Month: September 2013

The unfortunate effect that monarchy can have on normally sensible people and institutions was illustrated this week by a Financial Times story. The newspaper’s correspondent reported on the decision of the Netherlands government to significantly reduce that country’s “welfare state”. The report was headlined “King’s speech to parliament heralds end of Dutch welfare state”. Although…

An MP who once insisted on wearing body armour while on a walkabout with police meeting citizens in her Peckham constituency might be expected to have difficulty with the concept of public accountability. So it is with Harriet Harman, deputy leader of the Labour Party. Harman has found fault with a government proposal to give…

But Comparison With Police and Press Faulty Forty five per cent of Britons believe it “very important” that we keep the monarchy according to a survey by NatCen Social Research. That might seem not to be such bad news for republicans. However, six years ago only 27 per cent expressed such support for the feudal…

The latest challenge to the Crown Estate has come from the Orkney Islands Council in Scotland. According to the Financial Times “A key goal of Orkney is to wrest control of the seabed around the islands from the Crown Estate . . .. Although such assets have long held relatively marginal economic importance, the development…

A “livid” Andrew Windsor, known to monarchists as “Prince Andrew” and “Duke of York”, tore a strip off police who mistook him for an intruder at a Windsor palace in London, according to the Sunday Express. In an official statement Windsor, who seems to have been embarrassed that he was not recognised, said the police…

The BBC has given its senior managers almost £2m more than they were entitled to in severence payments according to the National Audit Office. The payments were made over a three year period in lieu of notice and as “discretionary payments” to staff asked to leave. The state-sponsored media company said that the payments were…