What power does the Queen of Englad have? And what is her source of income?

Question

I'm an American, and I was just wondering since England has a Prime Minister (which is like the President), what is the Queen for? Does she have any political power? And what does she do to get money? In other words, what does she get paid for??

Answer 1

The Prime Minister isn't like your President in that the President is Head of State and our Queen is Head of State. The Prime Minister isn't Head of State. France has a President and a Prime Minister as does Russia. You could say George Bush = Queen !

Answer 2

It is interesting to read the various opinions on what the Queen's powers are!

Politically, she may only advise. While she has the putative power to refuse Royal Assent for new Acts of Parliament, such an action would provoke a major constitutional crisis, which would probably result in the Monarchy being deposed.

Far from having presidential powers, the Prime Minister (Actually the First Lord of the Treasury) is subject to the rule of Parliament.  In the past 10 years attempts to circumvent this constitutional hurdle have not met with much success. This is one of the reasons why Tony Blair is no longer PM!

The Queen is the head of the Britsh Armed Forces and the other Law Enforcement Services. The members of these organisations swear an oath of allegiance to her, with the proviso of obeying the Officers, whom she may appoint over these services.

The actuality of such an arrangement is that our Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Services have one overriding duty: TO MAINTAIN THE DEMOCRATIC STATUS QUO! This means that, if elements in Parliament attempt to overthrow the current constitution, without recourse to the electorate, then these forces, under the command of the Queen, may be used to impose the status quo!

Whilst the above situation may sound unlikely, back in the mid 70's Britain came close to realising a subversion of Parliament! We are never likely to be able to read the full record of what happened, but there was a serious training program conducted in the British Army, at the time, in the administration of Civil Authority under Military Law!

The situation did not mature, due to a General Election, which saw a change in PM and governing party.

So, it can be reasonably held that we have as effective political checks and balances as the USA!

Answer 3

In actual terms of running the UK the monarch has no powers whasoever however due to historical decorum from the reign of Charles 1st  the elected Prime Minister must ask for permision from the monarch to open parliment at the start of a new term. Black Rod  (Best known for his part in the ceremonies surrounding the State Opening of Parliament and the Throne speech) summons the Commons to attend the speech and leads them to the Lords. As part of the ritual, as Black Rod approaches the doors to the chamber of the House of Commons to make his summons, they are slammed in his face. This is to symbolise the Commons' independence of the Sovereign. Black Rod then strikes the door three times with his staff, and in reply to the challenge "Who is there?" answers "Black Rod". He is then admitted and issues the summons of the monarch to attend.

After which the monarch accepts the rulling parties right to govern and declares them fit to do so.

As for money,  the monarch despite of their status and obvious wealth recieve most, if not all of their money from the state  in the form of the civil list.  This money covers such things as staffing, state visits, public engagements etc

Answer 4

she must get some kind of royalties from having her likeness/portrait on our Canadian money and stamps, or maybe not, who knows.

Long live the Queen! and everyone else :)