The new oath could include "tolerating the views of others even if you disagree with them", "believing in freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from abuse", "a belief in equality, democracy and the democratic process" and "respect for the law, even if you think the law is an ass,"

Another government brainfart?

I didn't know democracy was a British value? Has someone told the Greeks?

This is particularly ironic given that we have a barely functioning democracy.

To be fair, it's not being claimed that it's an exclusively British value. It's a value that we share with many other countries.

My thought is that it could catch out a lot of our current politicians

What's proposed feels unBritish to me.

does anyone here think that taking an oath like that will make an iota of difference to how politicians behave ?

The current political class seem worried that the public will rise up at any moment and put them up against a wall.

As a Civil Servants I will not swear any oath to such nonsense.

Headline grabbing nonsense.

I've held "public office" and politically restricted roles because of it...the only values I felt I needed to uphold were those of working bloody hard, trying wherever possible to improve the service to the public to give them what they wanted, keeping within budget and where everyone was not going to get what they wanted applying clear criteria without fear or favour.

The only times these values could have been compromised was when some jumped up political oik like Javid came along and expected me to by pass these principles to keep his electorate happy or do favours for his mates or something would enhance his climb up the greasy pole...my response was always to seek written direction from the head of whatever service it was at the time before I would do it.

And no question I would have quit the day someone like him came along expecting me to do this.

Even if it was a condition of your employment?

Yes. They would have t9 change the conditions of my employment first though.

There would be a certain irony if people were forced to swear an oath about freedom of speech . . ..

Not a difficult thing to do.

How do these 'British values' differ from say, French or German values?

It all seems a bit 'banana republic'

Reading the link it seems that it would be for new employees.

Utterly ridiculous thing, and a pretty dangerous precedent. We are on the edge of scary times.

I'd favour mandating a set of minimum standards which MPs must abide by or be thrown out of office on their arse. Beyond that, no.

Years ago, when I worked for a major utility, I had a half day values workshop to help establish a set of values they could publish. We all spent the time writing ideas on hexagonal stickies, grouping ideas into networks and brainstorming and came up with a lovely set of values. I then pointed out that the same values could be applied to Al Qaida, the IRA, Boy Scouts and the corner shop. It's meaningless drivel designed for press sound bites and to give people like "change managers" something to do.

They're measured in inches.

Be careful, you'll end up on the front page of the Daily Mail branded as a commy, terrorist traitor.

I am guessing this is only going to apply to Westminster-controlled public offices and not devolved areas. I can imagine the reaction if everyone in Scotland or Northern Ireland is asked to swear to uphold British values.

i still dont see what this is meant to achieve

are they going to have some watchdog monitoring to see if the oath is being upheld, will there be punishments if they dont, of course not

so basically its all just a gimmick

The law of Misconduct in a Public Office already covers much of the public sector. If people are willing to break the law then why would an Oath stop them?

Torys seem to be violently opposed to many of these so call 'british values'