Should UK Children Swear Allegiance to the Queen?

After nearly a month out of action, I finally returned to my little allotment plot to see how well the weeds had grown in my absence (occasioned by a little surgery to some delicate regions). My best mate Nosher had done wonders tending not only his own plot but mine as well, so a couple of hours' effort saw the parsnips planted and the broad beans put in. Then it was time to retreat to Nosher's shed and a glass of parsnip wine.
'So much has happened since you've been gone' remarked Nosher 'it's difficult to know where to start'.
'Well, I heard about our idiot-infested government prevaricating about nationalising Northern Rock from my hospital bed' I replied 'and now that they've done it (at a cost of several thousand pounds for every single taxpayer) the shareholders are now vociferously demanding compensation for a bankrupt bank that was worthless in any case and should have been allowed to fail. Greed and fear - that's what makes the world go round.'
'Well, what about the idea that the ill-educated and ignorant schoolchildren of the Dis-United Kingdom should be made to swear an oath of allegiance to the Queen?' Nosher inquired.
'Sounds like blatant indoctrination to me' I said 'I heard that most people think it's a cretinously stupid idea'.
'Cretinously stupid?' Nosher spluttered on his parsnip wine. 'What do these idiots think they're trying to do - turn us into mindlessly patriotic bigots like the Americans?'
'Isn't that a but harsh?' I countered. 'After all, it's true that American schoolchildren have no choice but to swear allegiance to their flag, but at least they're not pledging their loyalty to an idiot like Bush'.
'But it's still indoctrination!' Nosher was by now almost beside himself with indignation. 'And here in the Dis-United Kingdom, why on earth should anyone swear allegiance to the Queen? What does the Queen stand for? Inherited privilege and dodgy government, that's what! I'd be quite happy to commit myself to work for the good of English people (I'm English first and foremost) of any colour and creed, and to uphold the human rights of the poor, the vulnerable and the dispossesed, but everyone else can go take a running jump into the nearest sewage treatment plant.'
'What about the Welsh and the Scots?' I asked.
'They don't even want to be part of the UK, so they can look after themselves' replied Nosher 'and, in any case, every single English taxpayer is subsidising Welsh and Scottish devolution - they wouldn't cope very well without English taxpayers' money.'
'Do you get all this stuff from the back of seed-packets?' I inquired.
As the sun dipped below the willow trees we pondered upon the latest distortion of truth by our unscrupulous government - apparently they're trying to re-write history by presenting schools with a white-washed version of the Iraq War to teach to gullible children. Before long we'll no doubt have a Ministry of Truth just like in George Orwell's novel 1984. Or perhaps it exists already under another name...
More from http://www.overthegardenfence.blogspot.com/ soon.
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