NationStates Jolt Archive

I'm an American so I'm misinformed. :mad:

I have had Americans tell me no she doesn't have power and yes she does. I have had British people tell me no she doesn't and yes she does. So you can clearly see where the confusion comes from.

I used to think I finally figured out that no she doesn't but now I'm not too sure. :confused:

She has the power to be not amused.

She has the power to be not amused.

Haha. I heard about how she apparently has a list of slang she doesn't want people to say...

The United Kingdom is a form of government known as a Constitutional Monarchy. That means that the Head of Government (currently Tony Blair, known as the Prime Minister) controls the day-to-day running of the state. However, the government is formally known as "Her Majesty's Government", and is theoretically under the control of the Queen. However, a British monarch hasn't overruled Parliament since 1678 or so.

The Prime Minister "advises" the Queen on certain things (in other words, obtains her rubber stamp of approval). These things include dissolving parliment before an election, going to war, or raising/lowering taxes.

Officailly she has to open and close every parliment session, and sign any lesilation which is passed. Also she officially appoints the prime minister. However for over 100 years, the reigning monarch has passed everything that parliment has, and choosen the leader of the party with a majority in the house of commons as prime minister (in fact many people now believe that that is the qualification, I don't think it says anywhere in British law that this is the case).

While the Queen retains all these powers (I belive) as they have not been replaced by new British laws, she does not exercise them (maybe correctly believing that this would lead to a rapid fall in popularity of an already unpopular manarchy).

Officially, the Queen can dissolve parliament and call elections, she can choose the Prime Minister in a hung parliament (though tradition dictates that she choose the leader of the party with the most seats), she can declare war, and she advises the Prime Minister. Technically, she also has the power to issue and revoke passports, and forbid someone to leave the United Kingdom, although these powers are never used.

She also has the powere to wear nice hats and wave politely as she drives past people

she still has power BUT it is not used.

eg the prime minister has to get all laws signed by her before they are effective, She says when parliment sits, and disbands.

In reality she only does it when the elected government says. But it is possible for her to kick them out, and replace them. This has been done but i can't remember when *:headbang: stupid memory*

No, the queen has no power. Its all Tonys!! Lizzie is a head of state, who sits around with her dogs, doesn't attend her kids weddings and has pretty sparkling crowns and some nice digs.
Although she is head of the chruch so I suppose she does weild some power

She also has the powere to wear nice hats and wave politely as she drives past people
Don't forget her power to always carry a handbag around with her.

She can technically block laws, but the power hasn't been used for something like 200 years.

Don't forget her power to always carry a handbag around with her.

Very good point!

Mind you, I AM a Royalist, so don't really know why I'm taking the piss out of Liz!!!

Very good point!

Mind you, I AM a Royalist, so don't really know why I'm taking the piss out of Liz!!!
I like monarchies as well. And we're not taking the piss out of her. We are making a list of her powers.

i wonder what she puts in those...
:)

i wonder what she puts in those...
:)
All kind of gimmicks I assume. Kinda like Batman's uttility belt.

Probably the odd rubber bone for her Corgis...

Doesn't she also have the right to say Charles won't be King and pass it on to someone else, like William for example? Among the things I've always wanted to see happen in my lifetime is the monarch in England say, "I'm sick of all this Parlaiment nonsense! Screw the people! I'm taking back the country!"

Just for giggles. ya know?

Technically she has power, and most of her powers have already been covered. But as demonstrated by the House of Lords, if she ever tried to use her undemocratic power to go against the government (i.e. block a law or something along those lines), then the government would reform her so fast that she'd be sitting on her hat before she even knew what happened to her. But as we like tradition here in Britain, they wouldn't necessarily revoke all her powers, but they would simply take away or limit them. And if she kept trying to use her ever-diminishing power, she'd keep getting reformed and reformed until she ceased to exist.

Most of her power is used in a ceremonial sort of way. For example, for the purposes of the General Election Tony Blair went and asked the Queen to dissolve the government, making it 'official' if you like. He also asked her permission to use 'her' army for the War on Iraq. Stuff like that.



There is some debate between a handful of people as to how much power she could actually wield if she wanted to, though. Some believe that if she were to try and take full control of the country, she might actually be able to rally the support of a surprisingly large chunk of the Armed Forces -- and that she might even be able to do so legally. Fortunately the current monarch is a nice old lady who hasn't tried that so far, but it makes you wonder...

I'm an American so I'm misinformed. :mad:

I have had Americans tell me no she doesn't have power and yes she does. I have had British people tell me no she doesn't and yes she does. So you can clearly see where the confusion comes from.

