Britain and the European Union - Australian constitutional implications

When I am sometimes told by the inevitablistes that the UK may well become a republic before Australia, I reply that ‘les cochons peuvent voler’, or whatever the French say for ‘pigs may fly’. (Actually they say : ‘when chicken have teeth’ – ‘quand les poules auront les dents’).

Subject to there being no calamity – and I do not mean that in the tabloid sense, I mean something like a meteor hitting the Earth or nuclear war - the Crown will continue .The system works far too well to experiment with some vague untested replacement, and certainly not with yet another politician.

Whether we will see the subordination of the British (but not the Canadian or Australian) Crown, and the United Kingdom and its people, to the Franco-Germans and their Brussels nomenclatura will depend on the current crew of British politicians - but if they ratify the EU constitution without the clear approval of their people, I confidently predict the people will have their revenge. They may well reverse such an outrage.

But this will not affect Australia in the constitutional sense. History and the law teach us that a subordinate principality can exist within an empire, while the prince is simultaneously the king of a sovereign and free nation. This was the case during the reigns of George I, II, and III. In addition to being Kings of England they were also Electors (Princes) of Hanover, a part of the Holy Roman Empire which that Napoleon so cavalierly abolished. The UK was in no way an inferior entity because of this personal union.The link ended when Victoria ascended the throne - neither the German nor French law would accept the rule of a mere woman.

I am not entitled to a British or foreign passport, unlike so many of my compatriots, including, it is said, some federal MPs, notwithstanding the disqualification this attracts under our constitution. While I regret the way things seem to be going in the UK, this is a matter for the British and not for me to decide. Nevertheless, I remain confident that whatever is done, it will have no constitutional implications for Australia.