And would the tests be about real world stuff like balancing a chequebook or just how to make sure that commas were in the right place. The questions should reflect real world issues and not just a list of stupid questions like the citizenship one. It should have relevance to what is going on and show an understanding that when you vote for X then Y will be the payment. Not like California where they can vote for low taxes but big state benefits.

It would be interesting seeing what you think should be in such a test.

If, however, reps from a cross-section of professions were to set the proposed questions, they could have the raging battle first and would be obliged to consider the public’s suggestions not unlike in flag design competitions but needing to explain why they rejected certain questions.

It could be further enhanced by only public suggestions agreed by three or more currently registered voters would be considered.

Anyway, once these are thrashed out, the initial set would be put and registered voters invited to go to their local council offices and take the test.

After a quota of, say, 20% of voters had passed the test, then the initial votemeters would be available at major outlets and you’d need to produce your certificate or electronic confirmation from the government to buy the set.

Now the parliamentary committee, association, whatever, puts the set of questions up for editing and the new voters can tweak the list. The old set of questions runs for six months and at the end of that time, the new set is put in place for the period of one year.

Thereafter, the questions, which are up for review all year round, are altered once a year to reflect the new voting over the past year across the country.

Thus the test is slowly honed and the people educated at the same time.

The requirement for an educational qualification was, I believe, one of the strategies used to exclude black people from voting in some Southern states of the USA. And now there are those on the interblogs mooting a property qualification. Anyone for a rotten borough?

The quiz test you mention here for example:

You would qualify and so would my Dad, it is in the balance whether or not my Mum or I would qualify. That is because our learning base took a different path.

“They can get knotted.”

They are not going to get knotted.

“Alien systems do not get a look in and are just shouldered out.”

I hope that includes democracy.

“the centre of politics” — the extreme left-wing politics of yesteryear.

I would never qualify then, I am useless at those sort of tests

Fausty – this is true and it gets tricky when we speak of the already globally politicized plebs who are, after all, our people too. We do come down to a very grey area here and there is no lack of bias. We are biased our own way but we align our bias with our heritage and traditions, which they, the globalists, then try to counter by saying there is no such thing as Britishness – look, we’ve pumped in all these immigrants so your Britishness is now diluted.

This then gets into another area. How quickly we can be drawn down other roads.

While the State continues to grow, or fails to shrink, we will continue to have an almighty battle with almost all the points you raise in your article.

Unfortunately, politics has also been invaded by globalists, who lay claim to our labour and wealth, via bribable politicians who still pretend to represent us.

The lumpen proles are, in effect, also the enemy of thinking people – they being the leeches of our productivity. To defeat the State, we need to deleech the country, then delouse Parliament.

As for your exam. If you are going to have one then maybe people ought to have a chance to study for it, like one that was so cheap anyone could afford it, with assisted places for those who could not. Examples to practice on also.