Month: July 2007
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Republic Referendum May Follow Australian Election
Australian Labour Party leader Kevin Rudd has said that a second referendum on making Australia a republic will be on the cards if his party forms the government after the general election later this year. This was welcomed by Republic, the British anti-monarchy group. A representative of the Group said “Seeing Australia become a republic…
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Living Like a Prince
According to The Sun newspaper Andrew Windsor has spent £6,000 of taxpayers money flying from London to Edinburgh to watch golf. Mr Windsor is the son of Britain’s hereditary head of state. Under Britain’s feudal constitution he will become head of state if four members of his family who are in line before him die.…
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Selling the Rights of the People
After a long police investigation the Crown Prosecution Services has decided there is not enough evidence to prosecute anyone for selling seats in the British legislature, which is against the law. The police investigation followed the appointment as legislators-for-life of four business people soon after they had made secret loans to the Labour Party. It…
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Nepal Stops King’s Allowance
The interim government of Nepal has put no money for the King and his family in the budget for the new financial year. The family were given $3.1m of the people’s money last year.
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Some Judges To Stay In Seventeenth Century
Judges and barristers in Britain’s criminal courts will continue to wear horsehair wigs and wing collars next year when their colleagues in the civil and family courts abandon the seventeenth century get up. In a survey by the Lord Chief Justice only 42% of the public approved of the way judges dress and even fewer,…
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Reform Promised
On Independence Day Britons read in their newspapers about new Prime Minister George Brown’s “route map” for reform of the British version of democracy. Mr. Brown said the wanted to make the state a “better servant of the people”. Among the possible reforms were a Bill of Rights, though there was nothing to suggest that…
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State Broadcaster Wastes Money
The millions of Britons who have paid the BBC for a licence to watch television will now pay for 16,500 of the corporation’s staff to attend ethics seminars. This follows the revelation that supposed winners of TV competitions were in fact employees of the media giant. The state broadcaster takes £3bn annually from television viewers…
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Prime Minister Alarms Monarchists
Prime Minister Gordon Brown seems to be causing alarm amongst some monarchists. A report in the conservative Sunday Express called “Laying siege to the Queen” claimed that the ban on republicans being MPs might be ended and even that a new national anthem is a possibility. According to the newspaper Mr. Brown has briefed Elizabeth…
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Lese Majeste
Elizabeth Windsor has suffered two affronts in the last week. In keeping with the often trivial preoccupations of the British news media, the more important one was given less attention. Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s pre-emption of the “Queen’s Speech” by giving Parliament an outline of his legislative programme was an encouraging sign that he may…
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My Lord!
Another legislator-for-life has brought attention to the absurdity of the pernicious official class system in Britain. Conrad Black, a Canadian-born businessman and British “Lord” has been found guilty of fraud and obstruction of justice in an American court. Black may be sent to prison by an American judge but the British people have no way…