The Great British Citizenship Quiz – the pub quiz which tests if you’re fit for life in the UK

Addressing the Labour Party Conference in Bournemouth yesterday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown stated: “I stand for a Britain where it is a mark of citizenship that you should learn our language and traditions.”

But does that really mean you have to know what an ESOL is? Or how the process of house buying is different in Scotland than it is in England?

Do most Britons already know the proportion of the UK population who claim regular attendance at religious services? On which dates saints’ days are celebrated?

These are all questions that immigrants will be asked before they can become full citizens of the United Kingdom.

Launching a debate on the meaning of citizenship in Brown’s Britain, the Manifesto Club will host The Great British Citizenship Quiz on Thursday 27 September – a pub quiz in which participants can test their suitability as UK citizens.

Writing about the event on spiked, Manifesto Club convenor Josie Appleton said:

• “There is a notable gap between life in the UK and Life in the UK – the official government handbook to prepare immigrants for taking their British citizenship test. There is Britain as it is lived, in all the richness of work and play. And then there is this otherworldly version of Britain on which would-be citizens must be tried and tested.

• “Brown is erecting a hurdle that immigrants must leap over in order to prove their commitment to Britain. Yet for decades immigrants have learnt and improved their English-speaking skills while resident in the UK – while building up real relationships of commitment at work, in communities, in social environments. As with the citizenship test, the demand that immigrants learn English before coming here looks like another attempt by our leaders to work out their own angst about what makes a Briton a Briton by imposing arbitrary tests on newcomers to our shores.”

Event organiser James Panton said:

• “With the news that Redbridge MP and citizenship test supporter Mike Grapes failed a mock version of the test last year, it will be interesting to see who in our audience wins their right to be a citizen, and who fails to make the Government-imposed grade. The quiz is open to citizens, would-be citizens, and anyone who fancies a try. We don’t expect to be packing anyone’s bag at the end of the night, but we do expect a few surprises.”

Notes to editors:
1. The Great British Citizenship Quiz is on Thursday 27 September, from 7pm, at The Old Queen’s Head pub (upstairs in the Victorian Living Room), 44 Essex Road, Islington, London N1 8LN
2. The quiz is being organised by the Manifesto Club, a pro-humanist campaigning network based in london – www.manifestoclub.com
3. The full text of Josie Appleton’s article on the event can be read at www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/3879/
4. Details of the mock quiz sat by Mike Grapes, MP for Redbridge, in May 2006, are published in the journal Rising East. See: http://www.uel.ac.uk/risingeast/archive04/journalism/adam.htm
5. For further information about the Great British Citizenship or the Manifesto Club contact James Panton at press@manifestoclub.com or on +44 (0)7792 995 462