The Monarchy

Well, hello friends. Today was a super busy day, so there will be lots to read, but the words will be accompanied by photos! So we began the day with our last lecture from Justin. It's so sad. His lectures were so interesting and complex and made one think. I would definitely take a course from him. Today's lesson was on the monarchy. A little part of me was worried he was going to ruin the monarchy for me. Thankfully he did not, but rather presented some history and pros and cons to the monarchy. So, let's start with some history on the monarchy.

• Elizabeth II is the 40th monarch.
• The line of monarch goes back 1000 years and represents tradition and stability.
• There is no formal constitution or written document.
• The monarchy "has" royal prerogative, which gives them certain powers. These powers have existed since medieval times. These powers are:
• The right to declare war and peace
• The right to pardon criminals
• The right to open and dissolve Parliament
• The right to appoint ministers
• The right to bestow honors
• The right to sign all legislation
• Today, these priviledges have been modified or transferred. They are symbolic powers. The Queen does however sign every legal document, whether she agrees with it or not. This shows that she truly has no political power.
• "She reigns but does not rule." The Queen is a symbolic head of state.
• The Prime Minister has the power. He has more power than a US President. This position essentially has the monarch's power.
• The UK wants to be a democracy while also keeping traditional institutions in tact.
• It is illegal to debate the status/future of the monarchy in the House of Commons

Isn't that all very interesting? I thought so. Lots to think about. So here's some information about the Queen herself. Though she is an extremely private woman, there is some information about her private life.

• She has met every US President since Truman.
• She loves horse racing and dogs.
• The Queen has a 70% approval rating.
• She enjoys gin and tonic.
• Queen Elizabeth is a fully trained car mechanic.

She is simply the most interesting woman. Elizabeth II recently made headlines, this week in fact, for her trip to Ireland. She met with the former leader of the IRA, Martin McGuinness. The IRA was responsible for waging war on Britains during the 20th century and was responsible for the death of a member of the royal family. (A cousin or nephew) This visit, in which she shook hands with McGuinness represented peace between Northern Ireland and England. That's monumental here. Even her wardrobe made a statement. She was wearing the colors of their flag.

And now for the pros and cons of the monarchy:
The Cons:

• The Queen, being and aristocratic white woman, and the rest of the line of monarchs simply cannot represent the diverse society that the nation has become.
• This is especially noted in regards to religion. She is the head of the Church of England, while England has so many different religions being practiced.
• The monarchy represents a class structure and oppression of the working class.
• Having a monarchy hurts the goal of a democracy. It's a contradiction.
• The monarchy costs 41.5 million pounds a year to "run."
• The members of the family are simply celebrities

The Pros:

• The monarchy represents security and the nation's sense of security would be damaged with the end of the monarchy.
• The work that the monarchy does, opening schools and hospitals, does indeed make an impact and raise revenue for the nation.
• The monarchy brings in over 100 million pounds in revenue for the nation, which more than compensates for the cost of the monarchy.
• The Queen is above politics and therefore is neutral and able to reunite the nation in times of crisis.
• This is especially seen in her work in Ireland. Her presence in Ireland has made a huge difference in how the countries will conduct business in the future.

So, that's basically that. I'm still in favor of the monarchy and think Elizabeth is great. We also learned about the opening of Parliament. It sounds boring but it's actually quite interesting. So, I will tell you what happens. I think bullet points work nicely, so I will stick to those, but I'll use numbers since they go in order.

1. The crown arrives at Parliament. Just the crown, in its own carriage. It's then passed around and then taken to a back room.
2. The Queen and Prince Phillip come in their carriage, looking regal. (Everyone is dressed in formal costume, much like how it was done in the olden days.) She also goes into a back room.
3. When she's ready and wearing the crown, a fanfare is played, and she comes out and takes a seat on her throne. Then everyone else is allowed to sit.
4. Currently, the House of Lords (I think that's the proper name) is there, but not the House of Commons. (The House of Lords is all dressed up, because they are nobility, while the House of Commons are wearing suits, because they are commoners.)
5. The Queen signals to a man to tell "Black Rod" to go get the House of Commons. Note: Black Rod is the name of a position. That person carries a black rod and goes and gets the House of Commons, but more on that in a moment. Also, the Queen is not welcome in the House of Commons (to show separation of the two houses or something) and therefore must send Black Rod.
6. So there Black Rod goes, walking down the hall to get the commoners. (Who are actually political figures like the prime ministers, but not nobility.) As he goes to the door where they are, they slam it in his face. Seriously. That's what happens. They slam the door in his face.
7. He then beats on the door with his black rod until they open the door. Then he gets to go in and deliver the message. However, while the poor man is delivering the message people are talking about him behind his back and sometimes they shout rude things! How insane is that?
8. So they agree to come and they all go walking down the hallway. The House of Lords have their backs to the Commons and don't look at them when they come in. There isn't even enough room for them all, so a lot of them just go to bars to watch the ceremony.
9. And then the Queen reads a speech written by the prime minister about all the legislation that will be passed this year. (This shows that she truly has no political power.)

Now this happens every year and a lot of it is for show and tradition, but isn't that just crazy! And quite interesting. Google the video, it's interesting. That was our lecture! A great one to end on. So, now I will proceed to tell you about the rest of my day.

We had a quicky quick lunch, so we stopped in the university's cafe and got sandwiches to eat. Quite yummy. We then were scheduled to ride the London Eye. I have been on it before but was just as excited. It's awesome! There was a bit of a line, but so worth it. The ride in total is like 20 minutes and you get to basically see all of London. And there were enough of us, that we had a private pod. I will never get tired of taking pictures of the London Eye. Here's some of the wheel and the view from the top.

We then had the rest of the day to do as we pleased. We made off down south bank in search of Shakespeare's Globe Theater. Well, the weather said it was going to be 70 but raining, so we wore jeans. Well, when the weather forcast says one thing, it really means the opposite. It was super hot and no rain. None. We walked a good two miles in jeans and sandals. So much walking. I'm always wanting to take the underground to go places, and really should walk. It's healthier and you run across things you normally wouldn't see. But today was quite tiring. We did come across some interesting things though. We came across a circus like show. They were practicing for a performance so we sat at watched. It was artsy, and political, and cool. The tricks and stuff they were doing was cool but the general choreography and such was weird. We did make it to the theater but couldn't go inside or anything so we just looked on the outside. It's not the original but still pretty cool.

The Globe Theater

The bridge destroyed in Harry Potter

By this point we were exhausted and hot so we went back to our flats to relax. And the Italy/Germany came was coming on so we couldn't miss that. The final will be Italy and Spain.

Week Four: Day Four: BLC 15