Magna Carta etc

UK Prime Minister David Cameron, who is away in Brazil to inaugurate a machinery plant, is probably thanking his stars for being born a Briton. Because if he were not, and had to face an immigration test on his return to Heathrow, he would run the risk of flunking and being deported. Like he flunked the test in British history on David Letterman's show before he left for Brazil. His education at Oxford did not even permit him to hazard a guess as to what Magna Carta means in English.

Letterman is noted for embarrassing prominent guests, so Cameron's failure was more or less expected. But it is embarrassing because last year, in a speech on immigration — the current obsession of the western hemisphere — he had announced plans to revise citizenship tests and make the knowledge of British history and culture a key determinant. It had sounded like a backlash against the triumph of multiculturalism in Britain, where knowing about the Magna Carta could be less important than knowing what gives chicken tikka masala that vile pink tinge.

British culture today is contested turf. Consider the realm of food alone, where the traditional battered cod is fighting a rearguard action against doner kebab. The British, who once thought of everything but beef as vegetarian, now treat Asian visitors to Scotland to veg haggis. At the same time, Marmite remains central to the breakfast table, along with Gentleman's Relish, a uniquely British substance. Cheese baps continue to flourish, shoulder to shoulder with Sainsbury's samosas. In this varied culture, expecting the British PM to bone up on British history alone is like expecting him to live on a strict diet of full English breakfasts and boiled beef dinners.

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