QUESTIONS is the goodofbeing different if 'different' means 'wo rse" There has been growing concern about increasing crimein thecountry, and this hasresulted in much discussion aboutiden
Trang 176 6 Politicallife
Th e Rus hdieaffair
Sa lman Rushdie is a Br itish citizen from a Mus lim background , and a
r espected w riter I n ea rly [989 , h is bookTheSatanicVe rsesw as pu blishe d Many Muslims in Britain we re
extremely angry about the book's publicat ion They regarded it a s a
t err ible insu lt to I slam They the
re-fore demanded that t he b ook be banned and that i ts author be tak en
(Q court for blasphemy (usin g l an -guage to i n sult Go d).
To do either of these things wou ld
have been to go agains t he l o n g-established tradition of free speech and freedom of r eligious v iews I n any case, t here is noth ing i n B ritish law to justify doing e ithe r Ther e ar e
c ens or ship l aw s, bu t the y r elate o nly
(Q obscen ity and natio nal security.
There is a law aga ins t bl asphemy , b ut
it re fers only t o the C h ri stia n re li -gion M ore over, t he t endency f rom
t he second ha lf o f the tw ent ieth century ha s b een to appl y both
types oflaw a li ttle a s poss ib le and
to g ive priority to t he p rincip le of free speech.
QUESTIONS
is the goodofbeing different if 'different' means 'wo rse" There has
been growing concern about increasing crimein thecountry, and this hasresulted in much discussion aboutidentitycards Britain's fellowstates in the European Unionwouldlike to see them intro -ducedin thecountry At thesame time,there hasbeenincreasing pressurefor a Freedom ofIn form atio n Act
Anotherpossibilityis that Britainwill finallyget a writtenco ns titu-tion.An unwritten constitutionworksvery well if everybodyin the coun trysharesthe same attitudes and principlesabout what ismost important inpolitical life and abou twhatpeople'srightsando bliga-tionsare.In other words,it worksverywell in a societ y whe re everybody belongstothe same culture.However,in co m m on with most other European countriestoday, Brita in isnowmulticultural This means that some sectionsof society cansom etim es holdradic -ally different ideas about these things The case ofSalm an Rushdi eis
an excellentexample ofthis situatio n (C>TheRushdieaffair).Aslongas everybodyin a country feelsthe same way,atthe sametim e , abouta casesuch as this, there is no realneedtoworry about inconsistencies
in the law There is no needtoquestion theexistence oflawsor to update them.They are justinterpreted in changing waysto match the changein preva ilingopinion.Thisis what, up to now, hashap -pened in Britain But the Rushd iecaseisan exampleofwhatcan
happen whenradicallyopposing viewson a matter prevailin different sectionsofsociety at the same time.In these circumstancesthetradi -tional laissez-faire attitude to the lawcan becomedangerous
I In what sense could the British attitudeto politicsb describedas 'happilycynical'? Are people equally cynical inyour country? Arethey
ashappy about it?
2 InmostParliaments inthe westernworld, the place whererepresentativesdebateis in the form of a semi-circle.But inBritain, there are twosets of rows facing each other Why is the BritishParliament differen tin this respect?
