Must be a different member of the Lucy consortium to the ones who chatter on about racism.

Yes- let’s make NZ a republic. That way Helen Clark can ultimately return to the homeland and supplant the GG as our new figurehead State President. A Latin American presidential sash really goes well with trouser suits.

I’m in favour of keeping the British royal family as our Head of State, but if republicism is done right I can live with it. At the moment there doesn’t appear to be any clarity about how NZ could proceed on this, do we want an Irish model, a French model, or a US model?
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Indeed. My greatest concern about changing our constitutional arrangements is that the entire process becomes a means to give politicians and interest groups yet more power with out any checks or balances.

And cheap! A couple of blankets, an axe or two…

I’m in favour of keeping the British royal family as our Head of State, but if republicism is done right I can live with it. At the moment there doesn’t appear to be any clarity about how NZ could proceed on this, do we want an Irish model, a French model, or a US model?

The effective head of state in NZ is the Prime Minister. The Governor-General, effectively appointed by the Government, is a symbolic figure with no real power at all. The Queen is one step removed from that, a symbol for stamps and coins etc, and provider of a family that feeds the NZ populace’s need for world-leading celebrities occasionally. The Royal family link is also a cultural symbol of the British and Maori treaty and understanding that underpins this country.

If MyNameisJack had his way, we would move from an exceedingly economical political structure of a de facto republic, to an expensive full republic, with another layer of bureaucracy and political lackeys. In all likely we would end up with presidents like Helen the Horrid.

That would be a thousand times more bizarre than our present symbolic heads of state.

Should a Catholic return to the throne, the monarch will finally be defending the faith they were meant to defend.

It’s one of those things which could only ever be removed *when* it was bizarre. Sort of like the laws in the old south forbidding calling out the words “hey boy”.

I find it far more bizarre that New Zealanders have been barred from becoming the New Zealand Head of State

The Telegraph may as well have run a story saying “Mr Brown has paved the way for removing any impediment for people who live in Temuka, New Zealand ascending the Throne…”

or

“Mr Brown has paved the way for removing any impediment for people who have been to the moon ascending the Throne…”

http://www.nightcitytrader.blogspot.com

What next!! Maybe it will be a big chief like Hone H. insisting women can sit beside men and speak on a Marae..Outrageous.

England and by default New Zealand are better off because of its existance.

Better to make the post as symbolic and powerless as Gov-General is in NZ, and follow us into becoming a de facto republic, but keeping castles and airheads for the tabloids, tabloid TV, and girlie magazines.

Does Brown not actually have anythign important to do? I’m sure his troops in combat would like it if he spent some time actually giving them the equipment they need to stay alive instead of arsing about trying to lift his ratings with a dead cat bounce.

It is equally bizarre that Gordon Brown is driving a change to New Zealand’s constitutional arrangements.