Who are the British



The British Monarchy

Lord Morrison : “When the people cheer the Queen and sing her praises, they are cheering our free democracy.”

The Queen is the Head of State, of the executive, the judiciary, the legislature, the military and the Church of England. All those positions are normally separated in different people in the other countries. Does this mean she has real power ? Of course not. She has all this authority in name only. It is symbolic power.

Lord Esher : “The sovereign can not act unconstitutionally so long as he acts on the advice of a minister supported by a majority in the House of Commons. Ministerial responsibility is the safeguard of the monarchy.”

3 September 1939 : George VI gave a speech on the radio and he declared that Britain was at war with Germany. Not one person criticized the King, because he was simply obeying instructions from the Prime Minister. The King is above criticism.

The first and most important duty of the sovereign is to appoint a Prime Minister and a government of Britain. How does it work ? The elections take place every five years minimum. The PM can choose when there will be an election. It is very rare that they wait for five years. The elections in Britain take place on Thursday. On the evening we count the votes. The Queen must be in London during an election. The former PM must give her a letter of resignation after advising the Queen who should be the next PM.. The Queen has to appoint the new PM, who goes directly to 10, Downing Street.

What happens if the PM resigns before the elections ? What if he dies ? In 1955, the PM was Churchill. He was 80 and was ill. In April, he decided to resign. He went to Buckingham Palace to see the Queen, he told her, she was not surprised and before he gave her his letter of resignation he gave her one last piece of advice : the name of the next PM, his foreign secretary, Anthony Eden. He became PM with no elections. The Queen followed Churchill’s advice. It was not very controversial. Two years later, Anthony Eden was ill, and he was forced to resign (he was psychologically broken, he had a breakdown). He left England. He did not give advice to the Queen. The first duty of the Queen is to guarantee a PM => she organized private meetings to know who she should choose. There was two main names : Macmillan and Butler. Butler was the most popular and experienced, but Macmillan was chosen. It was a very controversial decision => the Queen has influence, she was involved in that decision. In 1957, Macmillan became PM. Six years later, in 1963, he was ill. The Queen visited him in hospital. She had to receive his resignation. He gave her advice before he resigned. Butler was then sure to be PM. But he was not chosen, he never became PM. Another man was chosen, a member of the House of Lords : Alec Douglas-Home. Normally a member of the House of Lords can’t be PM. It was a very controversial decision => political scandal in 1963. Home resigned from the Lords and contested a by-election to enter the House of Commons.

The Queen has many roles : to choose the Prime Minister, the government. In 1945, Clement Attlee was the new PM. At that time, Georges VI, the Queen’s father, was king. He didn’t agree with one of the name in the list of the members of the government chosen by Attlee. Attlee changed the name. The king has influence. If Attlee hadn’t changed he name, the King would however have signed too. The Prime Minister has the power but the monarch gives advice to him.

The sovereign appoints a government by signing the list of names presented to him by his new Prime Minister. Each new member must swear an oath of allegiance to the sovereign.

Other formal duties performed by the monarch : opening of Parliament, giving Royal Assent to the bills passed by Parliament (the Queen signs all the Acts with “la Reine le veult”, because of the occupation of the French in England for 3 centuries) and fulfilling international duties as head of state.

The Queen reads all the official documents, all the bills. The present Queen, Elizabeth II, reads Cabinet papers regularly and the Prime Minister meets her often to inform her of her government’s actions. It is well known that she takes an active part in the discussions with her ministers and many have admitted that they have benefited from her experience and advice. She has been Queen since 1952, when Churchill was still Prime Minister.

In 1991, during the first Golf War, PM John Major met the Queen every morning. The Queen wanted to know everything about the war.

The Queen is also the head of Church. The head of Church must be Protestant so the Queen or the King must be Protestant. It means that the Queen or the King isn’t allowed to marry a Catholic because if you marry a Catholic you go to a Catholic church and in a catholic church you promise to raise your children as Catholics, so the future King of England could be Catholic.

Finally the Queen is also the Head of the Commonwealth (the union of ex-British colonies) created in 1930.

The Queen isn’t just a symbol, a symbol of power.

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