SUGGESTIONS
3 Howdoesthe role of politicalpartiesin Britain differ from their role in yourcountry?
4 Whydoes Britainnot have a written constitu -tion? Does it need one?
• Trytowatchsom e of the Yes, Prime Ministerprogrammes (available as
aBBC video).Thereisa book ofthe same name publishedby BBC Books
Trang 2The monarchy
T he appea rance
Theposition of the mon archin Britain isa perfectillustration of the
contradicto ryna ture of t he c ons titutio n Fr om t he ev idence o f
w ritten l aw on ly the Quee n ha s almo st ab solute p ower, and i t a ll
s eems very un democratic Th e Am erican co nstitutio n talk s ab o ut
'government of the peoplefor thepeopleb thepeople' Thereisn
law inBritainwhichsaysanything likethat In fact,thereisn legal
conceptof ' the people' at all
Everyautum n , at the state openingof Parliament,ElizabethII,who
bec ame Quee n in 1952 , make s a s peec h In i t, s he s ays wh at ' my
gove rnmen t' int end s to d o i n the com ing year An d ind eed , i t is h er
g overnment, not the peop le's As f ar as t he l aw i s co nce rned, she c an
chooseanybodyshelikesto run the governmentforher There are
no re striction s on whom sh e p icks a s h er Pri me M inister It doe s not
haveto besomebody who hasbeenelected.Shecouldchooseme;
shecould evenchoosey ou Thesameistruefor herchoices ofpeople
tofillsomehundredorsoother ministerialpositions.And ifshe gets
fedup with her ministers, she can justdismissthem Officially
speaking, theyare all'servants of the Crown'(not servantsof anything
like'the count ry'or 'thepeople') She alsoappearstohave great
po wer ov er Parliam ent It i s s he who s ummons a Parliament, a nd s he
whodissolvesit beforea general election (seechapter to).Nothing
that Parliament hasdecidedcan become law untilshe has agreedtoit
Similarly,it istheQueen ,andnot anyotherfigureofauthority,
who embodiesthelawinthe courts In the USA, whenthepolice
ta ke s o m eo n e to cou rt t o accuse th em o f a crime, t he co urt recor ds
s how th at 'th e peo ple ' h ave acc use d that p erson In o ther c o untries
it m ig ht b e ' the s tate ' t hat makes th e a ccusation But in Britain it i s
'the Crown'.This is becauseof the legalauthorit y of the monarch
And whenanaccused personisfound guiltyof a crime, he orshe
might be sent toone of 'Her Majesty's' prisons
Othercountrieshave'citizens' But in Britain peopleare legally
describedas 'subjects'- subjectsof Her Majestythe Queen.M
ore-over,there isa principle of Englishlaw that themonar chcan do
nothin g that islegallywro ng In otherwords, Queen Elizabeth is
abovethe law
The house of Windsor
Win dsor i s th e f amil y nam e of th e roya l famil y Th e pr ess so met imes refer s t o its me m bers a s ' the Wi nd
-so rs'.Qu eenEliza bethi s o nly t he
f ourth m onarch w iththi s n am e Th is
i sn tbeca use a ' new' royal fa m ily took over t he t hroneof B rirainfour reigns a o It i s beca use G eorge V, Elizabe th 's grandfa ther, ch anged t he family name It was Sax e - Coburg-Gotha, but du ring the Firs t World
W ar it w as thoug ht better for
t he king n ot to have a Ger man -sounding n ame.
77
Trang 3second son He is divorced fro m his wife, S arah F erguson (w ho is known
to the popu lar press as ' Fergie'} They have two daughters.
• Prin c E dwa rd , t he Qu een's youngest SO il , was born in 1964 He
is i nvolv ed in theatrical p rodu ctio n
H e m arr i ed Sophie Rhys-]ones in 1 999.
H e an d h i s wife re t he Du ke and Duchess of Wessex.
• Prin ce William (born 1 982) and
Prin ce Henr y (born 1984) are the sons ofCharles and Diana.William is next in line to the throne after his father.
• Prin cess Diana married Prin ce Charles in 1 98 1 Th e coup l e separa t ed
in 1 99 2 a nd l at e r d ivor ced Princess Dia na d ied as the res u lt o f a car accide nt i n [ 997 S he w as a g lamorous
a nd p opu lar figure d uring her life time.
• P rincess Anne , t he Queen's da ugh ter
(also k no w n a t h e P r i ncess Roy al) , w as
ho rn i n 1%,0 S he separated f rom h er
h sband after t h ey had a ile son and o ne
daughter S he m arr i ed again i n 1 992.
She is widely respected for her chari t y work , which she does in a spirit
of realism
• Prin ce A n drew , the Duke o fYork, was born in 19 60 and is the Qu een 's
78 7 The monarchy
The royal family
• Queen E liza b e th th e Qu e en Moth er
died at the age of 101 in 200 2 , the year
of the pre sent Que en's Golden Jubi l ee.
