A portrait of Queen Elizabeth II has been removed from a common room at Magdalen College— one of the colleges of Oxford University— after a vote by its students.
Members of Magdalen College Middle Common Room said that “for some students depictions of the monarch and the British monarchy represent recent colonial history”.
In response to the decision to remove the portrait, the president of the college, Dinah Rose, said: “Being a student is about more than studying. It’s about exploring and debating ideas. It’s sometimes about provoking the older generation. Looks like that isn’t so hard to do these days.”
However, the move was criticised by England's Education Secretary Gavin Williamson who described the decision as "simply absurd".
'Queen's Consent'
Earlier this year, the Guardian revealed that Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles had vetted more than one thousand laws via a parliamentary procedure known as 'Queen’s consent'.
The range of laws vetted include matters related to justice, social security, pensions, race relations, food policy, as well as draft laws affecting the Queen's personal property.
It was also revealed that the monarch lobbied the UK government to change a draft law to conceal her private wealth from the public.