Goldsmith call for new national day

A document by former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith said the day of celebration may benefit from being a new public holiday.

He suggested launching the event alongside the London 2012 Olympics or what will be the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in the same year.

Lord Goldsmith recognised that it may be important to choose a date which does not carry any "historical significance". And the event could also be the focus for a special Honours List "which focuses exclusively on the achievements of ordinary citizens rather than on those of senior figures in public life".

Lord Goldsmith - who was commissioned by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to look at the issue of British citizenship - also proposed changes to the current categories of citizenship.

Foreigners who cannot take British nationality because their home nations do not permit dual citizenship should become "associate citizens" of the UK, the paper said. It also suggested new language loans for people who cannot afford to pay for English lessons, and a reduction in university fees for students who volunteer and take part in civic activities.

It was also proposed that people who do worthy community work such as setting up recycling schemes should get a council tax discount.

Lord Goldsmith said any council tax discount would only be a small sum, but it could be could be earned by organising neighbourhood recycling projects, helping children learn to read in schools or setting up a residents' association. Students who carry out community work should get reduced university tuition fees and even have part of their debt struck off, he added.

Earlier, speaking before the report was published, Lord Goldsmith suggested that schoolchildren should swear oaths of allegiance in a bid to tackle a "diminution in national pride". The peer insisted such measures were needed because Britain had become a more "divided country" with less sense of "belonging" over recent years.

Not enough was currently being done in schools to encourage young people to take a constructive role in society, he said. "The citizenship ceremonies, which is one of the many things that I have suggested, are a way of marking that passage from being a student of citizenship to being a citizen in practice."