Citizenship

I am going to leave the advertised content for a short while, although I do still intend to return to conference soon.

Right now I am excised by the fuss about the so-called citizenship proposals. I should say now that Ekklesia makes some very good points about the theological implications, and criticisms.

My initial reaction was mainly a political one, and one that I would like to think is informed by a little national pride. The theological problems are well put by Ekklesia, it is very true that a Christians first allegiance is not to the nation, but to "Another Country" (Beware - MIDI).

Of course most of the fuss has been about one, tentative, element of the proposals. People have been generally put off by the idea of swearing allegiance to the Queen. Quite rightly, I for one just don't feel like I owe the queen any allegiance, and I am far from being a republican. I also think there is something contradictory about asserting our Britishness by importing Americanisms, well, I hope that is contradictory. If I were to swear allegiance to any thing to represent my Britishness, it would probably be parliament. We haven't had a thousand years of the negotiation of a democratic settlement for it all to be ignored overnight. I might go as far as the King(Queen) in Parliament. I am not entirely sure what the Crown represents, is it the imperium of the monarch? Is it indeed the power of the King in Parliament? Bottom line however, is that I would rather not swear allegiance to anything. No flag, no Constitution, no Queen, King, or Corporation.

Many of the other ideas have some merit, I would like to ignore anything about being a citizen, about citizenship ceremonies etc. If one is an incorporated citizen in a proud nation, one shouldn't need to prance about to prove it. Tax discounts, or reduction in tuition fees, for people who do volunteer and community work couldn't hurt. Millions of man hours must be put into socially valuable but financially unrewarding volunteering every year, the benefits to society, the state, and the economy should be rewarded, if only marginally. I would also love to see an extra bank holiday, perhaps on St George's Day, Shakespeare's birthday, or the anniversary of Shakespeare's death.

What I would really like to see however, is an attempt to make people British with a good immersion in real British History, and Liberal thinking and Philosophy.

The core would have to be a Magna Carta to Holyrood tour-de-force over several years, modeled perhaps on Starkey's Monarchy, which tells the story of the shift of power from King - Parliament. With a good dose of the history of the institutions and the formation of the nation, and an understanding of how our rights arose a better appreciation might be gained. This would have to be accompanied by a basic introduction to some of the classic philosophy of the state.

The loss of classics has had a severe deleterious effect on education generally, someone who studied classics for a good length of time should understand not only the language, but also English grammar, and the basics of rhetoric. More importantly it is in Latin and Greek that some of the most important ideas about the state were first formed, a grounding in these is sorely lacking. To build on the classics an understanding of John Stuart Mill and Rousseau should be enforced. Neither is particularly difficult, but if more people understood Mill, the world would surely be a better place.