I used to think I finally figured out that no she doesn't but now I'm not too sure. :confused:

The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of their first rank next to their king. Beginners often accidentally interchange the placement of the queen and king, thus the mnemonic "queen on her color." The white queen starts on a white square, and the black queen on a black square. In algebraic notation, the white queen starts on d1 and the black queen on d8.
Queens are usually the most mobile pieces in chess. They have the combined powers of a and .
Queens are usually the most mobile pieces in chess. They have the combined powers of a rook and bishop.

The queen can be moved in a straight line vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, any number of unoccupied squares as shown to the left, thus combining the moves of the rook and bishop. As with most pieces, the queen captures by occupying the square on which an enemy piece sits.

Ordinarily the queen is slightly more powerful than a rook and a bishop, while slightly less powerful than two rooks. Because the queen is more valuable than any other piece, it is almost always disadvantageous to exchange the queen for a piece other than the enemy's queen, unless doing so leads to a position where the king can be checkmated.

The queen is at her most powerful when the board is open, when the enemy king is not well-defended, or when there are loose (i.e. undefended) pieces in the enemy camp. Because of her long range and ability to move in more than one direction, the queen is well-equipped to execute forks, but these are only useful if the forked pieces are undefended, or one is undefended and the other is the enemy king.

Beginners often develop the queen as soon as possible, in the hopes of plundering the enemy position and possibly even delivering an early checkmate. While effective against other beginners, this strategy is disadvantageous against experienced players. With no other pieces developed, an attack by the queen alone can be easily repelled. Moreover, because the queen is too valuable to exchange for a lesser piece, the defender can often gain time and space by threatening an exposed queen and forcing her to retreat.

An exchange of queens often marks the beginning of the endgame. After the queens and a few other pieces have been exchanged, the kings are able to participate more actively in events, and the focus of the game shifts to a struggle to promote a pawn, usually to a new queen. However, it is not necessary to lose one's queen before gaining a new one by promotion. It is thus theoretically possible, though improbable, for a player to have nine queens at one time.

I once had the honour to be toally ignored by the Queen. In a row of about 16 people I was the only one she ignored. it was so obvious that her lady in waiting apologised to me. I was even on TV being ignored.
I noticed she was short and had a very expensive tan.
So there's another power. She can be an ignorant cow and other people have to apologise for her.
Hey ho

I know the queen has a ton of cash and was once the richest individual woman on earth-until JK Rowling came along.

she still has power BUT it is not used.

eg the prime minister has to get all laws signed by her before they are effective, She says when parliment sits, and disbands.

In reality she only does it when the elected government says. But it is possible for her to kick them out, and replace them. This has been done but i can't remember when *:headbang: stupid memory*

We have a similar thing with our president. Things turned into a real mess when he refused to sign a law approved by the parlament.

Officially, the Queen can dissolve parliament and call elections, she can choose the Prime Minister in a hung parliament (though tradition dictates that she choose the leader of the party with the most seats), she can declare war, and she advises the Prime Minister. Technically, she also has the power to issue and revoke passports, and forbid someone to leave the United Kingdom, although these powers are never used.

Well, it's true that these are all Prerogative powers, exercised in the name of the Crown, and in fact the list of Prerogative powers is much more extensive than this. The Criminal Compensation Scheme (or whatever it's called) exists purely under the name of the crown, the crown can seize land (although this may be limited by Article 1 of Protocol 1 of the ECHR), etc, etc.

HOWEVER, the vast majority of Crown powers are exercised by the government and not the queen personally. For example, the Queen doesn't declare war, the Prime Minister tells the queen to declare war(but this is known as the queen declaring war "on the advice of the Prime Minister" [possibly there also has to be a vote in favour of war in the parliament, I can't remember]) Almost all the remaining crown powers which are personally exercised by the monarch - the power to disolve government (mainly done on the advice of the Prime Minister, but there can be situations in which the monarch can exercise it of their own accord), the power to appoint the Prime Minister, the power to approve laws, etc are governed by constitutional conventions. This is much more than "tradition". With our unwritten constitution, practice becomes law and it is essentially illegal for the queen not to appoint the leader of the party with a majority, etc, etc, or it would at least be political suicide for the monarch not to abide by these conventions.

The only areas in which the monarch can exercise any personal discretion are very rare circumstances, such as in a hung-parliament, where there is no majority party and no coalition agreement has been reached by the elected representatives. There has been no practice in these areas, and hence there are no constitutional conventions.

