I keep meaning to acquire citizenship, and it will make for a fun series of articles when I get round to it.

The bit that amuses me is that although I have a degree in Spanish from an esteemed British university and do translations for various Spanish public authorities - I'm doing a publication for the Basque regional government today - I would still have to take a language test to prove i can get by in the lingo - after living here for over two decades!

No waivers as far as I'm aware. Not even for bone spurs.

Then there's a cultural history and citizenship test - kings and queens, parliamentary system, the constitution, Don Quijote and suchlike.

Then you get filed in the ministerial in-tray.

It's almost guaranteed to be approved, but as I say, it takes a long time, and is subject to deliberate delays for electoral reasons if the Right shout about 'letting all these foreigners become citizens'.

I'm always too busy to start the ball rolling, although I've been eligible for over a decade. It made no sense pre-Brexit. Now I feel I ought to. But...