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The Barbadian senate has passed the Referendum Bill, which provides for a referendum on whether the Caribbean nation should become a republic.

The date of the referendum has not been decided. If voters agree the British Liz Windsor will be replaced as head of state by a citizen of Barbados.

Barbados became independent of Britain in 1966 but has continued to accept the matriarch of Britain's Windsor family as its head of state. Only members of the Windsor family are permitted to be head of state in Britain.

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The BBC state broadcaster is asking the government to increase the licence fee by 2.3 per cent above inflation each year from 2007 to 2013. This would increase the price of the licence from the current £121 to £180.

The corporation wants to spend another £5.5bn. £3.9bn of this would come from improved efficiency. The remaining £1.6bn would be extorted from TV viewers. The increased spending is planned despite a fall in the BBC's share of viewers from 40 per cent in 1998 to just over 30 per cent now.

The Financial Times headlined its editorial comment “Auntie's got a nerve” and demanded that the government move towards abolition of the licence system. “Aunty” is a term, apparently affectionate in origin, used to describe the media giant, which more recently has been called “imperial” by a Labour Party MP.

No one in Britain is allowed to receive TV broadcasts without permission from the BBC. This applies to commercial TV broadcasts and to satellite and cable TV.

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