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The Canadian government has failed in its latest attempt to block a legal challenge to the oath of allegiance to the Windsors. The Ontario Court of Appeal has ruled that a class action lawsuit that claims that the oath violates the Canadian Charter of Rights may proceed.

At present applicants for Canadian citizenship are required to swear the oath to Elizabeth Windsor who is the hereditary head of state Canada. According to the Canadian National Post the government has pulled out all the stops to protect this feudal requirement. The newspaper says that "In the past year, government lawyers have tried and failed in lower courts to have the case judged frivolous, doomed or already decided. They have argued that removing the oath would require a wholesale constitutional change, on par with abolishing constitutional monarchy."

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The Prime Minister is no longer to have a say in the appointment of Church of England bishops. But according to the Sunday Telegraph this new freedom is making some of the state church's leaders anxious. They fear it may bring to an end their church's undemocratic privileges in the government of the country.

The cause of the anxiety was a decision by Prime Minister Gordon Brown that he would no longer choose which of two nominees for bishop presented to him by the Anglicans should get the job. In the future just one name will be submitted and this will be forwarded to the hereditary head of state for approval. This reform was given overwhelming approval by the Anglican synod.

The newspaper reported one Anglican commissioner who criticised the reform as making an unusually frank admission of his church's unwarranted power. Peter Bruinvels, a church commissioner, member of the church's synod and form Conservative legislator said "we are weakening our constitutional place at the heart of decision making and influence . . . it could be the first step on the road to disestablishment".

Peter Giddings, the chairperson of the church's mission and public affairs council told the Telegraph that the government had assured his church that it would not be disestablished. He claimed that the privilege of being state church gave the minority denomination a unique ability "to serve the nation and be a church for everyone". Twenty five bishops, all male, are entitled by Britain's feudal constitution to seats in the legislature where they take part in the government of the country without accountability to the people.

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Research by VisitBritain has revealed that while the Palace of Versailles in republican France attracts millions of visitors each year, Buckingham Palace was visited by only 50,000 tourists last year. The London home of the Windsors came a long way down the list of attractions for overseas visitors. The other homes that British taxpayers provide for the Windsors were also of limited appeal to tourists.

Monarchists have often shown their contempt for democracy with the claim that the feudal institution could be justified by its effect on Britain's tourist earnings. That always dubious argument will now have even less weight.

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Britain’s state broadcaster is looking at a new logo and name for its enforcement branch, TV Licensing, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

Mediawatch-UK told the newspaper that the revamp was a waste of money. Broadcaster Esther Rantzen agreed. She suggested that the media giant might "do a variation of ‘It Could Be You’ (a national lottery slogan), with a bailiff with a club and a quivering guilty non-payer". Rantzen added that "the only method (of extracting the licence fee) is the fear of what will happen if you don’t".

Brand consultant Richard Buchanan was more enthusiastic about the idea of disguising the truth about the way the Corporation take £3bn a year from the people of the UK. He regretted that "the logo looks like it’s in the business of money collection . . . you need to make people feel good about paying". Mr. Buchanan seemed not to have noticed the proliferation of terrestrial and satellite TV channels and painted a picture of blank TV screens when the broadcaster is no longer able charge a fee for permission to watch television.

The BBC takes £135.50 from 25m households and business premises to fund its broadcasting and other activities. It is illegal to watch TV without permission from the broadcaster. According to the Corporation 365,000 people are caught each year watching TV without permission, despite the ease with which detection may be evaded.

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