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The freedom to criticise the feudal institution of monarchy has come under attack in the Netherlands and Spain A homeless man was convicted in Amsterdam last week for calling the hereditary head of state a “whore”. A journalist has also been arrested for wearing a tee shirt with the same insult. According to Radio Netherlands…

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…

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.

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,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

If you think petitioning the Prime Minister is useful you may want to sign an online one that calls for the abolition of the oath of allegiance to the Windsors that British legislators are required to take. It’s at www.petitions.pm.gov.uk/republicanism

Ninety percent of Britain’s “top” army officers attended private secondary schools, according to a report by the House of Commons public accounts committee. The report confirmed the impression of many observers that the British army is still permeated by the residue of its feudal origins and that soldiers with the “wrong” social background may be…