Jamaica to become a Republic.

[Fittster]

"After taking office in landslide, Portia Simpson Miller pledges to drop Queen as head of state and restore prosperity

Portia Simpson Miller has been sworn in for the second time as Jamaica's prime minister with a pledge to ease poverty, boost the economy, heal political divisions and drop the Queen as head of state.

Simpson Miller, who was prime minister for a year and half until 2007, took the oath of office before roughly 10,000 guests on the grounds of the governor-general's official residence.

The 66-year-old politician scored a dramatic victory in last week's national elections, leading her centre-left People's National party to a 2-1 margin in parliament over the centre-right Jamaica Labour party. Her opposition faction won a dominating 42 seats in the 63-seat legislature, leaving the incumbent party with 21.

Simpson Miller, Jamaica's first female prime minister, takes over from Andrew Holness, a 39-year-old Labour MP who led the government for just over two months.

"After being tested and tempered I stand before you today a stronger and better person prepared to be of service to my country and people," Simpson Miller said at the start of a spirited 45-minute speech.

She said her government intended to abandon the British monarch as Jamaica's official head of state and instead adopt a republican form of government. Jamaica declared independence from Britain in 1962 but remains within the Commonwealth and has the Queen as head of state.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/06/prime-...

Hopefully the UK will follow their lead.

[Eric Mc]

No more Jamaican immigrants then - or maybe not.

[Fittster]

Eric Mc said:

No more Jamaican immigrants then - or maybe not.

I believe Ireland is a republic but that doesn't seem to have stopped the flow of Irish immigrants.

[pacman1]

Fittster said:

Hopefully the UK will follow their lead.

I think the Royals do far more good for this country than many of our elected politicians.

On balance, I'm quite happy with the way things are, thankyou.

[mi1ne]

Fittster said:

Hopefully the UK will follow their lead.

+1

[Puggit]

I'm no supporter of the royals, but I fail to see what ditching them could possibly bring to the country.
I can easily see what we'll lose!

For Jamaica I would consider it a maturing step for an independent sovereign nation who doesn't gain by having the Queen as head of state.

[Derek Smith]

Having the Queen as the head of state is the cheap option for Jamaica. If you look at the on-costs of habing a presidential style HoS then prosperity will be delayed for some time if they go that route.

It is a purely political move of course. Promises of going their own way when, in fact, it will have little or no effect on the day to day, year by year, way of life out there.

But if that's what they want, then good on them.

[Camoradi]

.....perhaps Jamaica would like to take Diane Abbott off our hands.

She'd look great on their bank notes...

[V88Dicky]

I often wonder what it would be like if we'd had an elected Head of State.......







































er...

[thinfourth2]

I'd happily bet that on average each royal costs the UK less then the average MP

Puggit said:

I'm no supporter of the royals, but I fail to see what ditching them could possibly bring to the country.
I can easily see what we'll lose!

For Jamaica I would consider it a maturing step for an independent sovereign nation who doesn't gain by having the Queen as head of state.

What does Jamaica gain = Bugger all

what does person promising to get rid of the big bad queen that is costing them not a single penny = A huge amount of support

[Fittster]

thinfourth2 said:

I'd happily bet that on average each royal costs the UK less then the average MP

"In his Budget statement today the Chancellor announced that payment to the Civil List for calendar year 2011 will be unchanged at £7.9m. Royal Household spending on support of The Queen in Her duties as Monarch in 2011 will fall from £15.1m to £14.9m"

And her useless son gets to own Cornwall.

[unrepentant]

Fittster said:

thinfourth2 said:

I'd happily bet that on average each royal costs the UK less then the average MP

"In his Budget statement today the Chancellor announced that payment to the Civil List for calendar year 2011 will be unchanged at £7.9m. Royal Household spending on support of The Queen in Her duties as Monarch in 2011 will fall from £15.1m to £14.9m"

And her useless son gets to own Cornwall.

Peanuts. The Crown Estates has assets of over 7 billion pounds and all income goes to the treasury. Royal Family effectively cost nothing.

