Month: July 2009
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The Rights of the People Have Nowhere To Stand
If Parliament accepts changes to the law proposed by Justice Secretary Jack Straw, some legislators will be free to resign from the House of Lords, hereditary legislators will not be able to hand on their seats to their children and the House will be able to expel legislators for serious misconduct. But the people would…
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Windsor Take Partisan Position
Hereditary head of state Elizabeth Windsor has twice written to the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, a conservative group within the Anglican Church, to wish it well. The Fellowship is opposed to the ordination as bishops of gay men and lesbians. The British head of state, who is also titular head of the Church of England,…
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Canadian Support for Monarchy Fades
Sixty five per cent of Canadians want their country to end its tie to the British monarchy when Elizabeth Windsor dies, according to a poll by the Globe and Mail newspaper. Seventy per cent of those polled said they felt no personal connection to head of state Windsor or her representative in Canada, the Governor-General.…
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House of Lords: Even Minimal Reform Unlikely Before Election
As a part of a supposedly “radical vision” for Britain the Prime Minister has announced that he intends to ask Parliament to approve a change in the law that would stop the seats of Britain’s 92 hereditary legislators being taken by their children when they die. However, even the introduction of a bill before the…
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Queen’s Counsels Return to New Zealand
New Zealand is again to appoint “queen’s counsels”. This follows the recent replacement of the title with “senior counsel”. According to the Attorney-General the title has been brought back to protect “the essential independence of the inner bar”. The New Zealand Republican Movement described the restoration as “a retrograde act”. The change has also been…