General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I truly believe that 20 years from now....... [View all]former9thward
(32,003 posts)It is closer to 140 years. Today the monarchy is ceremonial. But that did not come about until towards the end of Queen Victoria's reign. Queen Victoria was the last monarch to exercise real personal power. In 1839 she became the last sovereign to keep a Prime Minister in power against the will of Parliament when the Bedchamber crisis resulted in the retention of Lord Melbourne's administration.
By the end of her reign she still exercised power in appointments to the Cabinet, for example in 1886 preventing Gladstone's choice of Hugh Childers as War Secretary in favor of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman.
In addition people in the UK clearly have a reverence to the monarchy no matter how ceremonial. It is nothing like how people in the U.S. feel towards a president no matter who they are.