And they call it democracy...
We've all experienced those moments. You know the ones I mean. The ones where you find that, no matter how hard you try, you can't help feeling just the teensiest bit disappointed in your country.
I had one of those last night. Jen asked me a question about the 1st amendment. This led to a conversation about the 2nd, 4th, the whole bill of rights etc. She mentioned that I knew a lot about the US. I said, Yeah, State has a citizenship quiz on its website and I had to do it eight or so times before I got a question wrong. We looked up the quiz.
Then Jen asked, "Does the UK have something similar?" So we looked. What we found was, to say the least, disappointing.
It turns out that the UK does have a citizenship test. But unlike the US, where the questions are about matters of fact, the UK ones are political. Like "Do women get paid the same as men?" Now, I know that the law says they should. And I know that the reality is, they don't. But I don't know what the fucking sleazy civil servant with a political agenda who wrote the question is looking for by way of an answer.
And whereas with the US I can look up the answer in any of a number of freely available reference works, in the UK the only way for Jen to find out the politically correct response is to pay £12 for a book from the government, which promises to have the answer in it somewhere.
Those who know me will have noticed my penchant for quoting song lyrics. I'd like to dedicate this extract to my government - the bastards.
Bruce Cockburn - Call it democracy.
See the paid-off local bottom feeders
Passing themselves off as leaders
Kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows
And it's open for business like a cheap bordello
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
I had one of those last night. Jen asked me a question about the 1st amendment. This led to a conversation about the 2nd, 4th, the whole bill of rights etc. She mentioned that I knew a lot about the US. I said, Yeah, State has a citizenship quiz on its website and I had to do it eight or so times before I got a question wrong. We looked up the quiz.
Then Jen asked, "Does the UK have something similar?" So we looked. What we found was, to say the least, disappointing.
It turns out that the UK does have a citizenship test. But unlike the US, where the questions are about matters of fact, the UK ones are political. Like "Do women get paid the same as men?" Now, I know that the law says they should. And I know that the reality is, they don't. But I don't know what the fucking sleazy civil servant with a political agenda who wrote the question is looking for by way of an answer.
And whereas with the US I can look up the answer in any of a number of freely available reference works, in the UK the only way for Jen to find out the politically correct response is to pay £12 for a book from the government, which promises to have the answer in it somewhere.
Those who know me will have noticed my penchant for quoting song lyrics. I'd like to dedicate this extract to my government - the bastards.
Bruce Cockburn - Call it democracy.
See the paid-off local bottom feeders
Passing themselves off as leaders
Kiss the ladies shake hands with the fellows
And it's open for business like a cheap bordello
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy
And they call it democracy