April 30th, 2013 18:46
If a country’s head of state is not elected democratically, can that country claim to be a democracy? The first past the bedpost system as practiced in the UK, Jamaica, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Spain, Japan, Thailand, Swaziland and Tonga and elsewhere just seems a little outdated 200 years after the American and French revolutions.
True, the system might work. True some countries, like Jamaica, might not have shown much ability to produce decent leaders. But how can we talk about equality, when one family in each monarchy is considered to be above all others? I suppose there may be an argument that the majority of the electorate in those countries support the monarcy. But if that is the case, why not hold a referendum on the monarch each time there is a general election/
The idea of a monarchy made quite a bit of sense at one time… Read more
January 14th, 2012 10:02
Well – you didn’t hear it here first. Jamaica is planning – yet again – to become a republic. New prime minister Portia Simspson Miller declared this at her swearing-in ceremony at Kings House – which is the official residence of the Governor General – and therefore, in a way, the Queen’s residence too.
Jamaica has been talking about this off and on since the 1970s and Michael Manley. Of course, most countries in the Commonwealth are now republics – including may in the Caribbean region, like Dominica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. But many larger and more important countries than Jamaica still have the Queen as Queen. Canada. Australia and New Zealand. Mind you, I suppose it helps that most of the inhabitants of those countries can still trace their ancestors back to England and not to Guinea. On the other hand, despite appearances to the contrary, it… Read more