News from the Centre for Citizenship
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New Zealand: Not Yet Ready For Republic?
An New Zealand republican movement opinion poll shows that a majority 45% of citizens are willing for Charles Windsor to become their head of state when his mother dies. Another 43% want their country to become a republic. Support for the feudal system of appointing the head of state is down from 48% in December…
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Feudal System May Fall Into Disrepute Says Labour MP
British legislators are demonstrating that Britain may be the only developed nation in which it is believed that feudalism is worth defending. MP Gordon Prentice has told the head of the civil service that the “honours system”, under which the state awards feudal titles, will fall into disrepute if Fred Goodwin, former chief executive of…
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Royal Mail To Honour Feudal Rulers
The Royal Mail is to be true to its name by marking the bicentennial year of British and American republican Thomas Paine with the issue of postage stamps honouring 16th century monarchs. The state mail service will issue 6 new stamps commemorating Tudor dynasty members who ruled England from the late 15th to early 17th…
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State Broadcaster Defames Republicans
BBC TV News reported on Friday that “a leading republican” had been arrested on a charge of murdering soldiers in Northern Ireland. In fact the arrested man, Colin Duffy, is not known to be a member of any of the main republican organisations in the UK. He has, however, been associated with a small group…
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British Support Equal Opps for Windsors, Not For Selves
A BBC opinion poll has indicated that 89% of Britons want an end to discrimination against female members of the Windsor family, which has the exclusive right to provide the head of state under Britain’s feudal constitution. Nineteen percent favour continued discriminations against Catholics and seventy-six per cent believed that the majority of citizens should…
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Research Project May Speed New Zealand Republic
The government of New Zealand is to sponsor a research project into the role of its hereditary head of state, who it shares with Britain and some former British colonies. Two constitutional lawyers will spend three years looking at the country’s constitution. A Cabinet Officer legal researcher will work with them. Former governor-general Cath Tizard…
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No Representation Without Donation
Defenders of the House of Lords have suffered a further setback as a result of revelations that some legislators-for-life have been keen to accept payments in return for influencing legislation. This has undermined the apologists’ claim that the undemocratic chamber is justified by the high-minded independence of the unelected legislators. The scandal caused the Financial…
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Republican Momentum Maintained
Mark Dreyfus, who chairs the Constitutional Affairs Committee of the Australian parliament, has called for a plebiscite to measure support for an Australian republic. Prime minister Kevin Rudd, a republican, had said that a referendum would not be a priority in the first term of his Labour Party government. Mr. Dreyfus believes that a plebiscite,…
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Civil Rights Are Threat to Constitution Say Conservatives
Britain’s conservatives have reacted to talk of ending the privileges of Britain’s minority Anglicans with the horror stories that have long characterised their resistance to the application of democratic principles to Britain’s feudal constitution. Conservative party shadow justice secretary Nick Herbert said that disestablishment of the Church of England would be “constitutional vandalism”. An editorial…
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Prince to Behave as King
Charles Windsor has told his biographer, Jonathan Dimbleby, that he intends to act like a king when he takes over from his mother as Britain’s hereditary head of state. Mr. Dimbleby says that Windsor plans to be a “political” head of state. He describes what is planned as “a seismic shift” in the role of…