live in an area as part of such a tiny minority. Especially in my own country.

I can therfore see what makes Graham angry, he does after all live there. However, I cannot condone these words:

” None of the new arrivals have any interest in integration or even in speaking english. They really ARE just out for what they can get. ”

Graham, you probably don’t know many of the people you refer to, or how they live their lives. I would hazard a guess that a very large proportion of them have menial jobs on low pay, I may be very wrong and stand to be corrected. I join Jason in asking for evidence regarding the above statement, though. I do know how two of my ‘culturally different’ friends here in East Lindsey felt when they first came to live in an area that is 93% White British, though. Initially, they felt like outsiders, until locals including myself, started talking to them. Is that familiar?

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Bob Williams]

Boris wrote:

Dave Rice wrote:

I was reading somewhere that they reckon 1 in 6 of us has some Huguenot in our ancestry.

Far worse than that – I have a blood link to Jimmy Young (my dad (some sort of cousin of his) couldn’t stand him as a kid way back in the 20’s !)

Much worse than that for me: I am Robert Williams, related to Robbie Williams. My dad and his granddad were cousins of some sort. I recognise a daft Williams when I see one!

When the Thought Police arrive at your door, think -
I'm out.

[Spedley]

Re: Wembley …

That is very high, I didn’t realise there was anything like that in this country.  It also seems that only about 10% are from Europe.
Not quite sure where Other White, White Irish, Mixed and Other fit into the statistics, nor what percentage of the optional ‘diversity’ pages were filled in – I never do.

i7 4790s / 8GB / 480GB SSD / GTX 980 / 34" UltraWide : i3 4170 / 8GB / 480GB SSD / GTX 770 / 24" Samsung : i3 4130 / 8GB / 500GB Spinner / GTX 1050 / 23" Acer : Q9550 / 8GB / 1TB Spinner / GTX 580 / 22" Acer : i7 720QM / 8GB / 1TB+2TB+500GB Spinners (server) : i5 4570 / 8GB / 60GB SSD / 1TB / GeForce 210 / 22" Dell It's getting warm in here!

[The Duke]

Lol I’m related to Freddie Starr, or rather our Les as my nan calls him. Her cousin.

Seen him at a few funerals when I was young. Thats about it.

I have some good tales about him and his family though. But not I’m willing to put up in public and get sued over.

That is if he is still alive.

[Wheels-Of-Fire]

Who said I was angry ? I stand by what I say though. As a public service user and local shopper I meet the locals all the time. I mostly don’t understand them but I sit on the bus next to them. I offer no proof so I sudgest a visit. Come to wembley central on a non event day and have a wander around the high st. If your feeling brave take the 182 bus to the local A&E and take a look around.

[Author]

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