St Edwards Crown - The Crown of EnglandThe announcement that no member of the Royal family will be attending Sir Ed's funeral may be a harbinger of the future. I would think whatever one's views most people would be disappointed that some representative will not be attending. The PM is in an invidious position and has been reasonably defending and John Key probably reflects most peoples views being "disappointed".
However, in defence, the Queen obviously, on the grounds of age alone, could not attend. And it seems that the remainder of the immediate family all have prior engagements but more importantly I read that the Royals never attend a funeral in an official capacity unless it is a Head of State or their spouse.
So I suppose the difficulty is that they do not want to set a precedent.
With the Republic issue recently revived by Mike Moore only a week or two ago, I have a feeling that locally this decision will be a PR disaster for the Royalists and a decision the Republicans will be only too happy to exploit.
Personally, on the question of a Republic I am ambivalent but tend towards a change. However, I am firmly against an elected President. I believe that is a recipe for disaster. I favour a continuation of the present system of appointment by, supposedly Parliament, of the Governor General with a vital difference.
The present system is that the GG is appointed in consultation with the Opposition. Unfortunately under Muldoon this went out the window when an ex-politician Keith Holyoake was appointed and Labour then got their own back by selecting Kath Tizard. Thankfully this stupidity has now gone.
So how do we overcome this.
I believe the present system whereby Parliament appoints a new GG (or a President if we became a Republic) should continue with a significant change. A Law should be enacted that the Government nominates the new GG (President) and presents the name to Parliament. The appointment then is approved by a vote of the House with the proviso that 80% of the members must vote in favour. This would mean the Opposition would need to be consulted and agree to the person prior to nomination.
With an 80% requirement even the minor parties would usually need some input and consequently with this method an apolitical person would then be chosen. I think this was the Presidential selection method favoured by the ex-Australian PM Paul Keating.
Be interesting to see what, if anything, develops over the next few days on the Royals front or affront!.
