'Sick old man'
Last week a funeral procession for the Queen was disrupted by a heckler yelling at Prince Andrew. As King Charles III, Princess Anne, Prince Edward, and Prince Andrew walked behind a hearse carrying the Queen's coffin in Scotland, the heckler yelled "Andrew, you're a sick old man".
In January the Queen stripped Prince Andrew, 62, of his royal patronages and military titles after Virginia Giuffre filed a lawsuit alleging Jeffrey Epstein forced her to have sex with the Duke of York when she was 17. The pair reached an out-of-court settlement in February.
Videos via social media showed that the man was grabbed by his hood by a fellow crowd member. He was also beaten by mourners before being escorted away by police.
The 22-year-old heckler was arrested in connection with a breach of the peace on the Royal Mile. Interestingly the crowd members responsible for the alleged assaults came away charge-free.
The price of money
While there will not be any dramatic changes to New Zealand's national anthem, where references to "Queen" will be substituted with "King", people may expect to see King Charles III's noggin on the country's coins and banknotes.
But this won't be happening for a while, the Reserve Bank has said. New banknotes are printed in Canada and orders are placed every one to two years - depending on the need to replenish stock levels.
A spokesperson said it could be a few years before Charles' face is distributed among the pockets of New Zealand residents.
Money is generally only removed from circulation when it is too damaged.
Slavery
While British merchants were largely responsible for the Atlantic slave trade between the 16th and 19th centuries, no legislation ever passed in England that legalised slavery.
Between 1662 and 1807, British merchants purchased an estimated 3,415,500 Africans. Just 2,964,800 survived the hideous middle passage to lead a hideous life of slavery in the Americas.
Between 1699 and 1807, British and British colonial ports mounted 12,103 slaving voyages - 3351 of them setting out from London.
In 1772, Lord Mansfield ruled in the Somerset case that as slavery was not recognised by English law, James Somerset - a man who was put into slavery and then escaped - could not be forcibly sent to Jamaica for sale. He was set free.
As early as 1776, the House of Commons debated a motion "that the slave trade is contrary to the laws of God and the rights of men".
An abolitionist movement began in Britain during the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Slave Trade Act 1807 abolished the slave trade in the British Empire, but it was only thanks to the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 that the institution of slavery was abolished.
Treaty of Waitangi
With the ascension of King Charles, New Zealand - like most Commonwealth nations - may decide to reassess our constitutional arrangements.
As the New Zealand Government is already responsible for the Treaty relationship, there will be no change to the existing partnership between the Crown and Māori, the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, or subsequent Treaty settlements.
The Queen was a direct descendant of Queen Victoria, who supported the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. The Waitangi Tribunal was set up in 1975 to investigate Crown breaches of the Treaty of Waitangi.
In February 1990 she paid a visit to Waikawa Marae as part of a Royal Tour to New Zealand and to commemorate 150 years since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.
In 1995 the Queen signed the Waikato-Tainui Deed of Settlement. The move honoured the commitments her ancestors' governments had failed to honour. It was a move to right the wrongs of the past, in other words.
Republic
The situation around rights and obligations in relation to te Tiriti may be subject to change if the country decides to ditch the royals entirely. If so, while the future of the Treaty should be negotiated between Māori and the Government, it may be settled between the Government and five million voters.
But this is a long way away yet as both Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and opposition leader Chris Luxon have said that the issue of becoming a republic is not on the table, for now. Currently, Charles III serves as head of state for 15 countries, including Britain.
While an independent panel is currently reviewing the country's electoral laws ahead of the 2026 general election, discussions around moving away from the monarchy and New Zealand's constitutional arrangements are out of scope.
In a 2021 poll, just one-third of people surveyed said they would support being part of a republic, while a proposal in 2016 to remove the Union Jack from New Zealand's flag was defeated.
Tangentially, last week the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda announced plans to hold a referendum on becoming a republic within three years. Last year, Barbados voted to remove Queen Elizabeth as head of state.
Australia asked the question in 1999, which was narrowly defeated.
Public holiday
Last week Jacinda Ardern announced New Zealand would mark the death of Elizabeth with a public holiday on September 26, holding a state memorial service on the same day. Australia will have a holiday on September 22 and the UK will do so on September 19, the day of the Queen's funeral.
Unlike Easter et al, there will be no trading restrictions for the bank holiday. The Act Party has typically come out swinging against the holiday, whereas the National and Green Parties are supportive of the idea.
Interestingly, Judith Collins and Chris Luxon were somewhat opposed to the Matariki holiday, citing it would negatively impact small businesses.
"We're going to have an awful lot of holidays for people that they weren't looking for and those are unfortunately a lot of job losses, so I just feel so sorry for what we're seeing in the country and so sorry for families that are finding out they can't afford to pay the bills," Collins said at the time.
Treasury figures suggest a public holiday can bring between $27 million in economic benefit, to $136m in costs.
Whether you're for or against the holiday, a republic, or the royals generally, one thing is true: "We may hold different points of view but it is in times of stress and difficulty that we most need to remember that we have much more in common than there is dividing us." - Queen Elizabeth II
