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Comment by evgen | Hacker News Reader

Technically speaking, King Charles III does not actually need to PM to ask in order to dismiss parliament and force a new election. Given that Charles I and Charles II both dismissed parliament maybe Charles III will grow a pair and do the same. It is somewhat ironic that while dismissing parliament caused the downfall of the monarchy for Charles I is it likely to buy a significant amount of time for the monarchy if Charles III does the same.

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This is a typical misunderstanding of British politics. In theory the King is supposed to have power on a range of things, but there are very clearly set constitutional conventions that mean he does not. These are now so powerful that not even the "theory" is able to supersede them. This was found out the hard way by Boris Johnson when he tried to prorogue (suspend) Parliament using the Royal Prerogative. The supreme court cancelled his 'advice to the Queen' very quickly and restored Parliament.

Yes it's confusing and it would be better to write down a constitution reflecting how things actually are, but that's how it is.

Honestly having lived in the UK I find the flexibility of the unwritten constitution to be both a good and a bad thing.

On one hand, the constitution where I come from (Portugal) is unnecessarily binding and causes a lot of issues the country suffers from. On the other hand in the UK you get this feeling that the PM can do almost anything, which in the hands of a decent person can heavily advance the country or in a period like now, can cause utter chaos.

> you get this feeling that the PM can do almost anything

Technically, whoever has the majority in the parliament can literally do anything, including introducing the laws that require photo ID for voting (in a country without a mandatory photo ID) [0], or that anyone who protested in past five years are required to wear an electronic tag [1]. Or, because why not, to get rid of the election process - completely or partially.

[0] https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-...

[1] https://twitter.com/TheDonsieLass/status/1582642029762207744

The other way round. If he gets out of his limited role and engages into politics, it will be the end of monarchy.

He already has been for years. See the Black Spider memos he secretly sent to ministers, and all the secret carve-outs the Queen had. They have their grubby fingers in politics, but are just clever at hiding it.

> all the secret carve-outs the Queen had

Reference? Or details for ducking ourselves?

> Reference?

here are some references, though not sure if this was what GP was refering to.

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

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jul/14/queen-immuni...

There are others, search for "royal consent" as apposed to "royal assent"

Not necessarily the end of the monarchy. Parliament would just choose a new monarch as it did in 1688 when Charles II tried to choose an heir that Parliament didn't like.

It's been settled via the civil war and the Glorious Revolution, power in the UK rest ultimately in the House of Commons not the monarchy.

I seriously doubt that interfering in politics would do the monarchy any favours whatsoever. Constitutional issues aside the intersection of conservative and royalist is famously large. Why would he piss off the people most likely to support him?

You make it sound like it isn’t happening all the time already. It’s been fairly well reported on and has been very beneficial to that family. See other links in this thread.

I think the idea that the king would buy time for the monarchy by doing that is highly speculative. I very much doubt anyone knows what would happen given that the atmosphere is so febrile and it hasn't happened in centuries.

Is it only me who thinks it's crazy that in modern world some guy with birth right have the authority over entire western country?

So much for democracy.

He doesn't have any authority, in practice. It has been that way since 1414. The second the monarchy tried to exert control over politics would be the second it was abolished.

"The Queen has more power over British law than we ever thought" [1][2]

[1] - https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/feb/08/queen-...

[2] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26081208

That's an opinion article.

Charles exerted lots of control behind the scenes while he was Prince of Wales, lobbying, receiving lobbyists, getting inside information, accepting huge donations, etc.

Influence is not the same as authority. I'm sure he has influence - but then so do lots of people. And at least as public figure he has a degree of visibility. Governments don't exist in a vacuum.

This is true, and yet there are plenty of other unelected people with far more influence than him. The US also has lots of rich, powerful and unelected people who exert vastly more political influence than the average citizen. That's not to say that I approve of Charles's lobbying activities, but he's hardly the worst example.

Also people were arrested for protesting his ascent to the throne.

They were later "de-arrested," but the intended message is pretty clear.

There's no 'intended message' to be found there, just some isolated incidents of dumb police officers arresting people for silly reasons (as acknowledged by their subsequent 'de-arrest').

Police arresting political dissidents in the name of an ostensibly powerless monarch is just one of those quirky things that happens in real democracies. Nothing to be concerned about.

Police can arrest people at their discretion. If these people were actually being prosecuted, I'd see your point. Otherwise, yes, it was wrong to arrest them, but you can find people being arrested for stupid reasons in any country. It doesn't require any kind of establishment conspiracy for that to happen. If you are raising a legitimate issue here, it's the broad powers of arrest that police have, not anything to do with Britain being a monarchy rather than a republic.

did you perhaps mean 1914? i’m not a historian but i DID watch Hamilton a few times and it really seemed like King George had quite a lot of power and authority…

I often wonder if George was merely the figurehead for colonial frustrations. After all, Parliament precipitated the revolution by insisting that they had the power to tax the colonies.

It is hard to put an exact date on it - but 1414 is the first time the King acquiesced that parliament had to give approval for new laws.

Particularly since Elisabeth I came long after that date. It’s definitely not 1414.

I'd say it's 1688: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_Revolution

Other possible choices are 1708 (last example of the monarch refusing royal consent to an act of parliament, Queen Anne on the Scottish Militia Bill), or 1834 (last example of the monarch dismissing their government, William IV sacking the Whigs; he had to have them back in 1835 as the Tories he installed couldn't command a majority of the Commons).

Or you can point to things like the Kerr Sacking (in Australia, but using (vice-)regal power) and say it's not quite done yet, though in decline for centuries...

He does not. Kings have not done this kind of thing out of their own initiative for at least a century or so.

That would be crazy, but it isn't true

> it likely to buy a significant amount of time for the monarchy if Charles III does the same.

Can you expand on this? Is it just because he would be more popular if he dismissed parliament and another election was called?

The average Brit seems to want a general election more than the Tories do.

I certainly do, but what I want much less is for the King to wield anything other than ceremonial power

Exactly. Queen Elizabeth sacked the Australian PM in 1978.

I doubt that’s going to happen in the modern era?

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