Tag Archives: independence  Why is the Queen the head of state
in Jamaica?  “I love the Queen; she is a beautiful lady,” said
newly-elected Portia Simpson Miller today, Jamaica’s first
female Prime Minister, “but I think time come.”  Australia, New
Zealand, Canada, Grenada, the Bahamas, Belize. All countries
that are formally independent, yet have the Queen as their
official head of state. Jamaica is another country that falls
into that category, but today, Portia Simpson Miller, elected
Prime Minister for the second time in last week’s election,
pledged to change that. As she was sworn in, Simpson Miller made
a 45 minute speech in which she vowed to drop the Queen as head
of state and make the country a republic. She also promised to
replace the privy council in London with the court of justice as
Jamaica’s highest court of appeal, which she said would “end
judicial surveillance from London”.  Jamaica became an
independent country in 1962, and the very idea that they would
retain a head of state who lives th