Colin James: republic unavoidable
Colin James writes in the Otago Daily Times:
First, the Prime Minister is a royalist and even though the republic is not explicitly an item for the review, it will be unavoidable. He has exhumed knighthoods, Privy Council posts and Queen's counsels.
Second, an even bigger unavoidable topic is the place of the Treaty of Waitangi. That became obvious at a two-day conference in 2000 and the Treaty has grown in public life since then.
Just a small quibble... technically the Prime Minister hasn't exumed Privy Council posts - just their titles (i.e. "the Right Honourable").
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We are an odd mixture... polls suggest strengthening support for a republic but there can be no doubt that the PM's enthusiastic return to British-type honours and to Queen's Counsel/ Privy Council courtliness are widely popular. We saw small turnouts when the Queen visited yet we favour heavily the status quo. Perhaps apart from magazine-type tattle Royalty isn't all that important to us but the thought of "going it alone" is a bit too much for us. Which to believe?
I'm not so sure. The "British-type" honours wasn't exactly wildly popular, although a majority of the recipients were happy to change titles. However, no public polling was done on the question and it largely fell below the radar.
As for QCs, I recently presented a submission to the select committee considering the legislation for change. I was surprised that the Bar Association and Law Society and almost all the other submitters didn't care about the title. Again, there was no public polling and I suspect the change was driven largely by senior lawyers.
As for the Privy Council titles - totally under the radar. I doubt anyone has even noticed the change.
I'd debate the proposition that Key's royalist recidivism is the result of popular royalism of any form. It is merely baggage associated with National's status as a centre-right party and some degree of organisational capture by anti-republican activists who took advantage of that. And, once the teflon coating wears off the Prime Minister, and incumbency fatigue sets in with this government, it will be gone by lunchtime when we get our next centre-left administration.
Craig Y
Indeed...
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