Posts tagged "The Republic"

The [Howard government-era citizenship test booklet] starts its section on Australian government with a picture of the Queen. It argues the nation’s values are based on ”Judeo-Christian ethics, a British political heritage and the spirit of the European Enlightenment”. Most strikingly while there are nearly 100 pictures in the document, there are just a few pictures of Aborigines and only two other photos of non-Anglo Australians.

Dr. Lindy Edwards, Shared civic values can unite cultures, The Age

If ever you need reminding as to why I’m a republican…

Politics Australia The Republic
Oct 25

The big loser here, clearly, is the Queen, who may find herself actually forced to play a substantive role.

Paul Krugman, “Hung Over in Britain,” The New York Times, May 7, 2010

Monarchists in Australia like to say of our system of government that it “ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The problem is that our system of government is broke, and just because it may work on a day-to-day or year-to-year basis doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have major structural problems that have no good means of resolution. In Australia we saw that in the latest fiasco of an election in Tasmania, in the dismissal of Gough Whitlam in the ’70s, the dismissal of NSW Premier Jack Lang in the ’30s, the attempted interference of the British Crown and Parliament in NSW affairs as recently as the 1980s, and the anxiety in NSW last year over whether and how the Governor could call an early election to rid the state of its loathed government. This is not a system that works. This is a system that, in our country’s lifespan of little more than a century, regularly breaks down. 

And now in the UK, it looks like they might encounter a similar problem. In an age where we do not consider hereditary monarchs to be gods who may rule naturally over us commoners, giving them and their representatives a role in democratic politics is a recipe for failure. There is no such thing as a ceremonial political position. If the royalty has a de jure place in our government, it will sooner or later end up having to take an active place in our government. It might seem a safe fantasy to shield checks and balances away in unelected positions, so we don’t have to deal with unseemliness of Presidential politics that we (tell ourselves we) witness in American government, but the only result of that is that one day we end up with unelected people forced to make decisions with legal force that can never be supported by the force of popular will.

The system is broken, and where ever it is used in the world, it breaks. Monarchism is a sick remnant of times when people were not considered able to govern themselves. Where ever it endures in the world, it should be destroyed.

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Australia The Republic England politics America
May 07

It is understood that in the past few weeks the Queen’s treasurer, Sir Alan Reid, has briefed government officials that her expenditure is running at about £7 million ($12 million) more than the annual allowance. This shortfall is being met by an emergency reserve that is expected to run out in 2012.

The civil list, £7.9 million a year, has been frozen for 20 years.

Courtiers say that, in the long term, the Queen needs an increase in annual funding that at least takes into account inflation over the past 20 years - 80 per cent during that time.

The Queen, however, is sensitive to public opinion and ministers fear a public relations disaster if the civil list is increased by such a large amount in the wake of the economic crisis.

Andrew Alderson and Patrick Hennessey, “Queen is $12m short each year,” The Sydney Morning Herald, May 31, 2010

The civil list is the money the British Parliament pays the Queen to be queen.

So. We have a woman whose only job is to smile and wave and nod at ceremonies, who qualified for such a job by crawling out of her mum’s vagina eighty-something years ago and staying alive long enough for her dad to die, and she receives millions of pounds every year from the British taxpayer for this highly-technical work.

And she spends almost twice as much as she “earns.”

And the only reason she doesn’t ask for even more money is because it might look bad. Because the people who pay her don’t have a lot of money at the moment. Not because she doesn’t do shit to earn the money she’s asking for, but because it might look bad.

I have a modest proposal for the British Government. How about they cut this dumb bint’s earnings to about zero pounds per year, and tell her to go get a fucking job?

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Australia England politics The Republic
May 31

Hey, Queen. Don’t be mad; they’re hiring.

Hey, Queen.

Don’t be mad; they’re hiring.

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The Republic
May 31

Since I understand my suggestion that the Queen get a job might be perceived as a little radical, I’ve got an alternate suggestion for the British government. I propose that they crown me king of England.  This will save them an immense amount of money, because I promise to spend no more than three million pounds more than I’m given each year. Please support my campaign by tweeting the hashtag #MakeJonathanKingofEngland. As you can see from the picture above, I asked the former Australian Opposition Leader and one time leader of the Australian Republican Movement to support me. His protest that he never abandoned the movement is sadly unconvincing; Turnbull thinks Australia should not reconsider the issue until the Queen dies. Making the destiny of our country contingent on the actions of a foreign monarch seems entirely antithetical to the intention of republicanism.

Since I understand my suggestion that the Queen get a job might be perceived as a little radical, I’ve got an alternate suggestion for the British government. I propose that they crown me king of England. 

