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Australian Labour Party leader Kevin Rudd has said that a second referendum on making Australia a republic will be on the cards if his party forms the government after the general election later this year.

This was welcomed by Republic, the British anti-monarchy group. A representative of the Group said "Seeing Australia become a republic will rock the monarchy back here in the UK, and will provide us all with a shining example of what a modern democratic country can aspire to."

Federal Environment Malcolm Turnball, who organised the last referendum, disagreed with Mr. Rudd on the timing of the vote. He believed that republicans would not win until Elizabeth Windsor the current head of state had died.

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According to The Sun newspaper Andrew Windsor has spent £6,000 of taxpayers money flying from London to Edinburgh to watch golf.

Mr Windsor is the son of Britain’s hereditary head of state. Under Britain’s feudal constitution he will become head of state if four members of his family who are in line before him die. In the meanwhile he is entitled to spend taxpayers’ money to entertain himself.

Mr. Windsor is known both as a "prince" and a "duke".

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After a long police investigation the Crown Prosecution Services has decided there is not enough evidence to prosecute anyone for selling seats in the British legislature, which is against the law.

The police investigation followed the appointment as legislators-for-life of four business people soon after they had made secret loans to the Labour Party.

It is not illegal in Britain for seats in the legislature to be given free of charge by the main political parities to their supporters. Few informed observers doubt that, in addition, seats in the legislature have effectively been sold over many years for prices up to £2m.

The feelings of much of the political establishment about the investigation rather than the accusations were expressed by Walter Menzies Campbell, leader of the Liberal Democrat party, who told the press that "This whole affair has diminished politics and politicians in the eyes of the public". The Financial Times also referred to politics being diminished "in the eyes of the public", blaming this on the way the allegation was investigated, not on the practices that brought it about. Practices in which business people such as Christopher Evans scribble "K" for knight and "P" for peer on a piece of paper while thinking, according to the FT, about "whether he might play a government role". Mr. Evans told the newspaper it was "a case of how busy are you? What sort of role do you want to play going forward? These sorts of things are discussed". No mention here of what role the people might want him to play.

The real scandal is not that when money changes hands and when those handing over the money receive a benefit, suspicions are aroused. Not even that "honours" are sometimes sold. It is that it is possible to become a legislator without the consent of the people and stay in the legislature for life representing no one. This has generally been unacknowledged during the investigation and its aftermath.

The way to avoid any suspicion of illegality in the future is simple: recognise the exclusive right of the people to choose their legislators.

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The millions of Britons who have paid the BBC for a licence to watch television will now pay for 16,500 of the corporation's staff to attend ethics seminars. This follows the revelation that supposed winners of TV competitions were in fact employees of the media giant. The state broadcaster takes £3bn annually from television viewers and had no reason, therefore, to use the simple and much less costly solution of simply instructing staff not to cheat.

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The interim government of Nepal has put no money for the King and his family in the budget for the new financial year. The family were given $3.1m of the people's money last year.

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Judges and barristers in Britain's criminal courts will continue to wear horsehair wigs and wing collars next year when their colleagues in the civil and family courts abandon the seventeenth century get up.

In a survey by the Lord Chief Justice only 42% of the public approved of the way judges dress and even fewer, 34%, felt the same about barristers. But a majority of court staff did like the fancy dress. One commented approvingly that it could be "intimidating".

The decision to allow just some judges to dress sensibly seems to be an attempt to find a compromise between the wishes of a majority of the people for behaviour befitting a democracy and the wishes those who work in the court system to prolong the mystification.

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On Independence Day Britons read in their newspapers about new Prime Minister George Brown's "route map" for reform of the British version of democracy. Mr. Brown said the wanted to make the state a "better servant of the people".

Among the possible reforms were a Bill of Rights, though there was nothing to suggest that this time the people would tell the state what their rights are, rather than the "rights as privileges" arrangement that we have had till now.

There is to be increased public scrutiny of public appointments but the people are to have no say in the appointment of their head of state. Nor will the scrutinising parliamentary committees have power to block appointments.

The Prime Minister wants Parliament to take over his power to appoint bishops. But he did not question the propriety of the state being involved in the appointment of bishops at all, nor the disgrace of a state discrimination in favour of a religious organisation.

The bishops are legislators but Mr. Brown held out no hope of democratising the House of Lords in which they sit any time soon. Instead he has appointed a number of new legislators-foe-life in order to bring individual who are not MPs into his government.

A written constitution was also a possibility at some time in the distant future. But the Prime Minister gave no indication of how the people might agree this constitution nor how it would be reconciled with the numerous British practices that put state convenience before basic democratic principles.

No mention was made of ending the ban on republicans sitting as legislators or holding many other public offices. Nor was mention made of making all citizens eligible for the office of head of state.

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Prime Minister Gordon Brown seems to be causing alarm amongst some monarchists. A report in the conservative Sunday Express called "Laying siege to the Queen" claimed that the ban on republicans being MPs might be ended and even that a new national anthem is a possibility.

According to the newspaper Mr. Brown has briefed Elizabeth Windsor on his intentions. Former MP and Windsor supporter Norman St. John Stevas was quoted as saying that Ms. Windsor understood the need for change but nonetheless wanted things to stay as they are. Windsor historian Kenneth Rose said that she would be "furious".

The newspapers claims were based on a paper written for the Fabian Society several years ago by Michael Jacobs. Mr. Jacobs is now a government adviser on environmental policy. A government spokesperson told the newspaper that there was no plan to implement Mr. Jacobs’ recommendations.

