Comments by "John Woodrow" (@johnwoodrow8769) on "Republicans fail to keep ‘dignified silence’ and ‘let people mourn’" video.

  1. What the video is about is should Australia keep its traditional legal ties to Britain (very few these days) or sever ALL legal ties and become an independent republic. Where the British royal family fits into this is that our symbolic head of state is currently theoretically 'appointed' by the British Monarch. But that is just in theory/tradition harking back to a distant colonial past. In practice the 'monarchs representative in Australia', the Governor-General has for a long time been an Australian citizen selected by the Australian Government. Whoever is selected is always 'approved' by the British Monarch and then probably never hears from them again during the life of their term (5 years).
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  2. Your way overcomplicating the issue as it relates to Australia. It's simply should the symbolic head of state (little more than a ribbon cutter etc) be the "Kings representative", or purely an Australian symbolic head of state in his/her own right. The theoretical "Kings Representative" is just a hangover from our colonial past when the British Monarchy did have a ruling Governor sent out to the 'colonies'. In practice the "Kings Representative" (called the Governor General) has for a long time been an eminent Australian citizen appointed by the Government of Australia. Any association back to the 'old country' is now pure historical (the King always 'approves' whoever is selected). The debate is little more than stick with these historic traditions linked back to Britain, or wipe all historic connections from the statutes and be a TOTALLY independent country. The whole issue is more semantics than substance.
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  3.  @beatricebolstad4417  No problem. There seem to be no shortage of comments to this video that don't understand its context. The 'republic' debate (Australia severing all historic legal ties to the UK) has been going on to some degree for years.
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  4. The video is actually about neither US or UK 'republicans'. Andrew Bolt is talking about the republican movement in Australia. Should Australia sever all historical legal practices linking the county with the UK, or keep these historical traditions. The main one is who is the symbolic head of state (currently in theory whoever sits on the throne in the UK.) P.S. In practice the actual symbolic head of state in Australia (the Governor General) has been an Australian appointed by the Australian Government for the past 100 years.
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  5. There isn't actually a need for republicans to say anything at this time. Just witnessing the massive expense and hypocrisy that is currently taking place is enough to tip fence sitters like me into the republican camp. For years I've defended the idea of maintaining the current system (the it aren't broke logic). However after witnessing the current extravagance (all really just a display of the power and prestige of the monarchy) when at this time even increasing numbers of people are experiencing real financial hardship, has changed my mind. The UK will continue to do whatever the UK wants to do. But we as Australians should no longer link our democracy to such extravagance.
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