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Did
you know that the Queen we voted to keep last
November owns all "unmarked and mute swans
on open water"? And that, unlike us ordinary
folk, she can sit behind the wheel of her Roller
on any road without needing a driver's licence?
These
bizarre facts about the wonderfully arcane and
privileged life of our Lizzie emerged last week
in Britain as The Guardian newspaper began its
campaign for abolition of the British monarchy.
The
Guardian listed 20 things only a monarch can do,
and mute swans and unlicensed driving are right
up there with the right to allow members of the
royal household and chosen ministers to take a
short cut across St James Park in an ivory carriage.
But
The Guardian's republican drive is not simply
about abolishing medieval and, in the case of
driving without a licence, downright dangerous
quirks. It's about highlighting why the monarchy
has no place in a society such as Britain or Australia,
where liberal principles of democracy, tolerance
and equality underpin our communities.
That
the British monarchy discriminates on religious
and sex grounds is beyond question. Under the
1701 Act of Settlement, designed by William of
Orange to prevent Scotland's Catholic king James
II from bumping him off the English throne, no
Catholic can become monarch.
It's
that law which The Guardian is seeking to have
overturned on the grounds that it offends the
UK Human Rights Act. The newspaper has chosen
Australian celebrity QC and republican Geoffrey
Robertson to argue the case.
Ironically,
Robertson will be in another constitutional monarchy
shortly, Australia, for his annual summer holiday
at Sydney's Palm Beach.
The
Guardian's initiative has set the hares running
in the British Parliament. But, under a typically
undemocratic feature of the British monarchy,
MPs are banned from discussing the royal household
on the floor of the House of Commons. Mind you,
this didn't stop Labour's Dennis Skinner shouting,
as MPs were filing to the House of Lords to hear
the annual Queen's speech: "Tell her to read
The Guardian."
But
most interesting from an Australian republican
perspective were last week's Guardian-ICM poll
findings on the issue. Given the paucity of debate
about a republic in the UK, it is surprising that
this poll revealed that 36 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds
want to see the end of the monarchy and 30 per
cent of all voters at least want a referendum
on the issue when Elizabeth dies or abdicates.
Not a bad base from which to work if you are a
republican in Britain.
Interestingly,
it's in Scotland that the monarchy is more likely
to topple first.
Tony
Blair, a staunch monarchist (like many Third Way
types, just a renovator and not a reformer) has
created a Scottish Parliament. The strong feeling
of independence and nationhood that this move
has engendered is seeing more than 30 per cent
of Scots, a record level of support, albeit from
a low base, wanting to have their own head of
state.
They've
started down that path, with the Scottish Parliament
passing a unanimous motion to abolish the Act
of Settlement in December last year. If the Scottish
Nationalist Party takes control of that parliament,
which seems likely after the next election, then
it will seek to negotiate from Westminster the
right to allow Scots themselves to decide whether
they want an English monarch.
As
the republican behemoth emerges in the UK, in
Jamaica and Barbados it's not only the poor state
of West Indian cricket they are discussing but
throwing off the last colonial shackle and becoming
republics.
Both
of these Caribbean nations are in the middle of
constitutional reviews that are likely to see
them emerge as republics in the new year. This
will leave Australia as one of only 14 nations
out of 54 members of the Commonwealth that still
clutches to Mother England's apron strings.
As
we enter the celebrations of the centenary of
Federation, let's reflect on the fact that as
Australians we still have one step to take –
having our own head of state.
Hopefully
developments in the land of our former colonial
master and among our Commonwealth friends will
make us get a move on.
Greg
Barns is chairman of the Australian Republican
Movement.
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