American has questions about the queen?

Question

Today in my college history class we where discussing what roles the British monarcy plays in the UK today? So here are my questions..

1. Can the Queen pardon people and get them out of prison?

2. Can she make laws or raise/lower taxes?

3. Can a common citizen request and audience with her. In other words can you make an appointment and speek to her? Or is their people under her that you can speek to that will send her a message.

4. What roles do her kids and grandkids have?

5. Could she ever be convicted of a crime and what would happen lets say if he had someone killed and undeniable evidence come out that tied her to the crime?

6. Are there people that want to whole monarcy disolved and make them earn an honest living?

Thanks yall, god bless

Answer 1

1 - Yes, but she never does. This job is delegated to the Home Secretary and the Judiciary who act in her name.

2 - No. English (& later, British) monarchs have not been able to raise taxes single handled since King John. They have had to get the authority of Parliament. That's why the world's first parliamentary government was formed. They weren't elected in a democratic sense as we know it today. They were really an alliance of influential and powerful taxpayers (the nobility)  who wanted to mediate the king's spending.

3 - Yes, you can request an audience with the Queen. In reality these are filtered by sundry Civil Service minions. You may get to speak directly to one of the minor Royals if the cause was deemed worthy enough.

4 - The Family all have duties of greater or lesser importance depending on their seniority and rank. The vast majority of these duties are relatively invisible and could involve Patronage of many charities. Also most hold ceremonial military ranks whilst the majority of these hold genuine military commissions and see active service. The Queen's grandson Prince William recently completed a few tours of duty in Afghanistan. To protect his colleagues and himself (he would be an obvious target) this was not publicised until he came home.

The Prince of Wales (Charles) is an active landlord and runs the estate of the Duchy of Cornwall. Others also have real jobs but it's not fashionable to admit this.

5 - Only the Members of Parliament seem to be above the law.

Many previous monarchs have been charged whilst still reigning. The most famous was Charles 1st who was charged with High Treason by Oliver Cromwell after the Civil War (ours not yours) and then beheaded.

Queen Elizabeth 1st sister, Mary (the original Bloody Mary because she burned Protestants) was also beheaded.

The present queen's children do occasionally get in trouble with the law. Princess Anne was once fined for speeding. Aparently only her mother owns the road so the kids still have to obey the law.

6 - There are thousands of Republicans who would give up the monarchy in favour of an elected President. Having seen how presidents behave I hope they never get their way. As for earning an honest living ...

The confusion centres around something called the Civil List. This is a grant paid to the queen to support her Official Duties. This includes entertaining foriegn digniatries who enjoy such things. Including all Presidents (even yours and the Russians, and even the French!). The Civil List would have to paid to a President, in fact it may even cost more because presidents tend to have more lavish lifestyles on their expenses. This is true - you check out yours and the French.

It's been calculated that the Royal Family cost the average taxpayer less than 70p per annum each and earn the country about £1.40 pa each. Most are self financing (e.g. Duchy of Cornwall) and employ thousands who would otherwise be on "the dole". All of them, including the queen, pay Income Tax.

That's an honest living. More than can be said for Mr Blair!!!

Answer 2

1. No she can't.  We don't live in some sort of dictatorship you know (!) and people are sent to prison/pardoned by the judiciary.

2. Seeing as we live in a democratic society, laws and decisions about taxes are made by our elected government (how did you think this country works?!  I hope they teach you in college that America isn't the only country with freedom!!).  The Queen has to technically give approval to new laws and 'sign them off' but she is in no position to refuse the will of Parliament.  The monarchy knows all too well that if they start doing that they will be removed.

3. We are a country of 60 million people (including the Commonwealth she is the Queen of many more people) and so for logistical reasons you can't make an appointment with the Queen - there are just too many people to make this viable.  You can write to Buckingham Palace if you want to make contact with her but any such correspondence will almost certainly be dealt with by officials as she tends to be somewhat preoccupied with state business.

4. Mostly they are just official figures who act as patrons for charities and make charitable visits.  For example, Prince Charles is head of the Princes' Trust which gives grants to disadvantaged young people.  

5. This position is technically unclear.  When criminal cases are brought in this country they are brought in the name of the Queen and so if she were to be charged with a crime she would be bringing a case against herself.  However, there has never been any need to attempt to rectify this state of affairs as i) with all of her security and officials constantly surrounding her it is highly unlikely that she would have an opportunity to commit such an act, and ii) if there were such damning evidence public opinion would not allow for her to simply get off.

6. There's always been a fairly large proportion who want the monarchy disolved but it's never been strong enough to really force the issue to the fore.

Answer 3

1. Theoretically.

2. No.

3. No bloody chance.

4. Lazy b******s.

5. God knows.

6. Yes.

Answer 4

Unless you get a legal expert whiling his/her time away on Y/A as an ordinary Brit i will try to answer

1. Yes .There is such a thing as a Royal Pardon

2.No this is a function of Parliament

3.Yes,

4.Many roles but Charles has a specific one as Duke of Cornwall and can be petitioned by the Cornish as liege lord

5Dont Know but probably, many royals have been done for minor offences

6. Yes there are, I am not one of them as the monarchy still has a role in society and makes us lots of lovely dollars from American(and other) tourists

Answer 5

1. Not personally, but there is a Royal Pardon from the Courts for people wrongly convicted.

2. No, but she gives Royal Assent to Acts of Parliament on her Ministers' advice.

3. Certainly, but you may have difficulty getting an appointment.

4. None, until they take the throne in their own right. Prince Charles, the Queen's eldest son is given the title of Prince of Wales.

5. In theory, yes. Granted, it's very unlikely.

6. Yes, they are called Republicans. The trouble is that any Politician advocating the abolition of the Monarchy would need to nominate someone else for the job, in order not to look like they were doing it for themselves. No Politician is going to do that for another Politician.

BTW, the Queen does work very hard with hundreds of Royal Engagements every year.

Running a Presidency would cost us a great deal more and we don't need to vote for a new Head of State every four years, with half of the Presidency taken up with deciding who the next President will be.

Answer 6

ZThe Queen is not

1- No - the judiciary see to due process.

2- No - she has to pay taxes

3- No - she invites them to see her not the other way around and even then she may not speak to you.

4- Her husband, eldest son, his slapper wife, and Prince William are the only ones who have official roles within the family, she uses her own money to fund other family members who carry out duties on her behalf. Many members of the family are patrons of charities etc

5- She cannot be tried in a court of law - she is the law so Regina vs Regina is not going to happen.

6 - there are republicans in this country but luckily most are happy with the status quo and besides we've seen some of the "Presidents" elected abroad.