Her tours of bombed areas o f London during the Second World War with he r
hu sband King Georgc Vl made her popular w ith the British peop le She
re mained the m ost consisten tl y
p opular member of the roy al f a mil y
u ntil h e r d eath
• Queen Elizabeth II was b orn in
1926 a nd became Quee n i n 1952
o n t he death of her fathe r, George VI, who had reigned since 1936 (when his elder brother, Edward VIII , ga ve
up the throne) She is one of t he longest-reigning mona rch s in British histor y.She is wid ely respected for the way in whi ch she performs her
du ties and is generall y popular.
• Prin ce P h il ip M ountbatten, the
Duke of Edinburgh, married the present Que en in 1 9+7 In the 1 960s
an d 1970s, h i s outspo ken opi nions
on cont rov ersial ma tters were so me -times embarrass i ng to the ro yal fam ily.
• Princess Marg ar et th e Q uee n 's
you nger sis ter, died i n 2002
• Princ e C h ar les , t he Pri nce of W ales,
was b orn in 1 48 As the eld est son
of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip,
he is heir to the throne He is concerned about the environment and about living conditio ns in Britain's cities.
He som etim es makes speeches which are critical of aspects of modern life.
PrincessMargaret
TheQueen Mother
T eQueen
Prince Philip
PrinceChorles
In practice ,ofcourse, he realityis verydifferent In fact,theQueen
canno tchooseanyon e shelikestobe Prim eMinister Shehasto
choosesom eo newh h sthe su pportof th majority of MPsin the
Houseof Comm ons(the electe cha mberofthe twoHouses of
Parliament).Thisisbecauseth law saysthat'her' governmentc n
only collect taxes withtheagreem ent of the Commons,soif she did
no tc oosesuch a person.the governmentwo uldstopfuncti oning
Inpracticeth p rson shechoosesistheleader of the strongest party
in theHo useofCom mons.Similarly,itisreally the Prim e Minister
whodecid es whothe othe r go vernm ent ministersare going to be (althoughofficiallythePrim e MinisterSimply'advises' the monarch
whoto choose)
Trang 4It sthe same storywith Parliament Again, he PrimeMin isterwill
a tuallydone sosincethe year 1 70 8.Indeed, the royal assentisso
auto ma tic thattheQueendoe sn't even bothe r togive it in person
She makesno secretof this fact Sheveryobviouslyreadsoutthe
scriptthathasbeen prepared forher, wordfor word Ifshestro ngly
T he ro le of th e m on arch
What,the n , is the monarch'srole ?Many opinio ns areofferedb
co ntry.Thismeans that peoplecan bea cri cal asthey like about
thereal governm ent,and canargue that itsh u ldbe thrown out,
without bein g accus edof bein gunpatri ot ic.Becau seof the clear
symbolof thecou ntry In theUSA,for example ,one of theseisits
Seco nd, it is rgued th at the monarch couldacta a finalchec k on
anotherelectioncou ld take place), themo narch could refuseth e
Th ird,themonarchhasaverypractical role1 play.Bybeing a
figurehead and represent ing thecountry,QueenElizab ethIIcan
spend the ir time on Thisway,th ereal governme nthasmor e time
togeto withtheactual jo bof un n ingthecountry
Twice a year, an Honours list is pub
-li sh ed The p eople whose names
a p pe ar o the list are th en su m
-m oned to B u ckin gham Pal ace wh ere
t he Qu een p r esent s th em \ ith a toke n wh ich ent itles them to w rit e (a nd b e forma lly ad dressed Wi th)
KG, or K CB, or (BE , or many other possible combinations of l cu er s after t he ir names The leuers s tand for tides such as 'Knight of the Order
of the Garter', 'Knight Commander
of the Order of the Bath', 'Corn
-m and cr of the Brit ish Em pire', and
so on Li fe pee rag es arc also
a w arde d , wh ich ent itle t he rccipi
-c nts to a seat i n the H ouse of Lords.
