(no subject)

[danohu]

[Edit: as predicted, this was a case of a misleading article in the Guardian. See i_am_toast's comment.]
Plans to make schoolchildren take part in citizenship ceremonies pledging allegiance to the Queen

Yes, it's the Guardian selling papers by angering liberals, and somebody's always willing to say idiotic things to get himself back in the news. But it still leaves me feeling sour - and yes, these things can matter.

Worse - I hadn't realised (or had forgotten) that we make immigrants swear to "be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, her Heirs and Successors, according to law"

sorry; I will stop posting so much about politics eventually. I just seem to have remembered in the past few weeks how beautiful the world is, and therefore also how fucked up chunks of it are

Comments

[lavendersparkle.livejournal.com]

When I heard about this it made me wonder what they would do about people who do not make oaths for religious reasons. (I come from a long line of non-conformists some of whom got into trouble for refusing to make oaths in the 19th century.)

[the-alchemist.livejournal.com]

What a shame we didn't have that when I was at school. I would have very much enjoyed refusing.

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

Meh. Not good.

Yes, it's the Guardian selling papers by angering liberals

Argh, I really hate it when they do that. There are such a small number of newspapers that are largely not-right-wing, and then one of them apparently decides that in order to be dynamic and controversial they need to be as much like the other newspapers as possible. Mind you, AIUI the Independent has been known to do the same.

But then, being left-wing or even what I could call centrist just isn't cool anymore. It's very irritating.

[shortcipher]

The word "swear" is showing as an empty link (href="").

[robert-jones.livejournal.com]

I didn't see the original form of the Guardian article, but I did hear the Today Programme interview to which the article refers. Radio 4's presentation was along the lines of the your link tag, and I suspect that the Guardian just picked up on that.

[robert-jones.livejournal.com]

Also to be fair, we don't make "immigrants" swear allegiance to the Queen. It's only if they want to become citizens that they need swear, and there's no need for them to become citizens (since, if I've understood correctly a prospective citizen would necessarily already have permanent leave to remain).

I can't see anything objectionable in that, given that we do live in a monarchy (even if you might prefer it if we didn't). You and I owe our allegiance to the Queen by birth, so there's no need for us to swear, but it seems reasonable to me that the subject of another sovreign should have to make some definite act to transfer allegiance.

Godwin's Law

[iain666.livejournal.com]

Also. Oh dear. You automatically lose. ;-)