YOUR STORIES

I was absolutely sure that I would pass, as I never ever experienced any problems with the actual LIFE in the UK since I arrived years ago. I knew how to rent a flat, or how to recycle, or how to apply for a job, and because I read the papers regularly I knew about the Prime Minister and the Queen and what not. I just know what pretty much everybody knows, and SHOULD know, too ( I agree with that).

I failed.

I didn’t know about the first past the post system.
I didn’t know about the gunpowder plot (I was too young at the time, it was, after all, 1605).
I didn’t know about the Archbishop’s business, nor how the Anglican church is called abroad. First, I am not abroad, and second, I am agnostic. I also thought Quaker was a brand of oatmeal.

But I guess I should know all these things, after all, the mere fact of having paid my taxes in the United Kingdom for the last 5 years definitely doesn’t mean I qualify for the title of citizen.

Weeks later, after I updated my knowledge of trivia, and paid another 34 quid, I passed. I still didn’t know the distance between John O’ Groats and Land’s End. Do you?