While it is, on the face of it, a very stupid situation, it actually just operates like the presidential system in many countries, like the French 4th Republic (not so much with the current, 5th Republic) with the difference that we don't get to elect the person who "rubber stamps" everything. I'm not a big fan of inherited positions, so I would definitely get rid of the monarchy. The only problem with electing someone is that this could give the position more legitimacy and increase its power. Personally I would just redo the whole UK constitution.

I know the queen has a ton of cash and was once the richest individual woman on earth-until JK Rowling came along.
Only author to become a billionare if I'm not mistaking.

I know the queen has a ton of cash and was once the richest individual woman on earth-until JK Rowling came along.

Neither women have that much money - JK Rowling is 96th on the list in England and the Queen comes in at 177 i believe, both far below the richest woman on the list (Christina Green with £4.85bn). According to the BBC at least.

http://newswww.bbc.net.uk/2/hi/business/4405379.stm

she still has power BUT it is not used.

eg the prime minister has to get all laws signed by her before they are effective, She says when parliment sits, and disbands.

In reality she only does it when the elected government says. But it is possible for her to kick them out, and replace them. This has been done but i can't remember when *:headbang: stupid memory*

She used it in Australia in 1975 when her appointed royal representative, the Governer General, dismissed the elected Labour government, which resulted in a new general election that the conservative party won.

But that's Australia, not the UK. Different rules for different states; we don't have the same constitutions.

I once had the honour to be toally ignored by the Queen. In a row of about 16 people I was the only one she ignored. it was so obvious that her lady in waiting apologised to me. I was even on TV being ignored.
I noticed she was short and had a very expensive tan.
So there's another power. She can be an ignorant cow and other people have to apologise for her.
Hey ho

My kind of job.

She can fly, walk through walls, shoot lightning from her fingertips, and summon Hell demons to do her evil bidding.

The queen is the most powerful piece in the game of chess. Each player starts the game with one queen, placed in the middle of their first rank next to their king. Beginners often accidentally interchange the placement of the queen and king, thus the mnemonic "queen on her color." The white queen starts on a white square, and the black queen on a black square. In algebraic notation, the white queen starts on d1 and the black queen on d8.
Queens are usually the most mobile pieces in chess. They have the combined powers of a and .
Queens are usually the most mobile pieces in chess. They have the combined powers of a rook and bishop.

The queen can be moved in a straight line vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, any number of unoccupied squares as shown to the left, thus combining the moves of the rook and bishop. As with most pieces, the queen captures by occupying the square on which an enemy piece sits.

Ordinarily the queen is slightly more powerful than a rook and a bishop, while slightly less powerful than two rooks. Because the queen is more valuable than any other piece, it is almost always disadvantageous to exchange the queen for a piece other than the enemy's queen, unless doing so leads to a position where the king can be checkmated.

The queen is at her most powerful when the board is open, when the enemy king is not well-defended, or when there are loose (i.e. undefended) pieces in the enemy camp. Because of her long range and ability to move in more than one direction, the queen is well-equipped to execute forks, but these are only useful if the forked pieces are undefended, or one is undefended and the other is the enemy king.

Beginners often develop the queen as soon as possible, in the hopes of plundering the enemy position and possibly even delivering an early checkmate. While effective against other beginners, this strategy is disadvantageous against experienced players. With no other pieces developed, an attack by the queen alone can be easily repelled. Moreover, because the queen is too valuable to exchange for a lesser piece, the defender can often gain time and space by threatening an exposed queen and forcing her to retreat.

An exchange of queens often marks the beginning of the endgame. After the queens and a few other pieces have been exchanged, the kings are able to participate more actively in events, and the focus of the game shifts to a struggle to promote a pawn, usually to a new queen. However, it is not necessary to lose one's queen before gaining a new one by promotion. It is thus theoretically possible, though improbable, for a player to have nine queens at one time.
LOL!

:D

She's a figurehead. Basically, she's a symbol to rally around, and a sort of superambassador.

What about her role as head of the Anglican Church? I know that Henry VIII took that position for himself, but I don't know if any subsequent monarchs (esp. Windsors, such as the Queen) have exercised that power.

If she is indeed head of the church, then I know she has little if any power, and the ones she would have would be cerimonial and never used (i.e., the ability to excommunicate people, etc.). I know she has the title "Defensor Fidelis" ("Defender of the Faith)

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the spiritual head of the Anglican Communion, though we have no definate leader like a Pope. Kind of a problem when it comes to issues such as the whole gay Bishop fiasco. We're democratic though, and decide things through general conventions. Nobody has to do what Rowan Williams says.

I'm an American Episcopalian. Does the Queen technically have jurisdiction over me?

She only has symbolic power.