News from the Centre for Citizenship
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Boost for Republic from Windsor Son
According to an opinion poll conducted in January, 52 per cent of Australians want their country to become a republic if Charlie Windsor replaces his mother as hereditary head of state. At present only 34 per cent favour a republic. Twenty nine per cent of those polled were prepared to allow Mr. Windsor to take…
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Canada To Dump Windsor Oath
Federal employees in Canada are to be freed from the requirement that they swear an oath of loyalty to “queen” Windsor. The Public Service Modernisation Act will remove the offensive requirement from Canadian law from 1 January 2006. In a doubly bizarre arrangement Canada has a British so-called “queen” as its head of state. Republicans…
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Court To Decide On Britain’s Free Speech Ban
Animal Defenders International has won a court hearing on its claim that the 2003 Communications Act ban on political adverts on TV and radio breaches human rights. The case will not be heard until 2006. The Communications Act is enforced by the Office of Communications (OFCOM). This “regulator” also also attacks free speech by trying…
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Barbados Senate Passes Republic Vote Bill
The Barbadian senate has passed the Referendum Bill, which provides for a referendum on whether the Caribbean nation should become a republic. The date of the referendum has not been decided. If voters agree the British Liz Windsor will be replaced as head of state by a citizen of Barbados. Barbados became independent of Britain…
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BBC Wants To Take £1.6bn More
The BBC state broadcaster is asking the government to increase the licence fee by 2.3 per cent above inflation each year from 2007 to 2013. This would increase the price of the licence from the current £121 to £180. The corporation wants to spend another £5.5bn. £3.9bn of this would come from improved efficiency. The…
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Judges Stand With Legislators-for-Life Against Rights of People
The legislators-for-life in the House of Lords may be able to veto democratic reform if government fears prove correct. These fears are based on comments by the Court of Appeal that the Parliament Act should not be used to make major constitutional changes. Since 1911 the Act has allowed the House of Commons to eventually…
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Windsors Resist Parliamentary Scrutiny of Income
The Windsor family is resisting greater parliamentary scrutiny of its £21m annual income from the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall. Parliament’s public accounts committee wants the Treasury to review the workings of the duchies and for their accounts to be audited by the National Audit Office. The family’s head of finance, Michael Peat, said that…
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State of Rebellion Against Windsor Son
Many of the 2000 inhabitants of the Scilly Isles are “in a state of rebellion” against the son of Britain’s hereditary head of state, according to the conservative Sunday Telegraph newspaper. The newspaper reported that the Scilly islanders are “appalled and disgusted” because the Duchy of Cornwall, which is Mr. Windsor’s main source of income,…
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Windsors Take More Millions
British taxpayers were obliged to pick up a £36.7m bill for the Windsor family in the 2004 – 2005 financial year according to newly published figures. This was in addition to the £13m annual income that Charles Windsor takes from the public property holdings known as the Duchy of Cornwall and the £8.3m (March 2004…
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Greatest Force for Cultural Good Spurs Vandalism
The BBC state broadcasting giant, which has styled itself “the greatest force for cultural good on the face of the earth”, is spending public money glorifying graffiti vandalism. Its Web site is publishing a cartoon called Taggerz (a reference to the vandal’s practice of spraying their personal “tag” on private and public property) about a…