Liz Windsor celebrates with dictators, despots and tyrants

Liz Windsor continued her year of excess and self-congratulations today by hosting a lunch at Windsor Castle for fellow monarchs.

Among those in attendance were a number of unpleasant autocratic and absolute monarchs who really shouldn't be invited to pleasant lunches at British tax payers expense.

Included among these truly evil human beings are the King of Bahrain who has had protestors against his oppressive regime arrested or simply shot during the past year. Therr's also King Mswati of Swaziland who runs his country for his self interest while the population suffer.

Added to this are members of the Saudi and Kuwaiti royal families both of whom rule nations with appalling civil rights records notably being opposed to equality for women and being anti-gay.

Particularly sickening was that many who attended wore military uniforms of the armies they use to oppress their populations.

Quite why old Liz thinks it is acceptable to entertain such despots is beyond me. Maybe she's been ill-advised or maybe she's gone ga ga in her old age. Or maybe she wishes she could be more blatant and evil rather than simply ripping off the British public financially and for privilege.

I often hear, from monarchists, what a great job Liz Windsor does. Today shows that she is a disgrace and a national embarrassment.

OPINION: Should the Bahrain Grand Prix go ahead?

The Bahrain Formula 1 Grand Prix is scheduled to take place in 11 days time, and, like last year when it was cancelled, the question of whether this year's race should happen has been raised.

Bahrain is a wealthy Arab state with what can reasonably called a strict and oppressive government. Last year, when peoples across North Africa and the Middle East rose up against a number of oppressive regimes as part of the Arab Spring, the Bahrain authorities crushed opposition to their leadership and, in the wake of that, and ongoing troubles, it was thought best that the race didn't happen.

Opposition groups have, over the past couple of weeks, been raising the temperature as the race date gets nearer. They would like the race to be cancelled again because, they say, human rights have not changed and the authorities are still clamping down severely on anyone found to be speaking out against the government.

Formula 1's supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, has said that the teams have a contractual duty to turn up to race but, in practically the same breath, he says he can't force them. In all likelihood a decision about the race in Bahrain will be taken this weekend at the China Grand Prix.

Yes, that's right, the China Grand Prix!

So, Formula 1 might not go to Bahrain to race because of ongoing human rights abuses but there are no calls for the race in China, the country that many consider to be the world's worse abuser of human rights, to be cancelled. After all, there's a big potential audience in China, isn't there? Formula 1 can make a ton of money there.

Formula 1 needs to look much more carefully at the countries it chooses to take races to. Yes, this is sport and not politics, but only the most naive political virgin would argue that the two aren't closely linked.

Formula 1 is an enormous cash cow - it goes it generates thousands of dollars, but, like Apple have found with the problem of workers' rights in factories making iPhones and iPads, with global wealth must come some moral responsibility.

I hope that the Bahrain Grand Prix doesn't happen, and I hope it stays off the calendar until there are sufficient positive changes happen to improve the lives of ordinary Bahraini citizens, but I hope that Formula 1 will also reconsider the morality of its races in China, the UAE, and several other countries.

OPINION: I don't want to be British

It's not an anti-British thing - I don't want to be labelled as any particular nationality.

Earlier today I posed a question on Twitter and Google+:

Do you HAVE to be a nationality?
Is it a technical requirement?

The responses were, pretty much, what I expected.

Yes.

Some, with experience of living in different countries, told me their British passport/nationality made life much easier if there were problems.

So, is travel and identification the only benefit? It seems it may be the case.

I'm not trying to avoid taxation (I'm more than happy to contribute my fair share in whichever territory I happen to be domiciled), and I'm not trying to evade the law (I think it is right that there are laws to protect individuals and groups throughout the world).

It's just I don't want to be labelled as being British (or French, or American, or Chinese,or wherever).

My nationality was an accident of birth. In early April 1965 my mother happened to be in London at the moment I decided it was time to venture into the world. Yes, my mother is British and has, I suspect, never considered changing that. But why, because of choices my mother made before my conception, should I be given a tag of nationality.

One person responding to my post on Google+ claims that I could be free of nationality from birth had my mother had the foresight to to follow in the footsteps of Amundsen and Scott and go to Antarctica.

Even then, I would be expected to chose a nationality and not remain an international neutral

I despise nationality.

I watch international football or rugby or athletics or whatever for the quality of the sport not to cheer on others whose mothers made similar choices to my own.

I refuse to sing the British "National Anthem" - God Save the Queen is an awful dirge asking a non-existent deity for special attention for one person - it has very little to do with the real world or nationhood - but even if it was I'd find it distasteful and unpleasant.

Ultimately, nationality is about prejudice and division. It is the reason we have racists like the BNP and UKIP. It why we have wars (alongside religion) and it is why we have world divided by wealth.

I want us all to live together in peace and harmony, sharing knowledge and resources, and striving for a better future for everyone.

I don't see why I should be forced to be British with all the historical evils that carries.

I want a UN passport.

I want the right to be a citizen of the world.