February 21, 2004 MP Calls for Oath of Allegiance
by Simon Doyle, Irish News

All schoolchildren - including pupils in Northern Ireland - should swear a daily oath of allegiance to the Queen, a Conservative MP has urged.

Andrew Rosindell has asked education secretary Charles Clarke to make a provision for children to affirm an oath to the monarch and the United Kingdom.

The Conservative MP for Romford, Essex, tabled a number of parliamentary questions calling for a classroom pledge and said he planned to raise the issue at Westminster.

Mr Rosindell said the oath would be a "simple one that mentions, queen and country" and should extend to all schools throughout the UK, its territories and crown dependencies.

He added that he did envisage problems in any such declaration being introduced in the north.

"I am sure there will be some schools that would resist this idea," Mr Rosindell said.

"However, it should apply equally in all parts of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland as well as our overseas territories and crown dependencies.

"There could be a small variation on each one so that England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales or Gibraltar, Jersey, Falkland Islands, Isle of Man etc could be mentioned or included in whichever part of British territory we are talking about."

The call echoes the pledge of allegiance school pupils in the US make to the American flag as they sing the national anthem each morning [Newshound note: it's actually the Pledge of Allegiance.].

Donal Flanagan, chief executive of the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools said the issue of oaths of allegiance were discussed at Sunningdale in 1974.

He said the oath was dropped as the agreement sought to recognise two very distinct identities and added that the matter was "primarily a political issue".

Fr Aidan Troy, chairman of the board of governors at Holy Cross Girls Primary School in north Belfast, said that he would be opposed to any oath.

Mr Clarke said he had no plans to make provision for an oath.

"However, understanding about the rights and duties of citizens of the UK and the role of the Queen in our democracy are part of citizenship education, now a statutory subject for all 11 to 16-year-olds," Mr Clarke said