General News Queen Elizabeth II to sign support to end Discrimination

The Daily Mail reporting that - wow!

Then again "she will sign a new charter designed to stamp out discrimination against homosexual people and promote the ‘empowerment’ of women" says the Daily Mail's true opinion on it - the quotes and "homosexual"... hmm..

Alas still doesn't go far enough

Not really a "21st Century Commonwealth Magna Carta" then is it - a "20th Century Commonwealth Magna Carta" perhaps..

This list LGBT rights in the Commonwealth of Nations - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia really is not good enough

 

This is a good move, but sadly the fact that she's having to deliberately omit explicit reference to gay rights says a lot.

 

One such country includes Barbados. :/

 

Good on you, Lizzy. Shame on you, Daily Mail.

 

If you interpret this literally, it implies that they are opposed to discriminating even against political beliefs that uphold forms of discrimination like neo-fascism or oppose government like anarchism. I wonder if they'll actually stand by this.

EDIT: Wait, doesn't England already have laws against such 'radical' political beliefs? I don't see how they can say they oppose discrimination against political beliefs with any integrity if they do.

 

Does it? England has very few laws as it hasn't been an independent country for centuries and it doesn't have powers devolved from the UK, so most of them are archaic and/or obsolete.

The monarchy doesn't have much power because the Commonwealth is very decentralised; I don't think this is particularly significant.

 

Nothing for Trans* people I see...

 

...Alright I forget this all the time. What's the difference between England and the UK?

 

England is a country, bordering Scotland and Wales. Together with Northern Ireland, these countries make up the Soverign State of the United Kingdom of Great Britain (the main island) and Northern Ireland, usually known as the UK. For most intents and purposes, the UK is a country and England is a smaller country inside it.

 

But do they all follow UK's laws? I just asked a friend of mine in London and she said that Northern Ireland, Wales, and Scotland can all make their own laws but England can't. So if the Monarch of England says that England now opposes discrimination against political beliefs but the UK has laws against political beliefs that advocate discrimination how can the monarch say that England opposes discrimination against political beliefs?

 

God save the queen, mate.

 

The British (UK) Parliament, 'Westminster' in London is supreme. It can make laws for all 4 countries within the United Kingdom. However, quite recently, it has 'devolved' or given powers to local 'assemblies' (almost like state legislatures) to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. So each of those three can make laws over things that the Westminster (UK Parliament) allows them too. England does not have a 'legislature' so Westminster is required to pass all laws that effect England.

 

There's no such thing as UK law - currently there are three different legal systems and jurisdictions in the UK:-

England and Wales
Scotland
Northern Ireland

Generally Westminster will set laws that are then ratified in one of the three legal jurisdictions with later processes applying to the other two.

The decriminalisation of homosexuality (actually homosexual acts) being a case in point :-
The "Sexual Offences Act 1967" decriminalised homosexual acts in private between two men, both of whom had to have attained the age of 21 in England and Wales (excluding the Merchant Navy and Armed Forces).
Homosexuality was decriminalised in Scotland by the "Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act 1980"
in Northern Ireland by the "Homosexual Offences (Northern Ireland) Order 1982."

Getting back to the original topic The Guardian's "Comment is Free" section makes the following point

which basically means nothing's changed as far as the Queen is concerned.

It also points out

The Queen defending gay rights? She can't even say the words out loud | Patrick Strudwick

 

She is not the Queen of just England, she is the Queen of the whole of the United Kingdom &
Apart from the United Kingdom, Elizabeth II is also Queen of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, and Saint Kitts and Nevis, where she is represented by Governors-General. The 16 countries of which she is queen are known as Commonwealth Realms, and their combined population is 128 million.

Elizabeth became Queen of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan and Ceylon upon the death of her father, George VI, on 6 February 1952. As other colonies of the British Empire (now the Commonwealth of Nations) attained independence from the UK during her reign, she acceded to the newly created thrones as Queen of each respective realm so that throughout her 54 years on the throne she has been Monarch of 32 nations, half of which either moved to different royal houses, or became republics.

She's also the ruler of the Isle of Man, the Bailiwick of Jersey and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, Alderney and Sark.

... but not as Queen. She's the Lord of Man on the Isle of Man, and the Duke of Normandy in the others. Head of State nontheless. (She's also Duke of Lancaster - note not Duchess in either title. The Loyal Toast in Lancashire is 'Her Majesty the Queen, Duke of Lancaster; in the Channel Isles is 'La Reine, notre Duc'.)

May I add: Queen Elizabeth II is also "Great Chief " of Fiji, but still not the formal head of this state.

 

But that doesn't all fit on the back of Canadian coins, so we just have her listed as "Elizabeth II, D.G. Regina" meaning, 'Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God our Queen."

I'm not sure how old you are but you're pretty smart!

 

Our £1 coins simply say Elizabeth II D.G. REG. F.D.

"Elizabeth the Second, By the Grace of God Queen and Defender of the Faith" (she's also head of the Church of England and Church of Scotland).

 

Copy/paste is a wonderful thing .
You still need to get into the habit of sourcing your stuff Dublin Boy!

That source is also at least 10 years old, as the Commonwealth Realms population is now 137 million, not 128.