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    Re: CM: The Queen’s Active Role in the Right Wing Coup - rubbish. Archived Message

    Posted by John Monro on August 30, 2019, 12:22 pm, in reply to "CM: The Queen’s Active Role in the Right Wing Coup"

    I usually find CM's postings worth reading. This one isn't. It's not the Queen's failure that sees Mr Johnson in the office of PM, but Parliament's failure. Parliament has asserted its increasing authority over the Monarch since the days (and end) of Charles 1st. The Monarch is, for all practical purposes, sovereign in name only, and if Parliament can't get its act together then it's not the Queens job, nor even all the Queen's men, to put it back together again. She probably does have some sort of residual power if there were some sort of political impasse which rendered the country ungovernable, but she'd be pretty reluctant to use it, and rightly so. I doubt even the most expert constitutional lawyer would be able to describe exactly what that would be.

    Parliament is generally only able to say out loud that the PM doesn't have the support of the HoC when there's been a vote of no confidence. Before this happens, neither the Queen, nor even CM in all his wisdom, can make that assumption. So to criticise the Queen in this regard is ridiculous, and to make it out that she's playing an active role in a right wing coup is equally facile. I think it's pretty obvious that what's happening in the UK will be very upsetting to her, and she'd want to avoid adding any fuel to the undoubted constitutional crisis that the UK's got itself into. Refusing to appoint Mr Johnson as PM? Come on.

    If the Queen had somehow interfered with what was happening in Westminster, CM would be one of the first to complain, I'm sure. I think CM is being rather selective here, as an avowed anti-Monarchist, he seems to be suggesting that the Monarch should have used her powers (whatever they may be supposed to be) that he would otherwise assert she should never have had in the first place. .

    By all means be a republican, it's a rational political viewpoint to many (as you know I'm not), but don't blame anyone for what is happening now other than on Parliament itself, its creaking institutions, a seriously divided populace and a time in history of increasing fractiousness and a serious loss of political, social and economic cohesion.

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