Immigrants to the UK wishing to become citizens have to pass an exam. This consists of 24 questions with a pass mark of 75%. After downloading a specimen list of typical questions from the Government website, I completed the test and failed. A number of my relations and friends also failed. We are all natural-born, university-educated British subjects.

Here are four questions as examples:

1. Which year did married women get the right to divorce their husbands? a. 1837; b. 1857; c. 1875; d. 1882.

2. How many parliamentary constituencies are there? a. 464; b. 564; c. 646; d. 664.

3. How many million children are there up to the age of 19? a. 13; b. 14; c. 15; d. 16.

4. How many days per year must schools legally remain open? a. 150; b. 170; c. 190; d. 200.

I fail to see how any of these questions indicate suitability for citizenship. (The answers are 1. b; 2. c; 3. c; 4. c.)
Letter from James Beardall, Shelford, Cambridgeshire, UK