This will save them an immense amount of money, because I promise to spend no more than three million pounds more than I’m given each year.

Please support my campaign by tweeting the hashtag #MakeJonathanKingofEngland. As you can see from the picture above, I asked the former Australian Opposition Leader and one time leader of the Australian Republican Movement to support me. His protest that he never abandoned the movement is sadly unconvincing; Turnbull thinks Australia should not reconsider the issue until the Queen dies. Making the destiny of our country contingent on the actions of a foreign monarch seems entirely antithetical to the intention of republicanism.

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The Republic England Australia politics
May 31

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal

The United States Declaration of Independence.

I know people think it’s a little odd how ardently I express my republicanism, but I simply do not understand why what I’m saying should be considered so extreme. Can 234 year old words really be so radical?

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The Republic America Australia
May 31

Pavement - No More Kings (Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks, 1996)

It’s just shy of 6 a.m. on June 14th in Sydney at the moment, which means Australia is waking up to a holiday. The worst holiday of the year: The Queen’s Birthday holiday.

This is the day set aside to celebrate our head of state, Elizabeth Windsor. Windsor is a woman who claims sovereignty over nations around the world on the basis that she was fathered by a man who made a similar claim based in a similarly thin rationale. And though your average Australian exerts little more effort to acknowledge this holiday other than stay home from work, it is important to remember that Windsor is not a woman to be celebrated.

I’ve written about the necessity of Australia properly coming of age and establishing a republican form of government, one in which we rule ourselves and answer only to ourselves. I talk about this every Queen’s birthday, in fact. I had lots to say last year on the subject, including an argument for a change and a reminder that as recently as the 1980s, the British were still trying to interfere in the day-to-day running of our local government. In years prior to that I was misguidedly optimistic that a change would come, mournful, and angry.

In 2010, I continue to urge Australians to establish a republican government as quickly as possible. But this year is slightly different for me. This year, I am in Seattle. That means that for the first time in my entire life, I am spending the Queen’s Birthday holiday in a country that considers its citizens capable of selecting their own head of state as well as their own government. The people of the country around me answer to no one but themselves. So even while my country remains subservient to a foreign power, it’s nice to experience this day among some people who are not.

In that vein, the video up there is Pavement performing “No More Kings,” a cover of the Schoolhouse Rock song narrating America’s decision to run their things their own way. It’s highly informative.

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The Republic Australia politics America
Jun 13

Mining magnate and government critic Clive Palmer has questioned the role of Governor-General Quentin Bryce in determining whether Julia Gillard or Tony Abbott is allowed to form a government.

Ms Bryce’s daughter Chloe Bryce is married to ALP powerbroker Bill Shorten, who was instrumental in Ms Gillard toppling Kevin Rudd for the prime ministership.

”We need to make sure that the Governor-General is totally impartial,” Mr Palmer told The Age. ”If the Governor-General finds she can’t be impartial, she should stand down and they should get someone else to fulfil that role.”

“Governor-General must be impartial,” Sydney Morning Herald, 23 August, 2010

After the debacle earlier this year in Tasmania, we are faced once again with a constitutional requirement that the delegate of a foreign monarch resolve an Australian political problem. The idea that the Governor General is a mere figurehead is fanciful; she is the direct intrusion of the British Crown into Australian self-government. Add this to the reasons why the system is broke and must be fixed.

Australia politics The Republic
Aug 22

Danish Turnover

A gross flight of fancy imagining two members of the Danish royal family taking over Australian government. The Danish Royal family is seen positively in Australia because one of its princes married Mary Donaldson, a Tasmanian, and the public reacted with squeals of Someday my prince will come! and Australian princess and WEDDINGS! ROYAL WEDDINGS! which all ignores that monarchies are foul, bankrupt institutions wherever they might be found. There is nothing to celebrate about an Australian getting involved in that business, and as much as we might loathe the representatives and senators we send to Canberra, each and every one is superior to Donaldson, by mere dint of gaining his or her position via democratic election.

I want to make this clear: Monarchies are never legitimate institutions. The British crown, like the Danish crown, is instituted because of centuries of subjugation of people purported to be inferior to the royal family. The British Queen holds her position through the continued perpetration of a moral wrong on people all over the world. 

Australia politics The Republic
Aug 22

that calms me right down

sashafrerejones:

Getting ready to put on the Handling Stuff Like A Grownup Suit.

“Nice” people do not consider themselves so magnificently superior to everyone else that they insist people remain seated in their presence, particular when their only claim to wielding such authority lies in their birth. Anyone receiving such advice should consider themselves honor-bound to defy it.

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music politics The Republic Australia
Aug 25


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