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In his account of Tony Blair’s Downing Street in The New Machiavelli, Jonathan Powell tells of an event he says converted him to republicanism. The Prime Minister’s chief of staff and girlfriend Sarah had gone with Blair on a visit to one of the many taxpayer-funded homes of hereditary head of state Elizabeth Windsor. But while Blair was invited to share a barbecue with Windsor and her husband, Powell and girlfriend were taken off to eat elsewhere. It seems that the head of state had been told that the couple were not married. She decided that bad manners was better than setting a bad precedent, as she had banned her son’s unmarried partner from the home!

07:23 PM | | (0) | (0)

The British government and the Windsor family have reached an agreement that the head of the hereditary head of state should always appear on British postage stamps. The law will be changed to require this.

Monarchists had feared that if the Royal Mail is privatised and bought by a foreign company the practice of putting the Windsor brand on all postage stamps would be dropped.

Britons can now be assured that they will be able to regularly admire the head of Charles Windsor when Elizabeth Windsor, his mother, dies.

06:26 PM | | (0) | (0)

The extraordinary privileges of the Windsor family are to be extended by their exemption from the Freedom of Information Act.

All documents related to hereditary head of state Windsor and her son, including emails and letters, will be kept secret even if disclosure can be shown to be in the public interest. This will seriously set back efforts to increase the accountability of the feudal family.

The changes announced on 7 January seem to follow lobbying by the Windsors. Mr. Windsor, who is entitled to become head of state when his mother dies, was already planning legal action to stop the disclosure of letters he has written to government ministers in efforts to have them follow his policies. The government was supporting him in this.

The change to the law will set back the exposure of how the Windsors' use of taxpayers' money, as well as their attempts to have their own beliefs implemented as government policy.

The Windsors claim that the secrecy is necessary to protect the feudal privilege of being consulted by the government and, in the words of a Windsor spokesperson, “to encourage and warn the government”.

05:11 PM | | (0) | (0)