News from the Centre for Citizenship
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BBC Trustees Claim £1,000 A Month
The BBC Trust’s twelve members claimed an average of £1,000 in expenses last year at the expense of TV viewers who are forced to buy a licence to watch TV. Scotland’s representative on the Board was the most expensive. Jeremy Peat claimed a total of £30,976, a monthly average of £2,581. This included £9,800 for…
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Democracy Delayed (Again)
The end of feudalism in the British legislature may be delayed again. Justice minister Jack Straw has published the third discussion paper on House of Lords reform in seven years. But if he has his way there will be no more reform until after the general election, which may not be until 2010. The Conservative,…
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What Makes Our Country Special
“Along with the BBC and the monarchy, the (national health) service has become part of the way in which we define what makes our country special”. So wrote Nicholas Timmins in the Financial Times on 30 June 2008. Mr. Timmins went on to write that the five-year cancer survival rate in Britain is “well down…
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Feudal Sark Case to Go to Rights Court
The Barclay brothers have said they will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights after the High Court rejected their claim that state recognition of feudal positions in Sark breaches human rights. New legislation will give Sark, a “crown dependency”, an elected legislature for the first time. However, the unelected feudal positions of Seigneur…
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Scouts Insist Cubs Are Windsor’s “Subjects”
The Scout Association has threatened to deny full membership of its Cubs to eight-year-old Matthew McVeigh because he refuses to promise allegiance to Britain’s feudal head of state, Elizabeth Windsor. Matthew’s family is Catholic and Britain’s constitution bars Catholics from the nation’s chief public office. His mother Tracy McVeigh told the Daily Record newspaper “The…
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Bermuda To Drop Windsor Birthday
The Caribbean island Bermuda, Britain’s oldest colony, is to celebrate the birthday of hereditary head of state Elizabeth Windsor for the last time this year. The colony’s government, which favours independence from Britain, is to replace the public holiday that marks the birthday with National Hero’s Day. The government hopes this will encourage national identity.
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New Zealand Majority Supports Republic
A Roy Morgan Research opinion poll suggests that 46 per cent of New Zealanders are in favour of their country becoming a republic. Only 41 per cent favoured the current status of monarchy. This percentage fell to 32 when those polled were asked what they would want if Charles Windsor became Britain’s head of state.
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No Change To Succession Law
The British government announced on 30 April that there would be no change to the feudal Act of Settlement that favours males for head of state and bars Catholics. In April the government had announced its intention of ending the discrimination against women that the Act requires. Solicitor General Vera Baird is reported to have…
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Dancing In Streets As Monarchy Goes
Thousands danced in the streets of Kathmandu when Nepal’s monarchy was abolished on 28 May. Legislators had voted 560 to 4 to end the 240-year-old evil. King Gyanendra has been given 14 days to vacate his palace and has been asked to pay the electricity bill. His portrait has already been removed from bank notes…
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Feudal Offices Violate Human Rights, Claims Barrister
Barrister David Pannick has told the High Court that feudal offices in the English Channel island of Sark breach human rights and are inconsistent with a modern democracy. Mr. Pannick is representing the Barclay brothers who own one fifth of the island as well as having substantial business interests in Britain. They are claiming that…