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Comment Re:Must be nice (Score 1) 401

If you are defining the establishment as inclusive of the monarchy, then yes the queen wouldn't exist.

They would be some crazy times though. A motion of no confidence might be a much better starting place!

As for the people queen analogy, I didn't really think it was a very good one either.

Comment Re:Must be nice (Score 1) 401

Confusion abound!

You can argue that a constitutional monarchy is a form of government, you would be right but this is an axiom and so I don't know why anyone would be arguing this point.

The Government (UK, capital G) is merely the majority party (or parties) in the House of Commons at any given time, and The Queen is not a part of this.

The House of Commons itself is just one part of parliament. Parliament is the authoritative legislative body in the UK. It comprises the Houses of Parliament, the House of Lords and the Monarch, who is head of parliament.

Parliament is routinely dissolved 17 days before a general election, at which point the Members of Parliament no longer carry title, and the Government no longer exists. During this time, the Monarch continues to reign. They exist without the Government.

It is by royal decree that a new parliament is summoned, a general election is held, which may or may not form a new Government.

So although the Queen is not part of the Government, she is part of Parliament. Her position as Monarch is not dependant on the existence of Parliament no less than it depends on the existence of the Government.

The British Monarchy exists as constitutional monarchy however, such that significant power has been ceded to the Government where 'running the country' is concerned. Such that even the Royal Prerogative itself has now been diminished to such an extent that most decisions are taken by government without royal approval, and in fact the Prime Minister is not obliged to take heed of the monarch.

So its easy to assume the queen cannot exist without the Government, I suspect the real truth is that the Queen cannot rule without the government.

Without a government though, I would assume that the Queen would in fact rule in their stead. This is total conjecture though.

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