code: def strip_xml_namespace(root):
      
      try:
          root.tag = root.tag.split('}')[1]
      except IndexError:
          pass
  
      for element in root.getchildren():
          strip_xml_namespace(element)
docs: Strip out namespace data from an ElementTree.
  
      This function is recursive and will traverse all
      subnodes to the root element
  
      @param root: the root element
  
      @return: the same root element, minus namespace