Scotland want Queen's name scrapped from hospital with socialist Mary Barbour

LONDON: More than 10,000 people in Scotland have signed a petition seeking to reverse the name of the country's largest hospital named after Queen Elizabeth.

Campaigners are calling it "an affront to democracy" to name the new 842 million pound luxurious hospital after the 89-year-old Queen, suggesting the hospice should be named after Mary Barbour, a firebrand socialist activist in the early 20th century and one of the city's first woman councillors.

Initially known as the South Glasgow University Hospital, the name of the hospital was changed to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital after the monarch officially opened it with Prince Philip early this month.

"Considering the fundamental principle of monarchy is superiority of the monarch and their family over everyone else in society, we feel the naming of a public building after such a person is unacceptable," said Glaswegian John Beattie, who launched the online petition that has attracted 10,364 signatures.

"We are a modern dynamic city, why should we be naming this public building after monarchy when there are more worthy people? There could have been a better name chosen," Beattie, a bioethics student at the University of West Scotland, was quoted as saying by the Daily Express.

The hospital, for which Scottish taxpayer contributed 552 million pounds, is so modern that it is nicknamed The Death Star after the fictional spaceship in Star Wars.

"Across Britain there are Queen Elizabeth hospitals in Birmingham, London, Norfolk and all over the Commonwealth, why do we need another one?" Beattie said.

"The idea Her Majesty is not worthy enough is ludicrous. She has dedicated her life to this country working far beyond what is expected of your average citizen," said Chloe Howard, spokeswoman for the British Monarchist Society.