Do the Queen, or any Royals, have any real power nowadays? Aren’t they simply figureheads?
Would anyone miss them, if they suddenly became anonymous, and were not fodder for the tabloid press?
Do they do anything positive? I recall Prince Harry was doing something in Africa, with saving animals or some such humanitarian gesture? But was it real or just photo op charity?
The Royal family’s most important function is probabaly as a tourist attraction.
It was all photo ops. Back in the summer, on one of his many African trips, he planted a tree because many years ago a flood wiped out trees along the river in a national park. He chose a barren spot of land to make it look desert-like and no mention of the river or flood. Of course, doing a search of the park shows there is an abundance of trees.
doing positive - there are 50some commonwealth countries tied to England and the RF is charged with the PR rounds to keep them in the Commonwealth
would they be missed - absolutely. I read somewhere that twenty-five percent of England’s economy comes from tourism to see the Queen, or at least the 1000year history surrounding the same. England would be hard pressed to replace that income stream.
real power - Only the King/Queen can declare war, sign treaties, dismiss Parliament, dismiss the PM, fire all civil servants, dismiss the military command, sell every stick England owns, and so on and so on. For the most part, tho, they act as the supreme advisor on matters of state.
What Sparkles hasn’t figured out yet, is, when married into the RF, one loses one’s individual voice, most certainly on family laundry topics. Speaking out in public on anything except neutral topics like world hunger and poverty, the arts and literature, is taboo, as in-family fighting tarnishes the mystique of the RF. She should have learned her lesson on this after seeing the distance that opened between Harry and Wills over her previous meddling.
The queen has the power to set standards of behavior for theBrits, which she does brilliantly. I believe at least half if not most of the people love and respect her...and detest Me-again and Harry for blundering around like idiots.
As for actual political power? I don’t know.