At the head of the United Kingdom is a monarch, who has some residual powers, but whose main function is to advise and act as a symbol of the nation. For instance she meets every newly appointed foreign ambassador, appoints judges,senior military officers and the prime minister, who must meet with her once a week to account for the government's performance. She is head of the armed services, who swear their oaths to her. She must sign all acts of parliament into law. Her residual powers are the right to dissolve parliament or to dismiss the prime minister, but she has never exercised the latter and only dissolved parliament on request from the prime minister. She can negotiate treaties without government consent or even make war, but no monarch since 1688 has ever done either. The monarch is supreme governor of the Church of England. She is advised by a group known as the Privy Council, who are all senior ministers appointed to the privy council for life, but all that they do is advise.
Below the monarch is parliament, which is democratically elected and has the power to do two things that the monarch cannot do: make laws and raise taxes. The elected house of parliament is the House of Commons, which has the final say in what laws are enacted. The upper house, the Lords, is a revising chamber, which can send matters back to the Commons up to two times,but if the commons insist on rejecting Lords' amendments the Commons gets its way. Lords are appointed by the monarch on advice from the Prime Minister, but while there are still hereditary lords they have no voting rights in that chamber.
The Prime Minister is not directly elected but is normally the leader of the largest party in parliament. The present incumbent got the job after the previous P.M resigned as party leader after losing the Brexit referendum. Five candidates stood, but four dropped out, leaving her to be elected leader unopposed. The monarch then had to ask her to be P.M. A thoroughly unsatisfactory way to appoint a P.M. The P.M heads the government and advises the monarch on appointments in the competence of the monarch, such as judges and Church of England bishops.
Below the level of parliament there are devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. You might ask why not one for England, but when a form of devolution was proposed for England the Scottish Nationalist Party objected, apparently happy that English enjoy fewer rights than other citizens of the U.K. That is nothing other than discrimination.
Below this level there are local councils. Some are county councils, others are metropolitan borough councils. There are town and parish councils below them. For example,my own town of Trafford has a metropolitan borough council, to which are responsible one town council in an outlying town and two parish councils in villages to small to be classed as towns.
Comments
The monarch appoints on the advice of the prime minister.manchester manchester
The first paragraph to your first subheading, The Main Institutions, describes the monarch as being "advised by a group known as the Privy Council, who are all senior ministers appointed to the privy council for life, but all that they do is advise."
Who does the appointing of the Privy Council?
Well said. As you know I am a committed Remainer. I suspect that the right wing Conservatives wanted Brexit so that they could be free of the European Court of Justice.because they were the social class most likely to be hauled before it. Miscreants never like the courts.
Moreover, they have long hankered for a UK devoid of workers' rights, and when they are free of the EU they will launch a bonfire of employment rights. All this will be to serve their goal of turning the UK into a paradise for capitalists, a low wage high profit economy. High profits for them;low wages for the common folk.
I also suspect that the Brexiteers miscalculated on the Irish border, for they thought that the majority of European states would not let a little country such as Eire stand in the way of a trade deal, so they reckoned that the rest would throw Ireland to the wolves and ride rough shod over it rights. But the other Europeans have stood firm, so now we are in a messy impasse on the border issue.
Brexit is going to be the worse thing that could have happened to us and it is our children and grandchildren who will most likely feel the worst of it.
I still can't believe we are leaving. I voted remain for the following reasons.
> We have had peace in Europe for over 70 years because we have been linked financially. Peace in Europe for this length of time has been unheard of before we joined the EU. The two World wars started in a fighting Europe.
> We gain greatly in Britain for having immigration and frankly our nursing homes and other poor paid jobs wouldn't be filled without immigrants.
< The few laws which have been imposed by Europe recently have been good ones referring to employment rights and the environment.
< We are now going to have to cope with setting up trade agreements all over again
< The Irish border question is farcical and I think will be a major problem. WE have had a peaceful border for some time to date.
< It will be much harder to holiday in Europe without an EU passport
< Ironically, the British passports until now made in Britain will be made in Europe when we leave.
What happened in North America was that the king was "trying it on" as we say in Britain. He was trying to exercise taxation powers there that he did not have at home. But the Americans would not let him get away with it. So your educators taught correctly
The biggest surprise is that the monarch lost much power in the 1600s. We are taught in a slanted history that the American Revolution in the late 1700s was to oppose the taxes of King George III. Strange how history differs depending on the location in which it is taught.