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Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by rhplus on Thursday September 08, 2022 @02:37PM (#32770006)
> "the opaque procedure of Queen’s consent has been exercised far more extensively than was previously believed"

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/feb/08/royals-vette...

Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by daedalus_f on Thursday September 08, 2022 @03:08PM (#32770490)
The article does a good job conflating the parliamentary process of Queen’s consent and lobbying of the government by the Royal family. You may think both are bad/outdated, I do, but there’s a lot of journalistic spin going on here.

Right at the bottom of the article there is a quote: “Consent is always granted by the monarch where requested by government. Any assertion that the sovereign has blocked legislation is simply incorrect.”

The journalist never provides any evidence to the contrary.

Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by waqf on Thursday September 08, 2022 @06:42PM (#32773007)
But the quote does not address the question of whether the government felt that the sovereign were threatening to block legislation, if it were not modified in accordance with the Royal Family's wishes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pyqnu6ywhR4).
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by scaramanga on Thursday September 08, 2022 @06:54PM (#32773137)
Or whether the monarch was threatening to oust the government, using the army which is loyal to the monarch.
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by scaramanga on Thursday September 08, 2022 @06:53PM (#32773123)
Because it could not exist, because it is secret.

Also, the government has to request it. Another problem the UK has is: massively corrupt governments.

Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by OkayPhysicist on Thursday September 08, 2022 @02:40PM (#32770048)
They are in an odd spot of having extreme de jure power (Charles could disband parliament tomorrow) while having a completely unknown de facto power (would they listen? It didn't work out too well for another Charles).
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by Beltalowda on Thursday September 08, 2022 @03:51PM (#32771106)
King Baudouin of Belgium tried to exercise his power in the 90s by refusing to sign the abortion law, citing his catholic faith.

The law got signed in to effect anyway. The "trick" was that parliament can sign laws in to effect if the king is incapacitated. They declared him incapacitated, signed the law, and declared him "capable" again the next day. Whether that was truly legal and in accordance to the letter of the law was a matter of some debate (in my reading of the text, it's not), but I expect things will go in a similar fashion for the British monarchy if Charles really tries to use his "hard power" (rather than "soft power"/influence) in any way.

Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by pluijzer on Thursday September 08, 2022 @05:03PM (#32772050)
Keep in mind that king Baudouin requested himself for a solution where he would not have to sign the law without I obstructing the democratic process. So it is not fully true that they went against the will of the king.
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by wyldfire on Thursday September 08, 2022 @02:46PM (#32770149)
It seems as if in Elizabeth's life (if "The Crown" has any bearing on real life events) she was able to wield some amount of de facto power either due to her reputation/prestige personally or from her role as monarch.

> Charles could disband parliament tomorrow

Elizabeth had some amount of real world power perhaps via the potential threat of this.

Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by barrenko on Thursday September 08, 2022 @03:37PM (#32770905)
So basically a kick-ass PM (product manager).
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by simonh on Thursday September 08, 2022 @03:21PM (#32770678)
I would say influence rather than power.
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by bambax on Thursday September 08, 2022 @03:36PM (#32770900)
It would be quite funny if he tried. I don't think he has it in him though.
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by pclmulqdq on Thursday September 08, 2022 @02:49PM (#32770205)
The queen says "tut tut" to the prime minister when the prime minister does something bad. That is not a role that you can underestimate. The queen reminds the prime minister that there is someone above them, and someone that they answer to. In comparison, a lot of US presidents seem like they need a few "tut tuts."
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by jamiek88 on Thursday September 08, 2022 @03:11PM (#32770541)
US presidents answer to the people.

It’s completely different.

Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by simonh on Thursday September 08, 2022 @03:30PM (#32770815)
They answer to the people eventually, but while in office they wield powers unknown in our (British) system since the time of George III. And I mean that quite literally. The US president is essentially an elected British King circa 1789. They literally copied the constitutional role of the king point by point with a few minor alterations. The power to convene and dissolve parlia...er...congress, executive decrees are royal decrees, the veto on legislation, command of the armed forces, the power to pardon convicts, proroguation. Not exactly cutting edge constitutional innovation I'm afraid. We've moved on, but in some ways the US still stuck in the 18th Century.
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by dghlsakjg on Thursday September 08, 2022 @04:10PM (#32771383)
You have an overly expansive view of presidential powers.

