British people please read!!!!?

Question

I was watching the movie The Queen, in the begining it showed Tony Blair had to ask the Queen if he could be the Prime Minister. 1st of all why the h**l does the Prime Minister have to ask the Queen permission if the people elected him? It should be none of her afair. 2nd of all does she have any political power over the country. Or is she a big celebrity. What does she do and the whole royal family do? It seems to me that you give them lots of tax money to go on vacations and live in mansions. Get back to me on this.

thanks -

An American

Answer 1

It's a matter of protocol.  Just like the swearing in of a President.

Answer 2

it seems to me that since you claim to be an american,you should mind your own business about what happens in Britain and concern yourself more with the lying cretin,that currently resides in that big mansion called the white house,arrogant yank.

Edit and who pays your 9`5 president,does he not get a good sum of money for lying through his stinking rotten teeth?He has spent more time on vacation than any other president on record.He makes sure that contracts are awarded to Haliburton and it's affiliates from which he will eventually benefit from through the vice president Darth Cheney.Your country has more than it's fair share of problems,far more than we have,concentrate on those,we will manage and without you watching a movie and then thinking that you will solve imaginary wrongs.

Answer 3

im not british but i say hi to those britsh folk lol oh yea almost forgot " Hi "

Answer 4

I'm not British, but I did have two semesters of British history in college (or university to use the British equivalent), so bear with my explanation from an American point-of-view with a little help from Wikipedia.  First of all, when Brits go to the polls, they elect a political party rather than a Prime Minister. The King or Queen then officially appoints the Prime Minister, which is where Blair's asking the Queen's permission comes into the script.   But at the same time, an unwritten constitutional convention binds the Monarch to choose the individual most likely to have the House of Commons' support.  Ordinarily, this would be the leader of the majority party.  Accordingly, the PM and Parliament are more rarely at cross purposes with each other than the United States President is with both Houses of Congress.

The Queen's power is primarily one of advice and consent; moreover, she reigns rather than rules--a very important distinction.  The Royals also perform a lot of  ceremonial and diplomatic duties that the US President has to do in addition to a heavy workload.

Answer 5

Bliar always asks first. He wants to be polite. He wants to be liked. Reasons why Bush liked Bliar so much.

Answer 6

you must be very poorly educated.?

yes, the queen does have a say in government.

even though some morons don't think so.like you.

Answer 7

it is an old age tradition to be honest not totally sure of the start of it BUT it has been going for centuries..........basically the in coming prime minister is asking for the blessing and hopefully the backing of the queen / king in charge at that moment.....YES in theory they could refuse that person from taking office, it was well known that Queen Vic despised one of her prime ministers............as for the rest of your rhetoric well lets just say you have your ex presidents that you pay a shed load of money  along with each and every member of the senate that gets an obscene amount of money regardless of how cr*p they where and they are NOT mansions dear they are palaces HUGE difference I can assure you.

regards

Answer 8

Its because the monarch is the ruler of the country but she/he has merely allowed someone to make the decisions for her (parliament). So because the public have elected the Prime Minister he still has to ask the Queen if its "ok" for him to be in charge of the country. Its more of a protocol but thats where is stems from. The prime minister can't go to war without asking the queen, but to be honest she can't exactly say no because he's the prime minister.

And the Royal Family are just something fun for us to look at really. Otherwise all the commemerative plate factories would have nothing to make.

Answer 9

As usual Americans know nothing about British history,why don't you research your question?

Answer 10

It's a leftover from the days of feudalism.The queen also has to sign all the Acts of Parliament before they become law.

It's a totally outdated system and should have been consigned to the dustbin years ago especially when you consider that UK troops are dying so the Iraqis can elect their own head of state yet the British people are not allowed the same basic human right.

No British child can grow up to become Head of State unless they have the good fortune to catch their first glimpse of the world between the two thighs of the Queen.

Answer 11

its because the Queen is technically still the sovriegn of the nation. she can choose to close parliment or not accept a prime minister if she should so choose...whether any monarch would is debatable ><

but its also ceremony

Answer 12

Yea- like they say its a tradition.  I think he should go in there with an axe and chop her head off instead - that's a tradition too...

Tigger - a traditional Englishman