News from the Centre for Citizenship

Monarchists tell us that monarchies are more stable than other systems. Here’s what that stability looks like in the monarchy of Thailand. Thanakorn Siripaiboon, a Thai factory worker, has been charged with insulting the monarchy, an offence known as lèse-majesté. His offence was to make remarks about a stray dog that had been rescued by…

In December 2015 it was revealed that the son of the head of state, like his mother, is allowed to read all cabinet memoranda. These include secret proposals for legislation and discussion documents that are kept secret from most citizens for thirty years. Mr. Windsor is on the “standard circulation” list for these memoranda. The…

The British government may ask the European Union Court of Justice to help it protect the British monarchy from public scrutiny according to press reports. This would be a demonstration of unusual desperation by a government that usually seeks to distance itself from the Europe Union. The appeal to European Union judges is being considered…

The fuss about the silence of Jeremy Corbyn during the singing of the British anthem was perhaps more than anything else the taking of an opportunity to attack a political enemy. Nonetheless it says more about our country than it does about Mr. Corbyn. A nation that acts as if love of country is the…

The House of Lords has overruled the Britain’s elected legislators by voting to delay any decriminalisation of TV licence fee non-payment until 2017. The vote to delay removal of the criminal penalty was 178 to 175. Unlike the Church of England, the BBC is not able to place its own representatives in the legislature to…

Democratic Heritage Rejected The inability of the British to take democracy seriously and fully replace feudal with democratic institutions and practices has been brought to attention again by the revelation that the number of citizens eligible for an hereditary seat in the legislature has increased. Stephen Benn, a sixty three year old Labour Party supporter…

British Government Suffers Second Defeat The British government has suffered another defeat for its policy of treating as above the law those it believes to be “royal”. In October 2014 the High Court quashed a decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions that Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad al-Khalifa was, as reported by the Financial Times…

Not Impartial On Scottish Independence One of the monarchist claims is that the Windsor clan unite the nation in a way that partisan politicians cannot. For that reason clan members are, in theory, required to keep their mouths shut on political issues. In the Scottish independence referendum it may for once have been true that…

But Motives May Be Doubted The monarchists like to tell us that a great advantage of their feudal institution is that it ensures a politically neutral head of state. But as the vote on independence for Scotland becomes close the news media has reported that some politicians want hereditary head of state Windsor to speak…