The Times prints some examples of questions the Home Office will be asking new entrants to Britain. The entire test takes 45 minutes and the applicant must score more than 75% in order to pass.

The applicant will be pleased to know that the GCSE his kids will take are a lot less rigorous.

The test exposes the hypocrisy of a government which seems not to place any importance on the British native understanding his own history whilst making itself look tough to the electorate by forcing Mr and Mrs Gupta to become near-experts.

It is laughable that new arrivals could well know more about this country than we do. Equally, it is laughable that knowing the answers to a list of questions determines your level of Britishness.

But, then, these measures are about making immigrants jump through hoops for the amusement of small-minded racists - but, for their sins, possible Labour voters - rather than promoting something truly and meaningfully British. This rotten government will never learn that patriotic yearnings will never be assuaged by picking on brown-skinned immigrants. We’re not improved by making their entry into this country difficult or belittling them in any other ways we might dream of. We’re improved by taking only the few immigrants we actually need and then addressing the appalling lack of national cohesion caused by multiculturalism, rampant multiethnicity, moral relativism and the degradation of national confidence and pride that is part of the Left’s on-going project to abolish this country.

Anyway, here are some of the questions which, answered correctly, somehow make a Chinese rice farmer British:

1) Where are Geordie, Cockney, and Scouse spoken?

2) What are MPs?

3) What is the Church of England and who is its head?

4) What is the Queen’s official role and what ceremonial duties does she have?

5) Do many children live in single parent families or step-families?

6) Which TWO telephone numbers can be used to dial the emergency services? 112, 123, 555, 999.

Answers are here

1) Tyneside, London and Liverpool. (And, arguably, for fans of The Archers, Borsetshire.)

2) Members of Parliament. The post-nominal ‘MP’, however, is applied only to members of the Commons, who are elected to represent one of the UK’s 646 constituencies.

3) The mother church of the Anglican Communion, originating from St Augustine’s mission to Kent in the 6th Century, and consolidated after Henry VIII’s schism from the Roman Catholic church in 1534. The Supreme Governor of the CofE is the ruling monarch - use of the term ‘Supreme Head’ was opposed by clerics.

4) Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize and Saint Kitts and Nevis. She also holds the titles Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Her role bridges the legislative and executive processes: making a speech at the Annual State Opening of Parliament and giving Royal Assent to Bills, and officially appointing all ministers. As head of state she often extends hospitality to visiting foreign heads of state. All criminal courts act in her name.

5) In 2002, 13.4 million parents had custody of 21 million children whose other parent lived elsewhere. Around 27.6 per cent of all children under 21 are minus one parent.

6) 112 and 999. 112 was adopted in July 1991 as a universal SOS for all emergency services throughout Europe.