Government Tries to Downplay Windsor Foreignness
The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs has sent an email to organisers of events for Charles Windsor’s tour in November stating that there is to be “no use of Union Jacks or bunting.”
According to the New Zealand Republican Movement the Department explained this strange request by saying they want the visit to be about being a ‘traditional Kiwi’.
The New Zealand republicans suggested that in that case it “should make Charles don gumboots, a black singlet and maybe carry a bumble bee, just to make sure we get the point.”
“Attempts to ban the use of Union Jacks during Prince Charles tour of Aotearoa shows the British monarchy’s desperation to not be seen as an irrelevant, foreign institution” said Lewis Holden, chair of the Republican Movement.
He added that only Lizzie Windsor, Britain’s feudal head of state, “has an official New Zealand title. Everyone knows the monarchy is a British institution. While legally the Crown is today the New Zealand Crown, symbolically and practically it’s a British institution. That’s why people put up Union Jacks and bunting when British Royals come here. The very fact Charles is visiting New Zealand goes to show the monarchy isn’t ours” he concluded.