To love, honour and Obama

Barack Obama's decision to retake his presidential oath just to be on the safe side, after one word was fluffed during the swearing in ceremony, demonstrates the importance we still place on the spoken promise.

Oath-taking was serious stuff in medieval times and its significance was revived within Germany's Third Reich when the oath of loyalty to Hitler probably ensured that the Second World War lasted a little bit longer than it should have done.

I can only recall taking two oaths in my life time. The first was in the Boy Scouts when I promised to do my duty for God and the Queen.

The second was my marriage vows. Gill, my wife, was a bit of a thespian in her younger days, acting with Bradford University Theatre Group and with Bradford Playhouse. She thought it would be a good idea that we learned our marriage lines rather than repeat the vicar's words.

The vicar wasn't too enthusiastic, having performed hundreds of marriages and knowing how nervous people can be on these occasions. Neither was I as I can't even remember a one-line knock knock joke.

But Gill was going to get her way and we did recite our vows to each other, word perfect. I remember that beforehand there was a little bit of debate about the word "obey." It was becoming fashionable for women to leave it out, influenced by the feminist argument that promising to obey a husband (when he makes no such promise) reduced women to the status of chattels. Funnily enough they never object to the man's promise to "worship" his missus, never mind giving her all his "worldly goods" (in my case, a beat up old Saab).

The vicar was a traditionalist and made some neat point that I can't remember, so we left it in, much to the disgust of some of her friends. And I've been obeying her ever since.