However, some reforms have been made or announced. Prime Minister Brown outlined his legislative programme to Parliament and did not wait for the "Queen’s speech". He has also proposed the transfer to the legislature of some "Crown prerogatives" or executive privileges.

The Express claimed that that there are also secret plans to downgrade the Privy Council, which advises on the exercise of prerogative powers. According to Mr. Rose the government’s refusal to fund repairs to Windsor palaces is also a sign of its republicanism.

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Elizabeth Windsor has suffered two affronts in the last week. In keeping with the often trivial preoccupations of the British news media, the more important one was given less attention. Prime Minister Gordon Brown's pre-emption of the "Queen's Speech" by giving Parliament an outline of his legislative programme was an encouraging sign that he may be reluctant to give the feudal institution the deference it expects.

But deference was back on the front page when the BBC misrepresented Ms. Windsor in a documentary trailer. Some monarchists called for heads to roll at the state broadcaster. For an organisation that has spent millions of other people's money over many years promoting the family while ignoring or insulting republicans, that must have been hard to take.

With its feudal affinities the BBC can hardly complain. "The greatest force for cultural good on the face of the earth" expects not only deference but tribute from the masses in the form of its fee for a licence to do what, in a democracy, should be a basic right. Those who resist feel the master's whip on their shoulders in the form of threats, enforcers knocking at their doors and the summons to the magistrate's court.

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Another legislator-for-life has brought attention to the absurdity of the pernicious official class system in Britain. Conrad Black, a Canadian-born businessman and British "Lord" has been found guilty of fraud and obstruction of justice in an American court. Black may be sent to prison by an American judge but the British people have no way of ejecting him from their legislature nor of taking away his official honour.

Following the guilty finding the Conservative Party, which nominated Mr. Black for his seat in the legislature, announced that he had been expelled from their House of Lords group. Newspapers reported that the government planned legislation that would allow unelected legislators to be removed from office if they are found guilty of serious crimes.

Mr. Black adopted British nationality because Canada will not allow Ms. Windsor to give honours such as peerages to Canadians. He is a "life peer", which means the title will not be passed on to a family member. Ninety members of the British legislature inherited their seats.

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If you think petitioning the Prime Minister is useful you may want to sign an online one that calls for the abolition of the oath of allegiance to the Windsors that British legislators are required to take. It's at www.petitions.pm.gov.uk/republicanism

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Ninety percent of Britain’s "top" army officers attended private secondary schools, according to a report by the House of Commons public accounts committee. The report confirmed the impression of many observers that the British army is still permeated by the residue of its feudal origins and that soldiers with the "wrong" social background may be discriminated against for promotion.

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Another division in British society has been exposed by a report from the City and Guilds, which shows that almost 25 per cent of the richest British entrepreneurs and business executives who started out by getting "their hands dirty on the shop floor" are Scottish in origin. Since the class system seems less rigid in Scotland than in England, this may support the belief expressed by Larry Siedentop in Democracy in Europe that here "Being someone rather than doing something (has) became uppermost, with sad results for innovation and competition in Britain".

City and Guilds is the country's leading vocational awards body.

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When it published its annual accounts the Windsor family again claimed that it costs the taxpayers only £37m a year. Republic, the group that campaigns for the abolition of the feudal institution, put the true figure at closer to £152m. This includes police protection and tax breaks for family members. It does not include their income from the duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster.

Forty four MPs have signed a motion calling greater transparency in the accounts of the Duchy of Cornwall, which provides Charles Windsor with £14m annually.

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The limits on free speech in Britain were apparent when Republic was prevented from holding a peaceful protest outside the Windsors' main London palace near Victoria station. In other free speech infringements republicans and others are not allowed to advertise on TV but are obliged, if they want permission to legally watch any TV at all, to give financial support to the pro-monarchy BBC.

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A second attempt by a Windsor family member to take a top Australian public position has failed. Prime Minister John Howard has declared that 25 year old William Windsor is an unacceptable candidate for governor-general of his country.

Mr. Windsor’s father, Charles Windsor, was rejected for the same position in the 1980s. He was reported to be hurt and angered by his rejection.

William Windsor’s hope for the job in a country of which he is not a citizen has been reported in Tina Brown’s new biography of the junior Windsor’s mother.

Prime Minister. Howard, a monarchist, said that the governor-general had to be a citizen of Australia. Labour Party leader Kevin Rudd was blunter. He told Southern Cross radio that "There is a great place for the British royals and it’s in Britain".

Charles Windsor told The Australian newspaper in 1994 that the "splendid" atmosphere in Australia and its "give a bloke a go" outlook appealed to him. At home "give a bloke a go" Mr. Windsor draws more than £14m a year free of income tax from the Duchy of Cornwall property holdings that were put at the disposal of his family when they arrived from Germany. He will become head of state without competition on the death of his mother, a position from which all Britons outside his family are barred at birth.

Bob Hawke, Prime Minister when the older Windsor wanted to be made governor-general, told The Australian "I made it quite clear it wasn't on. We're in favour of a republic. The idea of doubling the dose (having a Windsor as head of state and governor-general) ... held no appeal."

The governor-general of Australia is Elizabeth Windsor’s representative as head of state and commander-in-chief of the Australian military. The post has often been filled by British citizens. The first Australian governor-general was appointed in 1932 but a Windsor family member took the post in 1947.

Tina Brown’s biography also reveals that Philip Windsor, the husband of Britain’s head of state, called Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam a "socialist arsehole".

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