The current position

Sovereignty is the source of power within a country. It is the highest authority. In Britain the Queen, as head of state, is sovereign. In our hereditary monarchy, the position of head of state falls to he who is lucky enough to be born first: the so-called rule of primogeniture.  If you’re a female royal and want to be head of state, avoid having any male siblings.

Whatever their private personal faith, or lack of it, the monarch is automatically head of the Church of England and ensures that church and state are inextricably intertwined. Roman Catholics are specifically disqualified from the succession.

In practice, the sovereignty of the crown is vested in parliament – more specifically with the Prime Minister and the government -  and is usually described as ‘the Crown in Parliament’. Importantly, sovereignty does not lie with the people. Instead, Parliament is accountable, not to the people, but to the crown.

Where other countries have written constitutions which include a set of rules describing how their governments should act, in Britain we have a ragbag of precedents, traditions and laws that get made up as we go along.  This is Britain’s unwritten constitution which allows Parliament to operate under an ermine-lined cloak of secrecy.  Parliament is effectively beyond the scrutiny of the public who, nevertheless, pay the salaries and pensions of its politicians and civil servants, yet have absolutely no say in how the system operates.

Most of the Queen’s executive powers have been handed to the Prime Minister and what Parliament decides is now almost entirely controlled by the PM. The effect is to give the PM and his government virtually all the power in the land. The only restrictions placed upon it are set in laws which can be repealed by the same parliament that the government controls.

I … swear by Almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, her heirs and successors, according to law. So help me God.

That is the oath of allegiance that every MP is required to take. It expresses an allegiance, not to their constituents whose interests they are supposed to represent, but to the Queen. The list of other public officials and elected representatives who are required to take the oath is long indeed and includes members of the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly (but not the Northern Ireland Assembly), judges and magistrates, the police, the armed services (but not the navy), archbishops and bishops, the clergy, and all foreign citizens wishing to become British citizens subjects.

Because the monarch and her “heirs and successors” enjoy such a privileged position in the country’s political arrangements, it is, perhaps, not surprising that they have, over the years, been able to negotiate some rather exceptional exemptions from the laws and regulations that her government imposes on the rest of us.  For example:

• no Acts of Parliament automatically apply to the monarch, unless specifically stated;
• members of the royal family are exempt from parliamentary scrutiny and criticism;
• tax regulations do not automatically apply to the royal household;
• the monarchy does not have to submit accounts to the National Audit Office for proper examination of its finances;
• the royal are specifically exempted from the Freedom of Information Act, denying the public rights of scrutiny and access.

Republicans believe that Britain’s faux democracy of deference and entrenched privilege should not, and cannot continue.

Why we believe things have to change >