quote:
Originally posted by Donut:
...They are the figurehead of the country rather than of the government. They certainly have no power - we fought a Civil War to achieve that....
Sorry Donut, but you are wrong there. You need to study our constitution a little more. The queen still retains some impressive powers which, amongst other things, include:
a) the unilateral right to suspend/dissolve parliament
b) the right to 'fire' the prime mininster
c) the right to refuse a newly elected prime minister his office
d) the right to grant a pardon for all crimes (including treason)
etc. etc. etc...
The monarchy still has a lot of serious powers. Simply because they havn't been exercised for a long time does not mean that they don't exist...