The Congress does not answer to the president. It is an independent institution. It does not convene and dissolve by presidential request.

Executive orders can be over-ruled by either of the other two branches of government

Veto power can be over-ruled by the congress.

Until recently, presidents needed congressional approval to make war. Now we skip that part and just don't call it a war.

Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by simonh on Friday September 09, 2022 @02:51AM (#32776102)
>It does not convene and dissolve by presidential request.

And yet Article 2 Section 3 exists. Constitutional convention copy machine go Brrr. However I did exaggerate slightly for satirical effect. Maybe I should have just said "some alterations".

Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by bambax on Thursday September 08, 2022 @03:38PM (#32770923)
Yeah it's different, and worse IMHO. "The people" is an abstraction, like "God" or "Nature". The Queen is a real person that you have to go meet in her house, and bow to.
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by garren on Thursday September 08, 2022 @03:22PM (#32770685)
It’s completely different, that’s without a doubt. Whether or not a US President “answer[s] to the poeple” is debatable. W Bush taking the country to Iraq again, against a significant majority of the people comes to mind.
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by dustincoates on Thursday September 08, 2022 @03:39PM (#32770933)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_opinion_in_the_United...

Support for the Iraq War at the time of invasion was either close to or a majority.

Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by pclmulqdq on Thursday September 08, 2022 @03:27PM (#32770767)
Throughout history, the people have tried to say "tut tut" to the president, and the response is usually large amounts of police violence.
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by Dalewyn on Thursday September 08, 2022 @03:41PM (#32770962)
Like all American politicians the POTUS does ultimately answer to the people, but only in an indirect fashion. Directly, the POTUS answers to the States because the States are the ones who elect him.
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by NoGravitas on Thursday September 08, 2022 @05:56PM (#32772592)
And isn't that going to be a shitshow in 2024?
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by tcmart14 on Thursday September 08, 2022 @03:18PM (#32770632)
In theory. But theory and practice are different things.
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by pclmulqdq on Thursday September 08, 2022 @03:14PM (#32770568)
Does Joe Biden agree?

Does Donald Trump agree?

I would wager that neither man feels particularly accountable to the unwashed masses that both of them openly disdained.

Edit: Does George Bush agree?

Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by jonny_eh on Thursday September 08, 2022 @03:29PM (#32770806)
Especially if they feel that they can use violence to overrule the will of the people.
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by hydrolox on Thursday September 08, 2022 @03:24PM (#32770719)
Well, Trump didn't get re-elected and it doesn't seem like Biden will either. So they "answer" every 4 years.
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by JAlexoid on Thursday September 08, 2022 @02:49PM (#32770210)
They make a lot of money off "the little things"... Like owning large swathes of Westminster(land and revenue generating properties)

You can be assured that Royal Family Inc will fight tooth and nail to keep their privileges intact.

Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by msabalau on Thursday September 08, 2022 @04:00PM (#32771224)
Given that Dang has decided that exploring the negative aspects of monarchy are "ranting" and "malignant", it is hard to imagine how you could get an comprehensive assessment of the institution on HN. A curious person can probably find that sort of information elsewhere.
Re:Queen Elizabeth II has died by dang on Thursday September 08, 2022 @05:04PM (#32772067)
No, I said that about shallow-indignant internet comments, aka flamebait, which are what we don't want here. Thoughtful critique is a different matter—though the bar for "thoughtful" on this topic has to be pretty high, because it's so full of bombast and an internet forum is the worst genre for that.

I don't care about monarchism or anti-monarchism, nor would I ever take a position about anything like that in a moderation comment. The moderation comments are always about the same thing—avoiding tedious repetition (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32771818). The irony is how tediously repetitive they are!