Is it right that the UK prime minister has the powers of a medieval king?

Question

In a 1970s book Tony Benn said that the UK prime minister has the powers of a medieval monarch but that to date, most of them had been gentlemen and had not used all their powers. Do you think what Tony Benn wrote has had any effect on future PMs or that anything should be done about this situation?

Answer 1

Benn was right inasmuch as he referred to the powers vested in the Monarch and exercised by the government of the day; most especially over the right to declare war without any sanction from Parliament for example.
Of course, the Scottish Parliament, in its Act Anent Peace and War of 1703 abolished those powers and made the right to declare war and make treaty entirely the responsibility of Parliament and not the Monarch.
Like so much else following the Union of 1707, it was assumed that what was custom, practice and law in England must continue in the new United Kingdom and nobody has ever paid any attention to Scotland's very sensible legislation.

Answer 2

Tony Benn has always said things to have a maximum effect on his audience. In that book, future PMs were not his audience. In order to conduct the job of steering the state, certain power must be delegated, and some of it will be invested in an individual. A medieval king had few responsibilities and fewer people with authority to examine and override him in the case of error; PMs are chosen by the elected government to manifest that power, and is held responsible for his actions. He may have power equivalent to that of a medieval monarch, but is much more accountable to the citizenry. In the USA there is an extra layer of voting, so that the president is more directly chosen by the people (actually the people choose the "electors", who themselves are in effect committed to choosing the president) but I do not think that it is clear whether or not this is more responsive to the people's will.

Answer 3

there is nothing wrong with prime ministers. they may seem like a monarch but they are not! they do not have all the power so they can't really be abusing power as much. i totally disagree with Tony Benn whoever he is. Keep in mind that a medieval king can have you beheaded for any reason...

Answer 4

a million. top Minister receives appointed whilst his social gathering wins an election. 2. The top Minister runs the full united states. needs to be a Dictator! 3. The Queen replaced into born into royalty. each and every of the previous Kings and Queens are her kinfolk. 4. The Queen can do regardless of she needs and is an more suitable score than the top minister yet would not get as in touch with working the country. 5. The Queen has the utmost authority. 6. The top Minister is in his seat till he resigns yet a social gathering is elected each and every 4 years. 7. The Queen will stay till she comes to a decision to go away. Or passes away.

Answer 5

Tony Blair had a huge majority and adopted a "presidential" style of leadership. He admitted he admired Margaret Thatcher and the way she "handbagged" her way through all obstacles to her power. He criticised "sleaze"; but power corrupts and ultimate power corrupts ulitmately. He has had far too much power and the government made lots of promises and lied to the people. The ratification of the European convention on human rights - fundamentally changed our constitution - taking power away from the government and from parliament and giving it to the people. But no Commission was ever set up to enforce that Act of parliament and so things remain the same. The Disability discrimination Act has a Commission - it forces private business to comply and do things like installing ramps and disabled loos! But the government walks all over the rights of disabled people and the DRC does bugger all. Local councils will do road works making sure a minority of disabled people can cross the road on their disabled buggies - while the vast majority are treated as "low priority" by the NHS; because they don't "contribute" to society. Even people needing cancer drugs have to go to the High Court and fight for the right to live. If you want to change things then get involved - start by voting. Find out who your MP is and what the hell he or she does. Take a look at the public whip website to find out what your MP is up to or not in parliament. When you hear of something like a Minister shagging someone he shouldn't - maybe an email to the public standards commitee would be in order. After all those desks are paid for with tax payers money! The link at the Guardian will tell you who your MP is and a profile and of course that all important email address. y, I've given you a link to the treasury - so you can complain about them wasting money instead of them putting in to important stuff like education, education and education. Not to mention the NHS is in safe hands with us - just £800,000,000 in bloody debt.... But what's £800,000,000 when the mobile phone companies paid £20,000,000,000 for the privilege of using the airwaves and putting up mobile phone masts anywhere they please. I wonder what Gordon did with that £20 billion - put it into National Savings at 4% interest a year? Finally, read what the EU parliament is doing to protect us cyber-citizens! lol Incidentally, Medieval Monarchs thought they could shag who they liked too.

Answer 6

What are the powers of medieval king?

I don't think they could, the party can always have a vote of no confidence and kick them out of the position of leader. I'm sure the queen has some kind of power that she can have the PM removed if necessary.

The people wouldn't stand for it anyways.

Answer 7

The British Prime Minister is answerable to parliament and to the Queen. Either of them can sack him. The only way to get rid of a mediaevil king was to cut off his head - now there's a thought.

Answer 8

Medieval Kings suffered from be-headings...

Answer 9

Quite right. A country needs a strong leader, and so long as the population have regular opportunity to kick him out, then there is no problem.

Answer 10

I guess he could bring those powers back into power