Barbados: We don’t want Her Maj as our Caribbean Queen..
Island calls for full sovereignty
BARBADOS has announced that it plans to remove the Queen as head of state.
The Caribbean island said it wants “full sovereignty” before the 55th anniversary of its independence from the UK in November 2021.
Buckingham Palace and Downing Street said it was a decision for the nation’s people and Government, led by Prime Minister Mia Mottley.
But palace sources said the idea was not new, adding: “It has been publicly talked about many times.”
Governor-General Dame Sandra Mason revealed the plan in the “Throne Speech”, which marks the opening of the Barbados parliament.
She recalled the country’s first leader, Errol Barrow, warning against “loitering on colonial premises”.
Dame Sandra, who is the Queen’s official representative in Barbados, added: “The time has come to fully leave our colonial past behind.
“Barbadians want a Barbadian head of state. This is the ultimate statement of confidence in who we are.”
The Queen has been the Commonwealth nation’s head of state since it gained independence in 1966.
It is one of the monarch’s 16 realms, with others in the Caribbean including
Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas and Jamaica. If the plans go ahead, the country will join Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica and Guyana in becoming a republic.
A constitutional review recommended republican status in 1998.
And in 2015 then-Prime Minister Freundel Stuart said he hoped to leave the monarchical system “in the very near future”.
Jamaica PM Andrew Holness has also said becoming a republic is a priority for his country.
This year Prince Harry and Meghan said the Commonwealth, “must acknowledge the past” in a discussion about historical injustice and racism.
The time has come for us to leave our colonial past behind
DAME SANDRA REVEALING PLAN TO BECOME REPUBLIC
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