Summary: book "Britain for Learners of English", James O'Driscoll

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Chapter 7: the Monarchy
The position of the monarch in Britain illustrates the contradictory nature of the constitution. From the evidence of written law only, the Queen has almost absolute power, and it all seems very undemocratic. The American constitution talks about The government for the people, by the people. There no such thing in Britain. In fact, there is no legal concept of the people at all.
Which 3 powers does the monarch still retain
First the monarch is the personal embodiment of the government of the country. This means that people maybe critical about the government without being seen as unpatriotic. Because of the clear separation between the symbol of the government (the Queen) and the actual government , changing of the government doesn’t threaten the stability of the country. Secondly, it is argued that the monarch can act as a final check on a government that might be becoming dictatorial (the queen refuses to give the royal assent to an improper bill) Thirdly, the monarch has the ceremonial duties representing the country abroad. But in reality, the Queen has almost no power at all. When she opens a Parliament each year, the speech she makes has been written for her. She makes no secret of this fact.
Different royal houses: The house of Normandy William the Conqueror. Tudor – Henry the VIII, Stuart – James the st, Windsor – Elizabeth the 2
nd
, Plantagenet – Richard the Lion Heart, Hanover – George III and Saxe-Coburg-Gotha – Victoria. Distributing prohibited | Downloaded by Ngan Tien (nganctddongnai@yahoo.com.vn)
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Chapter 8: the Government
You have two kinds of ‘governments’ when the media talks about it
The government 1:
All the politicians who run the government departments(there are several politicians in each department) or who have other special responsibilities , such as managing the activities of Parliament. There are normally about a 100 members in this sense of the government. The members of the government are named ministers, an there are many different ranks with their own titles(ministers and departments. Unlike some other countries it’s unlikely for someone outside the Parliament to become a minister.

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