Month: February 2007
-
All-time Low for Monarchy in New Zealand
Support for the monarchy in New Zealand fell from 62% in 1999 to 48% in 2005 according to the recently released New Zealand Election Study. However, only 34% of New Zealanders favoured a republic. A more recent opinion survey found support for the monarchy at 53%, while 39% wanted a republic. These surveys suggest that…
-
BBC Accused of Windsor Bias
Republic, the largest republican group in Britain, has accused the BBC of continuing its historic bias towards monarchy. It says that this has been shown in the state media giant’s coverage of the movie “The Queen”. According Republic spokesperson Graham Smith “there seems to be an in-built cultural bias within the BBC toward presenting the…
-
Special Forces May Protect Windsor
A new disadvantage of Britain’s hereditary system for filling the office of head of state has appeared. Henry Windsor, an army officer, has been posted to Iraq with his regiment. According to press reports special forces soldiers may be diverted from their normal duties if he gets into trouble in the war zone. This special…
-
Class System Helps Fight Equality Says Hain
Peter Hain, Northern Ireland Secretary and contender for Deputy Labour Party Leader has said that feudal titles such as “Lord” or “Knight” should be used as a reward for those who do not evade British taxes. Mr. Hain proposed this use of the state run system of social stratification as a weapon in a “war…
-
Licence Enforcers Claim Not To Be Controversial
According to press reports Capita, the outsourcing firm, that was the victim of a recent letter-bomb attack, responded by saying that it could not think “of a business area it operated in that was particularly controversial”. Capita collects the TV licence fee on behalf of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It’s investigators, who have no police…
-
Forty-Five per cent of Australians Favour Republic
An Australia Day poll by Newspoll showed 45% of Australians in favour of their country becoming a republic. Thirty-six per cent were opposed and 19 per cent undecided. The figures suggest that there has been little change in attitudes. Although the poll showed republicans outnumbering those committed to Australia remaining a monarchy, Australian republicans were…
-
Legislators-for-Life for Another Forty Years
There will be another 40 plus years of legislators-for-life if government proposals for reform of the House of Lords made public by the Labour Leader of the House of Commons, Jack Straw, are agreed. The current legislators-for-life would be allowed to keep their seats until they died. Even then 50 per cent of the legislators…