THE CROWN

The Crown is the supreme power in the legislature, the executive and the judiciary organs. The sovereign is also
the Head of the Church of England and is Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. In practice, however, the
present Queen Elizabeth II, acts only on the advice of her ministers and cannot reject or ignore their advice.
The Queen still has several significant functions:
➔ She calls and dissolves Parliament and she opens a new session with a speech from the throne. This speech
is not written by her but by the government in power and outlines the government’s policy for the
forthcoming year.
➔ She confers honors in the form of peerages, knighthoods and decorations – that are given on the advice of
the government. She can award some honors herself, however, such as the Order of Garter.
➔ She appoints judges, army officers, diplomats and officials of the Church of England – also on advice.
Although the Queen has little authority of her own, she is kept informed of the events and is sometimes
consulted by the government in power. The Queen has the advice of a Privy Council, which consists of
ministers of the government and other persons recommended by the government in power. In the event of an
inconclusive national election, the Queen may be required to choose a new Prime Minister.
The Monarch's Role in the Government of the UK Video & Lesson Transcript Study
The government is a Constitutional / Parliamentary Monarchy whose head is the Prime Minister (PM). He is the
leader of the majority party and has the power to appoint and dismiss ministers; the PM can also recommend
the appointment of some senior judges and of senior clergy of the Church of England.
The PM selects a cabinet of ministers. This Cabinet develops the government’s policies, which are presented as
proposed legislation to Parliament, and exercises control over government departments. Meetings of the
Cabinet are held private and strict secrecy is maintained. Some matters are discussed by Cabinet committees,
which consist of the ministers involved. The Cabinet Office handles the records of Cabinet meetings and
provides information to ministers. To maintain stability the Cabinet must act as a collective group and issue
unanimous statements and policies. If a member does not agree with Cabinet policies, that minister must resign.
Ministers head government departments and are responsible for the work of those departments. They are
normally entitled: ‘Secretary of State for Social Service’. The ministers must be prepared to answer questions
about their departments in the House of Commons. The ministers who sit in the House of Lords have a
parliamentary secretary who answers questions raised in the Commons. This system of parliamentary control
over government department discourages inefficiency and irresponsibility.
There are many government departments of various size and complexity. Major departments include:
➢ Treasury, which handles the country’s finances
➢ Ministry of Defence
➢ Ministry of Health
➢ Home Office, which controls the police and other law-and-order institutions
➢ Foreign Office
The work of government departments is carried out by members of the Civil Service. The positions held by
civil servants are not elective or political appointment, so a change in government does not affect a
department’s staff.

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 LOCAL GOVERNMENT
All local authorities derive their existence, powers, and functions from Parliament (although there is no single
agency of control for any particular local authority).
There exist different administrative divisions, each with its own council:
● The county is traditionally the most important local area; most of them still have the old word ‘shire’ in
their names (Yorkshire). In each county the Queen appoints a Lord Lieutenant as her representative (only
for ceremonial purposes). Counties are administered by a county-council.
● The parishes are within the counties. Parishes are local communities established in the Middle Ages with
a church as its focal point. They have elected councils of their own today, but with almost no power.
● The boroughs were developed during the Middle Ages: as some villages grew into towns, the Crown
gave them ‘charters of incorporation’ as ‘boroughs’ or ‘cities’. They have their own councils and mayors.
● The rural districts have a council of their own.
Local government is responsible for garbage disposal, water supplies, sewerage, street cleaning, the
administration of police and fire services, education and housing.

The Prime Minister

The Prime Minister is the leader of the Government. He or she is the leader of the party that wins the most seats
at a general election. After a general election the monarch calls upon the leader of the largest party to form the
Government. The Prime Minister chooses the other Members of the Government and has a residence and
offices at 10 Downing Street.

The Cabinet
The Cabinet is the team of 20 or so most senior ministers in the Government who are chosen by the Prime
Minister to lead on specific policy areas such as Health, Transport, Foreign Affairs or Defence.
If you may like to check on the Right Honourable ones nowadays, you can click on:
https://www.gov.uk/government/ministers#cabinet-ministers

The Privy Council

The Privy Council is an advisory body to the Monarch; its members are known as Privy Counsellors. It is one
of the oldest parts of the UK’s constitutional arrangements, with its origins dating back to at least the thirteenth
century.

RELIGION
Paganism in the British Isles (Celtic polytheism) was supplemented by the arrival of the Roman Religion. After
the withdrawal of the Romano legions the British Isles was mostly Christian. However, the Anglo- Saxons
wiped out Christianity from the areas they occupied so Anglo- Saxon England was pagan by the 6 th century.
Christianity in the British Isles was first introduced in 597 when St. Augustine was sent by Pope Gregory I to
the British Isles to christianize its peoples and he became the first Archbishop of Canterbury.
Ireland was converted by Romano British missionaries (notably Saint Patrick) at some time after the
withdrawal of the Romano legions from England. Celtic missionaries from Ireland spread Celtic Christianity to
Scotland. In 664 the differences of religious practices between the Celtic Church and the Roman Church
attempted to reconcile.

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There are two established or official Churches in England: the Anglican Church and the Church of
Scotland.