[johnfm]

Fittster said:

thinfourth2 said:

I'd happily bet that on average each royal costs the UK less then the average MP

"In his Budget statement today the Chancellor announced that payment to the Civil List for calendar year 2011 will be unchanged at £7.9m. Royal Household spending on support of The Queen in Her duties as Monarch in 2011 will fall from £15.1m to £14.9m"

And her useless son gets to own Cornwall.

Not this st again.

If you don't like it, move to a republic. Simple really.

[Jinx]

Fittster said:

"In his Budget statement today the Chancellor announced that payment to the Civil List for calendar year 2011 will be unchanged at £7.9m. Royal Household spending on support of The Queen in Her duties as Monarch in 2011 will fall from £15.1m to £14.9m"

And her useless son gets to own Cornwall.

So £22.8 million a year divided by 69 million people approx 33p a year from each of us. I'd gladly pay that for Prince Philip alone.

[DJRC]

Fittster said:

thinfourth2 said:

I'd happily bet that on average each royal costs the UK less then the average MP

"In his Budget statement today the Chancellor announced that payment to the Civil List for calendar year 2011 will be unchanged at £7.9m. Royal Household spending on support of The Queen in Her duties as Monarch in 2011 will fall from £15.1m to £14.9m"

And her useless son gets to own Cornwall.

As far as I can tell its either him or TV Chefs. Or Lib Dems.

Given that the UK seems to have decided they are quite happy putting all the Chefs and Lib Dems down in the bottom corner of the country out of the way a I suspect the vast majority of us arent too fussed about changing Cornwall that much right now. It always rains when I got there so the lot of them are welcome to the place.

[Fittster]

unrepentant said:

Fittster said:

thinfourth2 said:

I'd happily bet that on average each royal costs the UK less then the average MP

"In his Budget statement today the Chancellor announced that payment to the Civil List for calendar year 2011 will be unchanged at £7.9m. Royal Household spending on support of The Queen in Her duties as Monarch in 2011 will fall from £15.1m to £14.9m"

And her useless son gets to own Cornwall.

Peanuts. The Crown Estates has assets of over 7 billion pounds and all income goes to the treasury. Royal Family effectively cost nothing.

Remove the Royal Family and the state can either take the income from the Estates or sell them off.

[OllieC]

Jinx said:

Fittster said:

"In his Budget statement today the Chancellor announced that payment to the Civil List for calendar year 2011 will be unchanged at £7.9m. Royal Household spending on support of The Queen in Her duties as Monarch in 2011 will fall from £15.1m to £14.9m"

And her useless son gets to own Cornwall.

So £22.8 million a year divided by 69 million people approx 33p a year from each of us. I'd gladly pay that for Prince Philip alone.

bargain

[Fittster]

Jinx said:

Fittster said:

"In his Budget statement today the Chancellor announced that payment to the Civil List for calendar year 2011 will be unchanged at £7.9m. Royal Household spending on support of The Queen in Her duties as Monarch in 2011 will fall from £15.1m to £14.9m"

And her useless son gets to own Cornwall.

So £22.8 million a year divided by 69 million people approx 33p a year from each of us. I'd gladly pay that for Prince Philip alone.

Maybe that's the way forward. You want Prince Philip you can sponsor him. The royal's can walk about with a sponsors name on their chest like a footballer players do.

[OllieC]

Fittster said:

unrepentant said:

Fittster said:

thinfourth2 said:

I'd happily bet that on average each royal costs the UK less then the average MP

"In his Budget statement today the Chancellor announced that payment to the Civil List for calendar year 2011 will be unchanged at £7.9m. Royal Household spending on support of The Queen in Her duties as Monarch in 2011 will fall from £15.1m to £14.9m"

And her useless son gets to own Cornwall.

Peanuts. The Crown Estates has assets of over 7 billion pounds and all income goes to the treasury. Royal Family effectively cost nothing.

Remove the Royal Family and the state can either take the income from the Estates or sell them off.

I suspect the estates would generate a lot more income if they are not run by the state, comrade.

[Ayahuasca]

Apparently Alex Salmond has asked Jamaica to join the new Scottish Commonwealth that he is planning.