News from the Centre for Citizenship

Britain’s failure to separate church and state as democracy requires has usually been most apparent in the existence of a state church and presence of its clerics among the other unelected legislators in the House of Lords. Now there is a risk that the Catholic Church will also benefit from a privileged status as Flintshire…

The National Secular Society (NSS) has drawn attention to the way in which some religious organisations hold their hands out for taxpayers’ money to help them maintain their buildings rather than use their own financial resources. In a submission to the government the Society drew particular attention to the wealthy Church of England which has…

The Times newspaper has called for a halt to the “royal gravy train” that funds the British monarchy. In an editorial it said that the “ludicrously generous funding formula” that puts millions into the pockets of the so called “royal” family should be ended. The Times also rebutted the idea advanced by family members that…

The state church clerics who are given seats in the House of Lords “offer a unique and varied spiritual perspective” according to a speaker who recently addressed the House of Commons. The speaker also referred approvingly to the ways in which the Anglican Church is intertwined with the executive and legislature. You might imagine that…

“Why does your family cost us half a billion pounds a year” a taxpayer asked hereditary head of state Windsor on a street in Newmarket, Suffolk on 22 July. The inane looking and sounding “king”, not used to justifying himself, has no answer other than “Ah yes”. View the encounter here.

According to the Guardian newspaper documents that might reveal truths about Britain’s former hereditary head of state and her husband are at risk of being kept secret when the time for their release becomes due. Thousands of documents related to Elizabeth Windsor and husband Philip are due for release in the next two years. According…

They shamelessly charge the lifeboat service for permission to cross a beach to launch its lifeboats. They can do so because although the beach is public property they have control of it and can extract a profit to add to their great unearned wealth. Six lifeboat stations must pay £600 a year to be able…

The Windsor family has again undercut the country’s claim to be a true democracy by shamefully insisting that it is above the law. The Guardian newspaper has reported that “royal courtiers” pressured the government of Wales to exempt hereditary head of state Charlie Windsor from prosecution under a new law being put forward by the…

According to a Financial Times report most unelected legislators will keep their seats in Parliament if the Labour Party wins the next general election. Only the 92 hereditary legislators will be removed in the party’s first five years in power. More than 700 other legislators will remain. This is despite Labour leader Keir Starmer’s previous…

The Church of England, Britain’s state church, has offered to spend £100mn to make good “past wrongs” in the enslavement of Africans. The church, which is followed by a minority of Britons, profited from slavery to the extent of £1bn in today’s money. An independent committee chaired by one of the church’s bishops has stated…