Campaign group Republic has today said it welcomes a Yougov poll showing a clear majority are opposed to changing the name of the tower that houses Big Ben to Elizabeth Tower.
The proposed name change has come from MPs seeking to ingratiate themselves with the Queen in her jubilee year.
The Yougov poll showed that a clear majority of Londoners - 53% - are opposed to the name change, with 44% of people UK-wide opposed compared with just 30% in favour.
Republic's chief executive Graham Smith said today:
"The public have sensibly rejected this idea out of hand. Big Ben is a famous landmark associated with our parliament, the home of British democracy. People don't want that landmark to be changed or named after the Queen."
"This poll shows just how out of touch our MPs are when it comes to the monarchy. They fall over themselves to pay tribute to our un-elected head of state while the vast majority people simply aren't interested in their fawning."
"This poll comes not long after the widespread hostility shown toward the proposed £80m royal yacht, which was quickly dropped once public outrage became clear."
"While a majority of people will still prefer to keep the monarchy there is clearly no appetite for the fawning and sycophancy of previous decades. MPs need to play catch up and start to have a more intelligent and mature debate about this issue."
Full details of the poll are on the YouGov website: http://labs.yougov.co.uk/news/2012/05/02/should-big-ben-become-big-beth/
The proposed name change has come from MPs seeking to ingratiate themselves with the Queen in her jubilee year.
The Yougov poll showed that a clear majority of Londoners - 53% - are opposed to the name change, with 44% of people UK-wide opposed compared with just 30% in favour.
Republic's chief executive Graham Smith said today:
"The public have sensibly rejected this idea out of hand. Big Ben is a famous landmark associated with our parliament, the home of British democracy. People don't want that landmark to be changed or named after the Queen."
"This poll shows just how out of touch our MPs are when it comes to the monarchy. They fall over themselves to pay tribute to our un-elected head of state while the vast majority people simply aren't interested in their fawning."
"This poll comes not long after the widespread hostility shown toward the proposed £80m royal yacht, which was quickly dropped once public outrage became clear."
"While a majority of people will still prefer to keep the monarchy there is clearly no appetite for the fawning and sycophancy of previous decades. MPs need to play catch up and start to have a more intelligent and mature debate about this issue."
Full details of the poll are on the YouGov website: http://labs.yougov.co.uk/news/2012/05/02/should-big-ben-become-big-beth/
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