News from the Centre for Citizenship

A report by the Labour Party affiliated Fabian Society has recommended that Britain keep a hereditary head of state. It does say that the monarch should no longer head the state church, however. And it calls for the hereditary ruler to lose the mainly formal powers to dissolve parliament, select the prime minister and approve…

Ten per cent or more of the population should be compelled to use the Internet for their tax returns and when using government services, according to a report for the Work Foundation (formally the Industrial Society). The authors make the remarkable claim that the state is “subsidising” taxpayers who are have Internet access and are…

Legislators in the House of Lords have rejected government proposals to limit the right to trial by jury, in another demonstration of the bizarre nature of Britain’s democracy. The proposals contained in the criminal justice bill had been agreed by a majority of the democratic legislators in the House of Commons, who are rarely willing…

The annual report of the BBC has been compared to that of disgraced US energy company Enron by MP Chris Bryant. He said that it was “just about the most complacent report I have ever seen.” Mr Bryant later apologised for his remarks following protests from the state broadcaster. The tax funded media giant reported…

The government intends to keep the power to veto the appointment of judges when a new judicial appointments commission is formed to take over this function from the abolished feudal office of Lord Chancellor. This setback to the separation of executive and judiciary was announced on Monday by constitutional affairs secretary and legislator-for-life Falconer as…

Chief Justice Woolf, Britain’s most senior judge, has criticised the way in which the feudal office of Lord Chancellor was abolished recently. He told a gathering of judges that this raised “questions as to whether our constitution provides the protection it should for our constitutional institutions.” The Chief Justice is also a legislator-for-life and considers…

A Canadian court judge has rejected a claim that the Canadian Charter of Rights invalidates the British Act of Settlement’s requirement that restricts succession to the Throne to Protestants. A Ontario Superior Court judge suggested that ruling in favour of the claim made by Tony O’Donohue, a Catholic of Irish descent, might lead to civil…

Charles Windsor, heir to Britain’s chief public office, took £9.9m from the Duchy of Cornwall in the last financial year. This was an increase of £2.1m on the previous year. Mr. Windsor receives the income from extensive land holdings in Cornwall and elsewhere in southern England as the so called Duke of Cornwall. Ownership dates…

The Windsor family increased their take from taxpayers by 2.5% in the last financial year, according to accounts published this week. The increase was largely caused by refurbishment of Clarence House, the fourth home of Charles Windsor, and the 2002 celebration of 50 years of his mother’s tenure as feudal head of state. The upgrading…

Freedom of expression in Britain is threatened by two European institutions. The Council of Europe has proposed that anyone criticised in an online medium be guaranteed a right of reply. Newspaper web sites and personal blogs would be affected if the proposal became law in Britain, in addition to web sites such as the Centre…