people titles such as these that the monarch 'honoured' them in return for their service s These days , the decision ahem who gets which honour is usually taken by the Prime Min ister (see chapter 8) And, as ) ·ou can see, t he n ames o f t he titles don 't seem to m ake m uc h se nse in mo dern time s But t ha t do cs no t sto p p eopl e fin d ing it a r eal ' honour' to b e given
a t itle b)' the monarch herself! A high propo rtion of honours are given [0 politicians and civil ser -vants, but they are also given [0 bu si-ness people, sports stars, rock musicians and other entertainers
Trang 580 7 The m onarchy
The Queen, attracting foreign touris t s Th e e co no m ic arg ument Every tourist brochure for Brit ain in every country in the worl d gives great prominence to the monarchy.
Itis impossible to estimate exactly
h owmuch the Br itish royal family and the events and buildings asso ci
-ated with the monarchy help the tourist industry, or exactly how much money they help to bring into the country But most people
wo rking in tour ism think it is an
Edwar d and Mrs S im pso n For the l ast wo centuries the publi c havew ant edtheir monarch to have high moral standards I n 1936
E dw ard V I, the uncleof the
present Queen,w asforced to abdic-ate (give up the throne) Th is
happened because he wanted to marry a woman wh o had d ivor ced two husbands (On topof that,she
wa s not even a British aristocrat -she was anA m erican f The gov ern-ment and the major churches in the cou ntry ins isted that E dward cou ld not marry her and remain king He chose to marry her The couple then went to live abroad I n spiteo f t he
con stitutional cr i sis that he caused, the Dukeof Wi nds or (as Edward later became ) and his wifewere
popula r celebrities in Britain all their lives, and thek tng 'sabdication has
go ne do wn in popula r history s an example of the powero flo ve.
T h e v alue of t h e mo narch y
How ever,allthese advantagesare hyp otheti cal.Itcannot be proved
ma ageperfectly well withoutone The Bri tishmonarchy isprobably
argument)thanit istothe system of government Apartfrom this, the monarchy is verypop ular with the majority of the British people
The mo narch y givesBritishpeopl e a symbolof continuity,and a harmlessoutletfortheexpression ofnation al pride.Even invery hard
toget it outof its troubles.The grandeur of its mo narchy may have
officialbirthday,royal weddings,and ceremonialeventssuch as the chang ing ofthe guardmakeup for thelack of colour and ceremony
inmost people'sdaily lives (There is no tradition oflocalparadesas
the re is in t he U SA, and very f ewtraditional local f e st ival s s u rvive as
theydo in other European countries.)Inaddition theglamorous
on t he c haracteristics of a televi s ion s o ap op era Wh en , in 1992, it
se parating, even t he mo re 'se rious' n ew s papers di s cu ss ed a lot more
thanth possible political im plicatio ns.T eSunday Timespublislieda 'five-page royal separationspecial'
Th e f utur e o f th e m o n a r c h y
only rarely been a burning politica lissue Onlyoccasionally has
there been debate about the existence of the monarchy itself Few
people in Britain could be described as either 'monarchists' or
'a nti-m onarchists', i n t he sense i n which th ese t erms are of ten
u sed in o ther coun tries Most peopl e ar e eith e vagu ely i n favou r
greatdeal ofdebateaboutwhat kind of monarchy Britainsho uld
have During the last two decades of the twentieth century, there
has been a general cooling of enthusiasm TheQueen herself
have low ered the prestige ofroyalty in manypeople's eyes.The problem isthat , sinceQueen Victoria's reign, h public Iia e been encouraged to look up to th royalfamily as a model of Cliristian family life
The cha nge inattitudecan be seen b comparingQueenElizabeth's
the ms po ntaneously and volu ntarily organize d B ut i n 1992, noth ing
lik thistook place On 20November 1992,a fire damagedone of
theQueen'sfavouri te homesto the value of£60 million.There were