News from the Centre for Citizenship

According to the Financial Times British Prime Minister David Cameron had to rely on a plane provided by little known Eastern Airways when he attended the G8 meeting in France recently. The president of France arrived in a jet emblazoned “Republique Française “. The Italian and Canadian prime ministers both had impressive jets too. The…

The Telegraph newspaper has reported that in a new public relations drive by monarchists the government is negotiating with the Windsor family to reduce their taxpayer handouts in a way “acceptable to both parties”. The newspaper said that the clan would be losing “a significant amount of their £39.9 million annual income. The cut was…

The UK has fallen from position 25 to 23 since 2009 in Freedom House’s rating. The democracy watch dog reports that “Even in more democratic countries—such as Brazil, India, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey, and the United Kingdom—internet freedom is increasingly undermined by legal harassment, opaque censorship procedures, or expanding surveillance”. The full report is at…

Writer Martin Amis has given expression to the frustration felt by many Britons who endure a state that favours hereditary privilege more than merit. He told the French Le Nouvelle Observateur magazine that he would prefer “not to be English”. Mr. Amis described meeting hereditary head of state Elizabeth Windsor when she seemed not to…

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg thinks it is “a little old fashioned” that female Windsor clan members are discriminated against when it comes to sharing the feudal privileges to which the clan lays claim. Clegg, who is responsible for constitutional reform, does not seem to find “old fashioned” the monarchy against which British democrats have…

The Dalai Lama has denounced monarchy, saying that “The rule by spiritual leaders, the rule of kings or rajahs is now outdated”. The spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists announced that he was giving up the political power that has been attached to his position for centuries. He said he not want to be like the…

Persuading legislator-for-life that they should lose their feudal privileges was a “hard process” according to Thomas Galbraith, who also goes by “Lord Strathclyde” and is Leader of the House of Lords. This admission that even when it comes to ending feudal privilege, the privileged call the shots, is a reminder of how far Britain has…

The Financial Times newspaper has shown implicit support for the British monarchy. In an editorial advising Andrew Windsor, who is both a “prince” and a “duke” in the country’s official class hierarchy, to resign as Britain’s trade ambassador the FT warned that the increasing criticism that he has received “threatens to embarrass the royal family”.…

Tristam Hunt, a Labour MP for Stoke-on-Trent, has advised William Windsor on how to avoid losing the unjust feudal privilege of becoming hereditary head of state. In an article in The Institute of Public Policy Research tank’s quarterly journal he advises the second in line for Britain’s highest public office that the needs to think…