Great Britain

You've gotta love the Poms. They have no laundries (their washing machines are usually in their kitchens), they rarely have showers (their home reno shows are full of bathrooms with no showers, just small underused baths only), and they invaded a land full of people while declaring that same continent terra nullius*. They also sent thousands of young Aussie men to their death in far flung places across the globe, all in the name of British Sovereignty. Now as these countries, once coloured in red on our Empire maps, dwindle to nothing it's time to remember the words of Edward Kelly all those years ago:

'...to serve under a flag and nation that has destroyed massacreed and murdered their fore-fathers by the greatest of torture as rolling them down hill in spiked barrels pulling their toe and finger nails and on the wheel. and every torture imaginable more was transported to Van Diemand's Land to pine their young lives away in starvation and misery among tyrants worse than the promised hell itself all of true blood bone and beauty, that was not murdered on their own soil, or had fled to America or other countries to bloom again another day, were doomed to Port Mcquarie Toweringabbie norfolk island and Emu plains and in those places of tyrany and condemnation many a blooming Irishman rather than subdue to the Saxon yoke Were flogged to death and bravely died in servile chains but true to the shamrock and a credit to Paddys land...'
Ned Kelly, Jerilderie Letter

So to the country who gave the world the concentration camp** forty years before the Nazi's thought of it, maybe it's time to list some of the reasons why our great nation of Australia should cut it's ties from the Union Jack forever:

Remember the republic? Thomas Keneally 12/11/07
Queen's death will spark republic vote smh.com.au 28/01/08
Summit to restart republic call Katharine Murphy 09/04/08
Australians should choose their republic and president Greg Barns 10/04/08
Chocks away: princes fly RAF chopper to bucks party AAP 17/04/08
Delegates want republic in two years AAP 19/04/08
Anger as William lands chopper in Kate's yard AAP 21/04/08
Prince William pips John Howard to knighthood Lucy Bennett and wires 23/04/08
No republic while Queen on throne' Doug Conway 23/04/08
No knighthood for former PM Howard AAP 25/04/08
Police probe Harry's high-speed nightclub dash AAP 18/05/08
His royal tightness pays after 350 years Agence France-Presse 12/06/08
Royals cost taxpayers a queen's ransom Peter Griffiths 27/06/08
Queen in need of a renovation rescue Stephen Bates 29/06/08
Princely sum for a royal taxi service Audrey Gillan 01/07/08
Charles 'wants to make Camilla queen' AAP 15/09/08
Queen asks UK Government for pay rise Rebecca English 27/09/08
Officers took blame for William's joy rides AAP 10/11/08
Queen Elizabeth II reins in extravagance as credit crunch grips AAP 15/12/08
Prince Edward accused of beating dog Agence France-Presse 28/12/08
Prince Harry apologises over 'offensive, racist' video AAP 11/01/09
Muslims slam Prince Harry over comments AAP 12/01/09
British royals in another race row AAP 14/01/09
God save us from these old royal refrains Michael Smith 13/10/09
Governor-General Quentin Bryce's Africa trip cost $700,000 Steve Lewis 28/10/09
Prince Philip in Indian name gaffe AFP 28/10/09
Prince William coming to Australia for Royal Tour AAP 02/11/09

'...It was an unusual thing to be a young person supporting the republic movement in the 1990s. Most of the people who care about a republic are older. They remember a time when our prime minister described us as ''British to our boot straps'', they resented singing God Save the Queen, and if they travelled overseas they got really irritated by being treated as mere colonials. If they had a strong class consciousness, were Irish or women, they were peeved by the symbolism of stratified power that lumped them at the bottom of the social heap...'
from We are not British - that's why a republic is so important

We are not British - that's why a republic is so important Lindy Edwards 09/11/09
Charles 'hoped for Australian republic' AAP 15/11/09
Queen a parasite - Labour candidate Damien Pearse 17/11/09
Stop public holiday for Queen's diamond jubilee Langmaid & Miranda 18/11/09
Bodyguards stump up cash for Charles AAP 10/12/09
Victorian courts banish 'outdated' Queen Paul Austin 17/12/09
Tension over Queen's removal Paul Austin 18/12/09
Prince Andrew 'races' into Buckingham Palace, injures cop James Clench 12/02/10
Prince Harry spends $16,000 at London nightspot Clench & Crick 12/04/10
Prince Andrew gets $8000 helicopter trip to race track James Clench 04/05/10
Duchess offered to sell access to her prince for $870,000 Paola Totaro 24/05/10
Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson in tabloid sting AAP 24/05/10

'..."I'm a complete aristocrat,'' Sarah Ferguson told the unknown businessman, slurring her words slightly. ''Love that, don't you? I love it. It's tremendously fabulous.'' Oh, yah! The cash was on the table; there was the promise of a great deal more in return for a bit of clubbable time with Prince Andrew - and even, at the end of it, a ''lick of the spoon'' from any investments that might result. The Duchess of York never talks about money, as she says herself, but needs must! A lady, even a completely aristocratic one, has to make a living...'
from Duchess disaster

Duchess disaster Stephanie Bunbury 30/05/10
Buckingham Palace accounts revealed AAP 05/07/10
Queen forced to hand over her bank card AAP 24/09/10
Queen asked for handout from poor fund AAP 24/09/10
Queen's Facebook littered with abusive comments Georgina Robinson 12/11/10
Charles may not follow Queen as Commonwealth head Barclay Crawford 13/12/10
Royals to only pay 'small sum' for Prince William's wedding AAP 18/12/10
Paedophile flew 17-year-old Virginia Roberts to meet Prince Andrew AAP 28/02/11
A right royal scandal: Prince Andrew under fire AFP 07/03/11
Duchess of York apologises for ' error of judgement' over debt G Greig 08/03/11
Prince Andrew avoids paying $9.5m tax Jason Lewis 14/03/11
Newlyweds in line for funding to set up court Kate Mansey 02/05/11

*During the era of European colonialism the doctrine gave legal force to the claiming and settlement of lands occupied by 'backward' people, where no system of laws or ownership of property was held to exist. The Swiss philosopher and international law theorist Emerich de Vattel, building on the philosophy of John Locke and others, proposed that terra nullius applied to uncultivated land. As the indigenous people were not (in this view) using the land, those who could cultivate the land had a right to claim it.

**The British victory in the Second Boer War (1899–1902) was secured through the use of 'scorched earth' tactics, including the use of concentration camps. In fact, the concentration camps used by the British in the Second Boer War were the first to exist. The Second Boer War was an inevitable solution to the question of who was to control Southern Africa - the British or the Boers?