<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by jimrpa:
O.k., now you've REALLY confused the dumb american :-)
I always thought that the monarch's role in contemporary British government was strictly ceremonial (opening the houses of Parliment and such). You seem to be implying that the monarch acts as the executive of the government, and is responsible for the establishment of policy, development of budgets, etc?????
I do understand that the PM is just another citizen of the U.K. One could argue that the President of the U.S. is also just another citizen of the U.S., however special facilities (such as the White House, various aircraft, etc.) are made available to that office (and therefore to the holder of that office). I rather thought the same might be true in the UK. Are you saying then that all of the palaces and castles and such are property of the government of the UK and not the property of the Royal family? I'm sorry moderators, feel free to close the thread if it's drifted too far away from BA. It is rather interesting though :-)</font>
I may be using the wrong term. The Queen and the President are both Heads of State. The President is also head of the government/executive in the USA. Although the Queen is the nominal head of the government/executive in the UK (she appoints the prime minister and cabinet ministers and most significant goverment powers derive from her eg declaring war, calling a general election) you are quite right to assume that she does not exercise political power. The actual head ofthe goverment is the prime minister. For example, no monarch since Queen Victoria (1837-1901)has sought to dismiss a cabinet minister. This didn't work for Queen Victoria, but she was the last monarch that tried.
The only significant power the monarch has is the power to appoint the prime minister. This remains in the hands of the monarch. Normally she would appoint the leader of the poliitical party who have won the most seats in parliament. Queen Victoria had to accept Gladstone as Prime Minister four times although she hated him. However where the parties have a similar number of seats, the choice of prime minister will be down to the Queen. This happened in 1974 when she had to choose between Harold Wilson and Edward Heath as prime minister in the UK.
The palaces and castles and the monarch's estates were given to the state in the early 19th century (I think) in return for an annual income from parliament called the Civil List. The monarch obviously gets to use them, but they are not her private property. However Sandringham and Balmoral are private property.
Sorry for the essay. I may have strayed slightly off-topic...
[This message has been edited by The Disco Volante (edited Jan 10, 2004).]