Anders Hanson

Of all the ideas that have been put forward recently as potential government policy, the idea of a Britishness Day and an ‘oath of allegiance’ is one of the most ridiculous.

I have an allegiance to my country (both the UK as the country in which I grew up and where one half of my family is from, and Sweden as that is where I was born and where the other half of my family is from). I have an allegiance to my family and friends. I also have an allegiance to the community I live in. But what I don’t have is an allegiance to the Queen. She may be perfectly pleasant, hardworking and a good figurehead for the country. But that is exactly what she is - a figurehead. I am not a republican but I feel no more loyalty to her than I do to anyone else that I don’t know.

I am also unhappy with this plan because it is purely and simply a gimmick. You do not make people more loyal or committed to a country by making them swear an oath. If someone does not feel loyalty or wants to actively undermine it then I doubt they will be put off by having to go through the motions of swearing their allegiance.

Thirdly, the whole idea for the oath of allegiance and the Britishness Day is incredibly artificial. It would be fine if it had come out of years of history, but it hasn’t. I have said before that I am all for celebrating the country we come from, but it would all be so much better if it was spontaneous or rooted in tradition. Allegiance to Britain is a gut instinct and about the various traditions of our country that have steadily built up over the years, and not some political gimmick thought up by a political party policy group.