Should we take this MP's advice and take British lessons?

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail....ur-MP-Sadiq-Khan.html

/// Mr Khan said, "It frustrates me that you’ve got new citizens who have an obligation to learn about our country but we aren’t doing enough to make sure everyone shares that knowledge". ///

Is he that thick not to realise the reason some of them know more on the subject, is because they are forced to take lesson on Britishness so as to gain citizenship?

Gaining knowledge on the subject of Charles the first for example, some who have been born in this country would most likely not profess enough knowledge on the subject for them to pass an exam, but knowing they had to pass the exam they would make sure to brush up on what little they did know.

[emmie]

perhaps it's all the leftie, trendy teachers not actually teaching it to schoolchildren in case it offends their sensibilities. After all our history is a long one, bound up with many nations, some of those newbies are perhaps part of the story, but maybe not in a good way.

[youngmafbog]

Always found this 'Britishness' test rather odd.

All I ask from new citizens is they have a good command of the English language, know and abide by our laws and pay their taxes.

[sandyRoe]

The greatest of the English virtues is their live and let live attitude. If only that could be taught to newcomers.

[wardlaw]

^^Can't put it any better.

[emmie]

what English attitude, and i don't see much live and let live in most parts of the world.

[wardlaw]

My last was referring to youngmafbog's post.

[emmie]

youngmafbog, perhaps you would care to visit our area, if you can find an English speaker then you will be doing very well.

[FredPuli43]

Interesting to know what a left wing MP knows about our history. Strong on the Attlee cabinet or Sidney and Beatrice Webb, weak on everything else, I suspect.

if intending citizens learn to the test, they are no different from our schoolchildren, who are taught to do exactly that for GCSE and A level, which explains their abysmal ignorance of all but the narrow field of study on which they are examined.

[jno]

Interesting to know what a left wing MP knows about our history.

An odd thing to say. He studied law at the University of North London - not Oxbridge, I know, but a university none the less - and was a visiting lecturer there. In practice he specialised in human rights, a subject more or less invented by the British, thanks to Magna Carta, and exported to the world. I don't think you have strong grounds for assuming him to be ignorant of the history of the country where he was born.

[FredPuli43]

jno,what has knowledge of the law or of human rights got to do with knowing history? Human Rights Law is a newcomer to the legal field. We always had human rights in this country, though Magna Carta,revoked almost as soon as it was signed and mostly concerned with such mundane things as drainage and weights and measures, and anyway mostly, in reality, about not annoying the barons, is hardly the beacon for it.

I suspect still, that a left winger that field has a narrow knowledge of history, but is certainly knowledgeable about European law and the aspects of history which I have described.

[ludwig]

What about Magna Carta? Did she really die in vain?

[Gromit]

He is right that many Britons of all ages have a poor knowledge of history. Ask them about the English Civil War and they will tell you next to nothing.

However, they have lived with their ignorance all their lives so additional lessons now would be a pointless waste of money.

Also, I do not think learning how to pass a test means immigrants know more than us about our history. The British influence on world events has diminished significantly over the last 60 years and there is a danger that concentrating on Recent British History rather than World history will leave huge gaps in our knowledge.

[zebo]

I would suggest that in most countries, if a newcomer has to study specific topics to pass an exam they will know more than the native born person.

It's the same as a resident of a city never visiting that city's attractions, whereas a tourist would. How many Londoners have been to the Tower of London for example?

When we're in the USA, we find that our knowledge of aspects of US history, especially the Civil War, is much greater than most Americans we meet, OH being a Civil War buff and dragging us round the battlefields.