The Church of England

The doctrine of the Church of England was set out in the 16 th century, in a document called the Thirty- Nine
Articles. However, the main motivation for the birth of Anglicanism was more patriotic and political than
doctrinal. In 1533 the English King Henry VIII had broken away from Rome and declared himself Head of the
Church of England. His reason was the Pope`s refusal to allow him to divorce his first wife (Catherine of
Aragon) who had failed to produce a male heir. The truth is that Henry VIII confiscated the properties and
wealth that the Roman Church held in Britain and transferred it all to the English Crown.
Ever since 1534 the monarch has been Head of the Church of England. No one may take the throne who is not a
member of the Church of England. For any Protestant this is not a problem since the Church of England
includes a wide variety of Protestant belief. However, if the monarch or the next in line decided to marry a
Roman Catholic, it would cause a constitutional crisis. This crisis has not arisen so far but it is stated that if
such a marriage went ahead, the monarch or heir would have to give up their claim to the throne.
The monarch is crowned by the senior Anglican cleric: the Archbishop of Canterbury. And as Head of the
Church of England, the monarch appoints the archbishops, bishops and deans of the Church, on the
recommendation of the Prime Minister, who might well not be an Anglican.
All Anglican clergy must take an oath of allegiance to the Crown, a difficult proposition for any priest who is a
republican at heart. Thus Church and Crown in England are closely entwined and with mutual bonds of
responsibility.
The most senior spiritual leaders of the Church of England are the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is ‘Primate
of All England’ and the Archbishop of York, who is ‘Primate of England’, a subtle distinction. They are head of
the two ecclesiastical provinces of England (Canterbury and York). These two provinces are divided into
dioceses, each under the charge of a bishop.
The Church of England is frequently considered a ‘broad’ church because it includes a wide variety of belief
and practice. Three main strands of belief can be identified:
➔ Evangelical or ‘low church’ which places great emphasis on the contents of the Bible and is the most
consciously opposed to Catholicism. It adheres closely to the Thirty- Nine Articles that reject Papal
doctrines and is suspicious of the hierarchical structure of the Church. It prefers plain services with a
minimum of ceremony.
➔ The Anglo- Catholic or ‘high church’ is virtually identical to Catholicism – except that it does not
accept the Pope as the ultimate authority. High church services are more colourful, include organ music
and elaborate priestly clothing.
➔ The liberal wing which is willing to question some of the traditional Christian beliefs; it is more inclined
to view the Bible as merely a historical document and it is more tolerant towards homosexuality. This
strand was the first to support moves to ordain women priests.
At present, the national distinctiveness is emphasized by the Anglican Church’s position as the official religion.
It has been argued that the ties between the Church and the State should be broken; that is, that the Church
should be disestablished so that it could spend less time on internal disagreement and more on moral and
spiritual guidance. Those who are against these move fear that it would cause the obvious ‘Englishness’ of the
Church to disappear and thus for the number of its adherents to drop sharply.

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The Church of Scotland
The Church of Scotland is Presbyterian and it is called the Kirk. The Kirk strongly rejects the idea of bishops,
following a more Calvinist Protestant tradition (Calvinism is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the
theological tradition and forms of Christian practice of John Calvin and other Reformation-era theologians.
Calvinists broke from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century. Calvinists differ from Lutherans on the
real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, theories of worship, and the use of God's law for believers,
among other things.)
In the Kirk, there is no altar, only a table, and the emphasis is on the pulpit where the gospel is preached. The
Church of Scotland is more democratic. Although each Kirk is assigned a minister, it also elects its own
‘elders’. The minister and one of these elders represent the Kirk at the regional presbytery. Each of the forty-six
presbyteries of Scotland elects two commissioners to represent it at the principal governing body of the Church,
the General Assembly. Each year the commissioners meet at the General Assembly. Unlike the Church of
England, the Church of Scotland is subject neither to the Crown not to Parliament, and takes pride in its
independence from state authority. In keeping with its democratic nature, it admits women as well as men to the
ministry. In 1988, for example, it admitted more women than men.

WALES: the Church in Wales was disestablished in the 1920s. This meant that, unlike England, Wales no
longer had a state Church. The Church in Wales is as a result fully independent of both the State and the Church
of England, and is an independent member of the Anglican Communion like the Church of Ireland or the
Scottish Episcopal Church. Although similar to all Anglican Churches, it recognizes the primacy of the
Archbishop of Canterbury, who does not have any formal authority outside England.

NORTHERN IRELAND: Northern Ireland is one of the most religious countries in Europe. Since the 17th
century, groups of English Anglicans and especially Scottish Presbyterians colonized the island, staying as an
alien community with control over the far numerous native Catholic populations. Due to this, Protestants have
held a notion of being under constant siege, and since Good Friday Agreements, the fear of extinction; whereas
Catholics have had a feeling that they are discriminated and regarded as second-class citizens. There is much
popular distress from both Catholic and Protestant religious teachings. In Northern Ireland exists an official
separation between churches and the state. Moreover, many politicians are anxious to distance themselves from
religious ideas and institutions.

THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: The predominant religion in the Republic of Ireland is Christianity, with
the largest church being the Roman Catholic Church. The Irish constitution says that the state may not endorse
any particular religion and guarantees freedom of religion. The second largest Christian denomination, the
Church of Ireland (Anglican), declined in membership for most of the twentieth century, but has more recently
experienced an increase, as have other small Christian denominations. Other significant Protestant
denominations are the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, followed by the Methodist Church in Ireland.