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Thread from foreigner's point of view (just what you needed): Having been pompously patronised on the subject many times in my 23 years living in this country, I'm less than surprised to see a constitutional monarchy with unwritten constitution turns out to be a flawed idea 1/8
Whatever side she's on (and I absolutely don't care) the Queen really couldn't go against her own government as she has no popular mandate. It would only have replaced one constitutional crisis with another. That's why having an elected head of state is such a useful thing. 2/8
However ceremonial their role, an elected head of state enjoys the great advantage of having stood for election as well. Therefore they can legitimately speak up against an abuse of democracy by government of the kind we see in the UK right now. 3/8
You may have heard there recently was a crisis of governance in Austria. A collapsed coalition government was deposed in a no-confidence vote by Parliament and a neutral interim one put in place by the elected President until the next elections in September. Clear-cut thing. 4/8
Mentioned earlier today that in Austrian history in 1933 there was the precedent of “self-elimination” of Parliament, pushed through by Chancellor Dollfuss in favour of an authoritarian system called (depending on your view of history) “Ständestaat” or simply “Austro-fascism” 5/8
This led to a civil war in 1934 where the Austrian army was deployed to shoot at Viennese council blocks. Bullet holes remain. It was quite a constitutional lesson to learn, informing the much more robust constitution of the 2nd republic after 1945. 6/8
Back then Britain didn't succumb to fascism, so the assumption has been that it never could. But with politicians willing to set up “the people vs. Parliament” you need something other than Queen, speaker, Lords and Hansard for insurance. You need a democratic counterweight. 7/8
Historically, British parliamentary democracy is a great thing, but it's a bit like British toilet flush systems or separate hot & cold water taps. Just because you invented something, doesn't mean it couldn't do with renewing. No shame in looking abroad for ideas. 8/8
