Study guide for Citizenship Exam released today

Guide to help new citizens add to 'modern Britain'

The Home Office today published a 145-page handbook intended to familiarise prospective citizens with British culture, history, traditions and government, which will serve as the core text for new citizenship tests.

The book covers British history from the Roman conquest to New Labour; the structure of modern British society, the government and the European Union; everyday needs such as healthcare and banking; employment, the law and how to find information. The sections on government and British society- including the role of women, national holidays and regional differences - will form the basis of the citizenship test which the home secretary, David Blunkett, plans to bring in next year...

The sections to be included in the test suggest that new citizens will be required to know that Wimbledon is a tennis tournament, St Andrew's Day is the Scottish national day, and the abolition of fox hunting has caused outrage in the countryside. Apparently many people still give to the postman [sic] on Boxing Day, though a quick office poll suggests we are either cheap or out of touch at GU.

The version published today is available for £9.99 from the TSO online bookshop.http://www.tso.co.uk/bookshop/bookstore.asp?FO=1159966&DI=544914

full article@ http://politics.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,9174,1374408,00.html


FFS, only in the UK would they CHARGE you for the book that you need to study to take the citizenship exam. Welcome to New Labour's Britain: every Tory's dream.

The sections on government and British society- including the role of women, national holidays and regional differences - will form the basis of the citizenship test which the home secretary, David Blunkett, plans to bring in next year...

You mean Blunkett's replacement...

Is there a chapter on Only Fools & Horses? 

Hoping the new Home Secretary won't have time to get this test through anytime soon, especially if he's got to worry about this ID card fiasco.
Maybe when I apply for citizenship in June they won't have brought it in yet, I really don't want to bother with another test. 

Matt

I hope that you don't have to take it, but I suspect that you will. You see the thing is that since they've published a book, it means that the civil service has pretty much already put the conceptual work in place, and that from this point, there's not much need for the actual Home Secretary to pay attention. The civil service has already greased the gears and the machine is in motion. I'd buy the book, if I were you, and I'm thinking of buying it for myself anyway just because there are aspects of British society (like how legislation gets made) that I understand as much i understand cricket. Not.

My guess is that because this is the gov't, it will take them ages for them to do anything.
Maybe they've done a lot of the legwork but don't they have to introduce these things at least
one year in advance?
Ok, so the gov't works on an April-March year but that means they probably have to get the legislation through very quickly and I haven't seen any specifics on when they want to start it.
In any case, I'll keep an eye out for more word on these exams.

Matt

Listen, I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but... you see there's no need for legislation here; it's a civil service change, which was already announced last year. The time difference between the announcement of citizenship ceremonies and the first one was only a few months. In fact, they began so quickly that many localities had to scramble to figure out how to comply with the new requirements. The hold up on the exam was that the subject matter had to be determined and test centers decided. We know that they've done most of the work for the former, and we're in the dark about the latter. But it wouldn't surprise me if the announcement of exams was soon. After all, I filed in July and then like 3 weeks later, they overnight introduced the requirement that you had to show proficiency in English or Welsh. I'm not sure how they test this, but they got the system going very quickly.

The thing about the UK and Europe is that change seems to take a long time, but when all the gears ahve been set in motion, then it happens as rapidly here as in the states. The talk about the Euro went on for years. But the system changed practically 100% in a matter of months.

You might not have to take the exam, but this might only be by a matter of weeks, not months.

120 pages -- for £9.freakin'99!

AND IT'S A PAPERBACK!!!

Yep, it's theor way, no doubt, of privatizing the exam. No need to set up schools when you can externalize the cost by having individuals pay for it themselves. Sort of like driving lessons. But hey even in the states you can take driving lessons for free in high school.

You might be right, lightbulb, but I hope not.  In any case it shouldn't be an incredibly hard test but it's the hassle of having to do it.

I've never heard of free driving lessons in high school in the States.  When I went to the driving center when I was in high school we had to pay the driving school.  Could this be different state by state?

Matt

I had lessons in High School.... California....

Oh God. Am I ever going to get to be a citizen in this country! Prove I can speak English? Take another test! Why don't I balance on a beach ball and whistle Dixie with a mouthful of crackers while I'm at it? Sorry, but all this hoop jumping is really getting on my nerves.

Why don't I balance on a beach ball and whistle Dixie with a mouthful of crackers while I'm at it?

Good idea; let's contact the IND! Matt, I guess that driving lessons do vary from place to place. In NY, I think that they are pretty uniformlz free. The watching of driver ed film shorts is a kind of rite of passage. I still remember Keep the BIg Picture' one.

A citizenship exam??   There's an exam? Oh bloody nora!  I don't recall any information about that on the IND page at all!!  How on earth do they expect you to do this residency and naturalization process if they don't tell you what you need to know!!!  Whooooooo can I talk to who can tell me exactly what I need to do to apply for citizenship?
pout, sniff, whimper.

Annie

There's not an exam, YET. There will be one eventually. We know that it's coming, but they haven't made the announcement as to when it starts. But, as above, I'd study as if you thought you would have to take it.

Sorry for my ignorance, but I wasn't aware that you didn't already need to take an exam to naturalize as a British citizen.  You have to take an exam to become an American citizen. (Although it seems that the American test questions are simpler, and I believe you can get a study guide for the American test online for free. I agree that charging people to buy the book is unfair.) I think it's only right that if you want to be the citizen of a country, and be able to vote, you should be able to prove a basic knowledge of its laws and culture. 

I am not making any excuses for people who are citizens by virtue of birth or ancestry and don't know squat about their country's laws or culture.

One of the things that I plan to do while I am living in England and have some free time before I can get a job is to start seriously studying the British political system and British history.  Not because I need to do it in order to become a citizen someday, but because I ought to. (I've got a degree in Political Science and I know next to nothing about British politics, and only a tiny bit more about British history. I ought to be ashamed of myself.)

I would think that considering the number of years someone has to reside in the UK before they are allowed to apply for citizenship, by the time they do apply, they would already know many of the answers without having to study, unless they are the type of person who never picks up a newspaper or reads a book.