Category: Republic

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…

A second attempt by a Windsor family member to take a top Australian public position has failed. Prime Minister John Howard has declared that 25 year old William Windsor is an unacceptable candidate for governor-general of his country. Mr. Windsor’s father, Charles Windsor, was rejected for the same position in the 1980s. He was reported…

Australian taxpayers may be paying as much as £146,000 towards the cost of a yet to be completed “jewel-encrusted carriage” for Elizabeth Windsor. It is to be an 80th birthday present for the country’s absentee head of state, although Ms. Windsor reached her 80th year in 2006. The West Australian newspaper reported that the gift…

The Conservative Party is being blamed by the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties for one of it’s legislators-for-life who chooses not live in this country. Although Irvine Laidlaw makes laws for Britons to obey, he has chosen to live in Monaco and not pay British taxes. Mr. Laidlaw is reputed to be the second richest…

Although the government is to increase the TV licence fee from £131.50 to £151.50 by 2012 the British Broadcasting Corp. is complaining that it will be £2bn short of the money it needs. Director-General Mark Thompson has claimed that it will be unable to improve the poor quality of its programmes without this money. The…

Australia may have won the Ashes but Australian republicans are smarting. When England won in 2005 Liz Windsor thanked each player. But there have been no congratulations for the Australian victors from their head of state. The problem is that Australians do not have their own head of state. They share the English Windsor with…

The BBC’s tax on TV viewers is to go up by much less than it demanded, according to press reports. The BBC asked first for an increase of inflation plus 2.3% per year for seven years. Later it scaled this back to inflation plus 1.8%. Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has won an average annual increase…

Canadians may soon be able to elect their Senators if Prime Minister Stephen Harper has his way. The Canadian constitution requires that Senators be appointed by the Prime Minister and serve until aged 75.  Mr. Harper intends to get around this with a law stating that only those who have won an election should be…

According to research commissioned by the Department of Media people are “on average” willing to pay almost £163 a year at today’s prices for the BBC licence. This is more than the state broadcaster has asked to government to agree. The current fee payable by those who ask the BBC’s permission to watch TV is…

Charles Windsor, heir to Britain’s hereditary office of head of state, has published details of his tax payments for the first time in an apparent effort to counter criticisms that he is too highly paid. Mr. Windsor revealed that in the 2005 – 2006 tax year he paid £3.3m on his income of £14m from…