News from the Centre for Citizenship

British Law Bans Jews and Catholics From Official Duties Britain’s new prime minister is a Catholic. For that reason he is barred from one of the normal duties of holders of that office. Prime Ministers usually advise the “Crown” on senior appointments in the state church. But Jews and Catholics are barred from that responsibility.…

The replacement of the UK’s so called unwritten constitution by a written one may have come closer following a statement by the Prime Minister that his decentralisation policies “will increase the case” for such a constitution. “It will increase the case . . . for a written constitution” Mr Burnham said. “There is a case…

The Windsor family are to take an extraordinary £138m from the British people in the current financial year, according to figures recently published. The president of Ireland does a better job for only £4m. In an attempt to stanch falling support for the monarchy hereditary head of state Charles Windsor also disclosed at the same…

The usually reliable financial newspaper The Financial Times (FT) has a habit of substituting deference for accuracy when it reports on the financial affairs of the Windsor family, which provides the UK with its heads of state. The newspaper reported recently on the decision of the current head of state Charles Windsor to, in the…

The release of papers related to Andrew Windsor by the Department for Business and Trade has made one thing clear at least. It is the servility towards the so-called royal family of those supposed to look after the interests of the British people. The release of these papers is a rare case of head of…

Attacks on free speech by the British state are continuing with a report from Republic that the Metropolitan police took down a republican banner during a protest against monarchy in London, while doing nothing to stop expressions of support for the feudal institution. Republic alsosay that “Met Police had attempted to suppress Republic’s protest, putting…

Britain has taken another small step towards democracy, expelling the last hereditary legislators from its House of Lords legislative chamber. The remaining legislators in that chamber, including bishops, will continue to hold their seats for life, with no accountability to the people of this country. And, in a compromise agreed to get the bill through…

Britain has taken a step towards democracy by removing the hereditary legislators from Parliament. On 10 March the House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill finally became law, despite the efforts of hereditary legislators and other legislators-for-life to block it. The bill takes away the right of some so-called-lords to inherit a seat in Parliament from…

The latest attempt to bring democracy to Britain’s legislature is missing in action. The House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill would if enacted remove the 92 hereditary legislators from parliament. Britain shares the distinction of allowing hereditary legislators to sit in its legislature with only one other country, Lesotho. In September 2025 the bill entered…

The Crown’s Silence, a new book by Brook Newman, shows how the British monarchy and its navy expanded and protected the trade in slave for hundreds of years. By the time that that transatlantic trade was abolished in the British Empire in 1807 the British Crown was the biggest buyer of slaves in the world.…