The Monarchy

Whatever one thinks of the monarchy one must admire HM the Queen for her diplomatic silence on the present Parliamentary troubles. Of course she has very few residual powers left but she must be involved to some extent in any talk of constitutional change. I don’t think politicians of any party, at the moment, have any real sense of history. The Crown still gives assents to new statutes (though the present monarch has never refused to sign, -yet!), the PM asks her permission to dissolve Parliament and - this could be important - it is she who sends for the person she thinks can best form a new administration after a General Election. Usually this is straightforward because she will  send for the elected leader of the Party with most seats. The difficulty comes with a “hung” Parliament when she does have the power to question party leaders beforehand on who might best be able to form a coalition government and , subsequently, to appoint the person she thinks stands the best chance.

At the very least the Queen and her advisers must have some say in any changes though it is, of course, up to politicians in the end to reject her opinion or any  private or legal  advice she receives but this should not be done lightly. We are still subjects, not citizens. This is not ultra monarchism - just a statement of fact.

This entry was posted on 02/06/2009 at 08:41 am and is filed under Uncategorised. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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