Comments on: Grotty little fascist

By: Spieler | The Best of the Web

Spieler | The Best of the Web — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:49:50 +0000

[...] us about in what we eat, drink, bet on and watch, they want to (temporarily) enslave our children. Tim Worstall likens Frank Field to the brilliant PG Wodehouse creation, Roderick [...]

By: David

David — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 10:19:43 +0000

“British citizenship, for those born here, is not something which is in the gift of the Government. It is not the State’s to award or deny. It is something held as of right.”
Actually it is only true if your parents are British citizens.

By: Brit.in.Aussie

Brit.in.Aussie — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:54:36 +0000

What citizenship? British people are subjects of the Crown, not citizens.

And what is Timmy blathering about here?

We are that State, we the citizens of the country simply hire the superstructure of the Government to do society’s scut work for us. There is not, and cannot be in a free society, a requirement for us to devote 6 months or a year of our lives in order to earn our citizenship. For there is no one for us to earn it from except ourselves.

Crap. Crap. Crap.

You’re talking about the United Kingdom as if it were a republican state governed “by the consent of the governed”, which the UK demonstrably is not. That’s why the signers of the US Declaration of Independence put in that phrase because it self-evidently did not apply to the United Kingdom

Timmy still has no idea what State he’s in. That’s why he’s making claims about the status of a British subject which do not, and never have, existed.

By: Surreptitious Evil

Surreptitious Evil — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:01:02 +0000

Fergus has it. Citizenship has been foisted upon us by the EU. Without, of course, any of the privileges that notionally apply to it (but are ignored by their governments anyway.)

When did Crown subjects start needing passports, again? Sometime after WW2?

By: The Remittance Man

The Remittance Man — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:23:50 +0000

Frank also appears to forget that once something is in the government’s gift it is also in its power to take it back.

By: Little Black Sambo

Little Black Sambo — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 15:21:44 +0000

That reminds me of the idea the Labour Government were promoting years ago of a Stalinist pseudo-baptism ceremony for newborn children. We never hear of it now, so presumably nobody wanted it. Let us hope this ghastly idea of Frank Field’s goes the same way.

By: Fergus Pickering

Fergus Pickering — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 07:10:09 +0000

Well, no snivelling little government shit is going to drag ME to a ceremony OF ANY SORT, apart of course from my elevation to the peerage, and thank you very much. Certainly nothing to do with citizenship. I spit on citizenship. Nasty froggy notion. I am a subject of Her Majesty. God save the Queen

By: DocBud

DocBud — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 01:48:22 +0000

If you read the article rather than “suspecting” TrevorsDen, you would see that Frank Field is indeed proposing that people born British citizens rather than immigrants, would undergo a citizenship ceremony which is most certainly not the current law and practice of the land.

By: Monty

Monty — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 23:31:05 +0000

The youngsters who want to do thi s type of thing are already doing it. They are Guides, Scouts, Rangers, SeaScouts, Cadets, Air Training Corps, Duke of Edinburgh award candidates. And a lot of others are going to college. Or working. Or training to become wheel-tappers and shunters. And mostly they don’t need any “intervention” whatsoever. In fact, it would hold them back.

No this scheme is really about “omigodwhatarewegoingtodoaboutthechavs…”

And what they intend to do, is treat all the youngsters as if they were bone idle layabout chavs. We have to be all alike. Collective punishment. I can’t help thinking about Philip Pullmans article which was published yesterday in the Times, but mysteriously disappeared from the website.

By: Ralph

Ralph — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 23:20:33 +0000

Frank has made a lot of sensible observations and suggestions lately, but I strongly disagree with him on this one.

It would take an awful lot of people out being classified as unemployed though, which may well be the real driver.

By: TrevorsDen

TrevorsDen — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 21:27:25 +0000

I suspect that if you were to emigrate to say Australia you would have to go through a citizenship ceremony.

And anyway this is in fact already the govts latest wheeze. To get immigrants to take a citizenship ceremony.
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/britishcitizenship/applying/ceremony/

I suspect Field is only repeating what is the current law and practice of the land. And you are being needlessly abusive.

Try an apology

By: Pat

Pat — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:54:49 +0000

Doubtful as I am about the details of this scheme, some system whereby people had to perform a service in order to receive the benefits of citizenship would be no more than a revision to the tax code- effectively exacting a contribution from those with too little money to make a worthwhile financial contribution. I would prefer a system where people can choose to opt out- provided they give up the right to vote,”free” health care, the 57 varieties of benefit, embassy/consular support abroad, etc. etc.
Whilst I agree people should be free to live here without the services provided by the state, in exactly the same way as they are for example free to not pay for insurance, that should similarly imply no payouts.

By: Paul Dennett

Paul Dennett — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 14:13:46 +0000

“We are that State”

Oh no we’re not. That really is something Mussolini might have said. Other than that I agree absolutely.

Field is always presented as some kind of prophet but it seems to me he’s lost the plot.

By: dearieme

dearieme — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:59:08 +0000

Even Spode had a human side.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnCNJD3-e7g&feature=related

By: Jeff Wood

Jeff Wood — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 10:41:31 +0000

I fear you are right, but invoking the spirit of Pelham Greville is absolutely the right response, pending the compulsory lessons in the Lamppost Tango.

Thanks. It is years since I read Wodehouse, and I must put that right.