There are differing opinions on that. Some people do worry that Islam will become more influential and I can't say they are wrong - it's possible. But I actually have a reasonable degree of confidence that that will not happen. History and heritage is too important to too many Britons and there will be a pushback, we just haven't reached that tipping point yet. But we are starting to see signs with the growth of parties like UKIP - they won't win many seats yet, because of the way they are distributed, but their share of the vote is getting more and more significant. And that will drive the Conservative party back towards its roots, in my view.
I understand that in most cases the monarch should not - or cannot - intervene, but then what is the purpose of the monarchy? As a token national symbol? As a check on a nonexistent parliamentary tyrant?
This is the point - the reason that there is no parliamentary tyranny is because the Monarchy exists. Any Prime Minister who would contemplate trying to set up some sort of dictatorial government knows the monarch would intervene if they took things too far away from convention, and so no Prime Minister is ever likely to do it. People seem to get the idea that the Monarchy doesn't serve a purpose because Britain isn't constantly on the verge of rebellion requiring the Monarch to intervene - but the reason it's not in that situation is because nobody tries to take it that far, and force the issue.
Here in Australia, twice in the twentieth century, governments did try to take things too far - once at a state level in New South Wales, when the Governor had to intervene as the King's representative in that state, once at a national level when the Governor General had to intervene as the Queen's representative in Australia. In both cases, looming constitutional crisis caused by socialist governments trying to act illegally and unconstitutionally were averted before they became disastrous, and in both cases, it was largely caused by politicians who did not believe the powers of the Crown were as strong as they were. This has not happened in the UK, primarily because British Prime Ministers haven't made that mistake, and haven't pushed it to that point - because they know the Queen would intervene if she had to. The system is working to keep the government stable.
The Queen has actually used some of her powers a couple of times to deal with less serious issues - in 1957, she appointed Harold MacMillan as Prime Minister after Anthony Eden resigned and in 1963 she appointed Sir Alec Douglas-Home as Prime Minister on MacMillan's resignation using the Royal prerogative, because the Conservative Party didn't have a procedure in place to choose a new leader as Prime Minister when a leader resigned from office. She also told the Conservative Party in 1963 that they needed to develop a democratic procedure, so she wouldn't have to keep doing this as she did not regard it as appropriate in a modern Constitutional monarchy for the Queen to be choosing a Prime Minister without some sort of voting going on. The powers are still there, to be used when they need to be - but the government should limit how often they need to be used.
Oh, and I do freely admit that I am anti-monarchist. So my views in that regard are not always the most rational.
Being anti-monarchist is perfectly valid, but it needs to be understood that in the UK, the Monarch's powers are such that simply getting rid of the Monarchy would create both a vacuum and an imbalance. It would need to be done very carefully to ensure a stable system of government did not become unstable.
Very thoughtful post (#46). Thanks for the info. But you still haven’t turned me into a monarchist (yet). Cheers!
Oh, and one more thing. Where does Judith Durham stand on this whole monarchy thing? Because I have been in love with her since I bought my first Seekers album. Her opinion would carry a lot of weight with me!
PS,,, and you’d never guess my ex-mother in law was a Brit. Would you? Those boys in the Luftwaffe really tried their best. Even the Nazis couldn’t get her,,,
I think I have a touch of PTSD from those married times,,,