Republic Tuesday: news review from the Christmas holiday

Some of the stories you might have missed over the Christmas and New Year break:

Prince Charles and Iraq: The News of the World trawled through its archives and rehashed an old story about Charles campaigning against Britain’s involvement in the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Arguably designed to increase pressure on Tony Blair before he appears before the Iraq Inquiry later this month, it actually served to raise the fundamentally important issue of political interference by the royal family.  In answer to calls for Charles to be called to give evidence to the Inquiry his’ office swiftly issued a statement making it plain that the Prince had no intention of doing so.  However that still leaves the existence of correspondence between the Prince and the PM which should be made publicly available.

DJ who criticised queen’s message is sacked: Birmingham DJ Tom Binns lost his job as a presenter for BRMB Radio after cutting off the queen’s Christmas message, with the comment: “Two words: Bor – ring.”  The actions of the radio station are being viewed as an attack on free speech and have sparked a Facebook group dedicated to reinstating the sacked broadcaster.  But as the results of this poll for The People indicate, he was only saying what we were all thinking. [Update, 19:12, 05/01/2010: Tom Binns is interviewed at spiked-online.com.]

New Zealanders balk at cost of royal visit: The debate over the future of the monarchy in New Zealand has been reignited after the cost of the forthcoming three-day visit by Prince William was made public.  The New Zealand Republican movement has seen a massive upsurge in support after it was revealed that the New Zealand taxpayer will be left with an £88,000 bill for the trip.  Recent figures suggest that nearly half the country now favours dumping the British royal family and creating a New Zealand republic.

Kents have to start paying their way: Prince Michael of Kent is to start paying £10,000 a month rent for his Kensington Palace apartment. The prince, a cousin of the queen, sparked outrage in parliament in 2002 when it was revealed he and his wife were paying only a peppercorn rent on their five bedroom apartment.

Duke of York’s “Christmas present”: Whatever you got for Christmas probably can’t compare to the gift received recently by Prince Andrew: a four-bedroomed villa in Abu Dhabi estimated to be worth at least £1 million.  The present from the Crown Prince of the United Arab Emirates is likely to raise further questions about the independence of the Duke of York in his role as Britain’s trade ambassador.  Prince Andrew is able to claim around £500,000 a year in expenses for his frequent international trips.

Some other stories we will be covering later this week:

• maximising the tourist revenue from Buckingham Palace;
• is the number of royal engagements as impressive as it seems?
• who’s paying for the queen’s private security?

Taking it further: If you share our vision of a fairer, more democratic Britain, why not consider becoming a supporter or a member of Republic, the campaign for an elected head of state?

You can also be part of our campaign by joining Republic Action, Republic’s own social networking site.