It’s about time really. While this change is partly cosmetic it is also conceptually important. The British Crown has remained the head of state in Jamaica, even though Jamaicans need a visa to visit the UK (i.e to visit their own head of state, in theory) even after repeated Windrush ‘scandals’ after the UK govt redrew Commonwealth citizenship laws to stop the ‘flood’ of Caribbeans and Asians (while subsidising Italian and German former enemies) and even after the best development assistance the UK government could think to offer Jamaica was a prison to house the grand total of about 700 Jamaican nationals that were in British prisons at the time. (there were much greater numbers of Irish and Polish nationals in UK prisons for example). In any case, for all of Jamaicas many flaws and the huge challenges it faces, the country is a democracy and hereditary monarchy (or lords exerting undue influence in parliament for that matter) is of very questionable value to a modern democratic state. I also take this time to randomly remind you that the University of the West Indies (Jamaica campus specifically) outranks the Universities of Brighton, Manchester Metropolitan, Coventry, Oxford Brooke’s and many more on the Times Educational supplement yearly rankings. Cos why not. Hopefully the Jamaican ruling class will think very seriously about the message they are sending out here and what it should mean for their attitudes to Jamaicas future, to national development and to unearned positions in society more generally. Bless up