While the Brexit circus rolls on, British royals have a role to play, according to Dr Sean Palmer, an authority on the monarchy.
Photo: AFP
Dr Palmer says the current situation in Britain with a looming Brexit deadline is very complicated.
“It looks like we’ve got a government which is not able to get very much through parliament, and is not able to request an election either. It puts them in quite a bind, Brexit aside."
He says the Brexit mess is also complicated by changes to the constitutional system.
“Once the government has been elected, it’s their policies that are put through as long as those policies are constitutional. The monarch is primarily an emergency brake if, for instance, a prime minister decides he’s not keen on ever having an election again - that would be an occasion where a monarch would get involved.
“But the British system has sort of incorporated a weakness into itself in the last few years which, fortunately, New Zealand has not done. They decided they didn’t want the prime minister to be able to advise the Queen on when to have an election."
The new rule is for fixed term parliaments where there is an election every four years unless Parliament votes by two thirds in favour of calling an early election.
“That sounds like a great idea in terms of constraining a prime minister who might want to tilt the field in his favour, but it leads to the situation they’re in now, where it’s almost impossible to get anything through.
“If this were happening here in New Zealand, a Prime Minister could say: ‘Everything is falling apart, we can’t get anything done with this Parliament, I think we should have an election’ - and the Queen or the Governor General will call an election. In Britain, they sort of tied their hands a bit there."
He says that what will happen with Brexit is anyone’s guess and that the monarch is right to steer clear of it.
“The fail-safe in any democracy is, if we can’t agree on something, let’s go to an election. Unfortunately, the British constitution has been tinkered with a bit too much, I think, and it’s led them to the situation they’re in now where they can’t call an election.”
