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The Caribbean island Bermuda, Britain’s oldest colony, is to celebrate the birthday of hereditary head of state Elizabeth Windsor for the last time this year. The colony’s government, which favours independence from Britain, is to replace the public holiday that marks the birthday with National Hero’s Day. The government hopes this will encourage national identity.

A Roy Morgan Research opinion poll suggests that 46 per cent of New Zealanders are in favour of their country becoming a republic. Only 41 per cent favoured the current status of monarchy. This percentage fell to 32 when those polled were asked what they would want if Charles Windsor became Britain’s head of state.

The British government announced on 30 April that there would be no change to the feudal Act of Settlement that favours males for head of state and bars Catholics. In April the government had announced its intention of ending the discrimination against women that the Act requires. Solicitor General Vera Baird is reported to have…

Thousands danced in the streets of Kathmandu when Nepal’s monarchy was abolished on 28 May. Legislators had voted 560 to 4 to end the 240-year-old evil. King Gyanendra has been given 14 days to vacate his palace and has been asked to pay the electricity bill. His portrait has already been removed from bank notes…

Barrister David Pannick has told the High Court that feudal offices in the English Channel island of Sark breach human rights and are inconsistent with a modern democracy. Mr. Pannick is representing the Barclay brothers who own one fifth of the island as well as having substantial business interests in Britain. They are claiming that…

In a new demonstration of its commitment to equal opportunities the government has announced that it will end discrimination against female members of the Windsor family. A sixteenth century law currently gives male family members precedence over older sisters for the office of head of state. Solicitor General Vera Baird is reported to have called…

The people of Britain could still be denied the right to elect all their legislators under proposals being drawn up in secret and reported in the press. Hundreds of years after democrats first demanded abolition of the House of Lords the government is still considering the option of having as many as 80 legislators appointed…

The number of chief executives of FTSE 100 companies that are “knights” has fallen to just 5 from 32 in 1984, according to a report in the Financial Times. In 1984, when the FTSE was created, 40 per cent of the British CEOs of companies on the index used the feudal title. Now only 8.6…

The supreme court has upheld a High Court ruling that the Communications Act 2003, which forbids “political” television advertisements, does not beach the human rights of British citizens. The “law lords” agreed unanimously that there should be a “level playing field” for competing opinions. It believed allowing the buying of TV time would give unfair…

“The BBC collects the (licence) fee, creating a personal contract with every household”. Patricia Hodgson, a Dame Commander of the British Empire and British Broadcasting Corp. trustee writing in The Financial Times. “This is an official warning that the TV Licensing Enforcement Division will be proceeding with a full investigation of the above address. This…