No swearing please. We’re …

Amongst all the old cobblers about ‘Britishness’ recently ’spouted’ by Lord Goldsmith and his mates, is the un-British suggestion that young people should swear some kind of oath of allegiance. 

Now as someone who would never take any sort of oath to ‘er Maj or swear on any kind of holy book, I have to say that there is something ’sinister’ about this idea of taking oaths in general.

Oath taking always reminds me of secret societies, creepy ceremonies at midnight, men dressed in white sheets and ‘wiseguys’ getting ‘made’.

However, I’m sure that Lord Goldsmith envisages some American style ‘hand on heart’ oath with words like …

“I promise to do my duty in love and loyalty to the Queen and our flag.”

OK, so lets ignore the fact that half the little buggers leaving school wouldn’t know who the Queen is, let alone know where to place their hand, and assume that they were able to mumble the above oath without adding “yer know wha’ I mean?”. Well that wouldn’t be too ’sinister’ would it ?

Perhaps not, but that same oath was once taken by another group of young people, except that oath included the word ..  ’Führer‘ .. instead of the word ‘Queen’. It was, in fact, the oath of allegiance of  .. ‘The Hitler Youth’, and we all know … 

…  what good citizens many of them became.