Talk:Government of the United Kingdom/Archive 1

Archive 1

Start

Should this be a topical article like government of England, government of Scotland or government of the United States, instead of being a redirect? — Instantnood 18:04, 11 April 2006 (UTC)

I've brought this up at Talk:Her Majesty's Government. Superm401 - Talk 03:02, 19 April 2008 (UTC)

No because the UK is governed by HMG. --Philip Baird Shearer (talk) 16:24, 27 June 2008 (UTC)

YES because the UK is governed by Her Majesty as are Australia and Canada. and the term Her Majesty's Government should be changd to Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom like Her Majesty's Government in Canada by the Government of Canada Mr Taz (talk) 19:29, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Important notice

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Queen/King duties?

Moved from Talk:Her Majesty's Government

What are the duties of the Queen/King of England? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.201.253.222 (talk • contribs) 10:18, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Well in theory, the executive authority of the government is vested in the Sovereign. In practice, executives decisions are made by the Prime Minister and Cabinet on behalf of the monarch. The British monarch has extensive theoretical powers, but in practice is a ceremonial figurehead who acts on the advice of her ministers. Lapafrax 15:40, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

also can I add the Queen is Not the "Queen of England" she is Queen of the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland " thats what the name of the Country is ! its on the front of My British Passport .....England ,Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland make up the UK they are the home nations of the UK —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.158.230.237 (talk • contribs) 22:12, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Not very much considering the last King/Queen of England died a few centuries ago. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.176.130.93 (talk • contribs) 15:13, 10 August 2007

History

Moved from Talk:Her Majesty's Government

I came to the article page to find out which party was in power in 1791 (the year in which a bill for the abolition of slavery was first discussed and rejected). Instead I find a somewhat cavalier description of a predominantly parliamentary institution, with no history section, and vandalism of an even more cavalier nature on the Talk page. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.1.98.66 (talk) 06:41, August 29, 2007 (UTC)

I agree there should be a history section. I was interested in when exactly the government came about. The Tories were in power in 1791 (Pitt the Younger)VenomousConcept (talk) 10:03, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

List?

Moved from Talk:Her Majesty's Government

Is there any page that lists the current members of the government? I know we have a list of the cabinet, but is there anywhere to find a unified list of all the junior ministers and the like? It seems like such a thing would be in order. john k (talk) 04:55, 27 July 2009 (UTC)

Restructure

I think there's still some important parts missing, including:

• History
• Composition and Structure (perhaps with a diagram)
• Something on the present Government for illustration

I'm going to have a go at restructuring the article to get these sections in, any help much appreciated. Thom2002 (talk) 18:33, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

Infobox

I have removed the infobox "Government agency" from this article as its presence distorts the nature of what the "Her Majesty's Government" actually is. HMG is not an "agency", it is not even a corporate body in a legal sense; it is a collective name, and a term of art in constitutional politics.

The infobox is forcing the use of misleading or inappropriate terminology. For example, stating that the Prime Minister is the "minister responsible" completely ignores the theory and reality of both individual and collective ministerial responsibility.

It's also highly misleading to describing HMG as having "jurisdiction" in the British Overseas Territories.

Finally, the idea that HMG was "formed" in 1710 is unexplained and unsourced; on the face of it, it also seems like complete nonsense!

Andrew Gwilliam (talk) 18:01, 6 September 2011 (UTC).

Britannic Majesty

The term 'Britannic Majesty' is used only in the realms of international relations to differentiate the Crown from foreign ones. As this article is regarding a national government; there is no need for it, and has thus been removed. Also, the source provided does not support the "of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", which also, is never used. GBozanko (talk) 14:04, 14 February 2013 (UTC)

Infobox presidential government

This template (Infobox presidential government) is not for this article. United Kingdom has parliamentary system with executive government. The executive is the government, not the other branches of the political system. UK has not presidential system. --IM-yb (talk) 01:19, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

JuandisCV why are you reverting IM-yb's edit? Rob984 (talk) 16:06, 27 February 2015 (UTC)

ministers accountable to parliament

The text says "The Government Ministers all sit in Parliament, and are accountable to it." How are the Ministers who are from the House of Lords accountable to Parliament? --Richardson mcphillips (talk) 17:03, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

The House of Lords is part of Parliament. 83.100.219.177 (talk) 20:27, 17 March 2016 (UTC)

type of government

I'm wondering - I know nothing about the field - if there is a word for this type of government where there is nothing between the federal government and the local or municipal government. Eg in Canada the state is styled a 'confederation' where the individual provinces have authority over various domains such as education, immigration (varying), health services, etc. --Richardson mcphillips (talk) 17:16, 19 May 2015 (UTC)

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What is the government?

The article gives many details about the government (e.g. it states that the government is led by the prime minister), but I don't think the article says who/what "the Government of the United Kingdom" actually is. I came to the page when trying to find out whether the government is just the group of people which consists of the prime minister together with all other ministers. Or whether, for example, civil servants are part of "the government"? I believe it would improve the article, if the initial section would explicitly state that "the Government of the United Kingdom consists of [this or that group of people]". --Jochen (talk) 16:53, 22 December 2016 (UTC)

As a native speaker of English, I don't think I've ever come across this problem. To me "the Government" is simply the ministry. Wikiain (talk) 00:28, 23 December 2016 (UTC)

Who rules the country?

A basic info I can't find easily is what party is ruling. Who has the executive and the parliament?--5.67.169.254 (talk) 11:32, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

Does the last paragraph of the lead help:

• "The current prime minister is Theresa May, who took office on 13 July 2016. She is the leader of the Conservative Party, which won a majority of seats in the House of Commons in the general election on 7 May 2015, when David Cameron was the party leader. Prior to this, Cameron and the Conservatives led a coalition government from 2010 to 2015 with the Liberal Democrats, in which Cameron was prime minister."

--Boson (talk) 15:05, 19 April 2017 (UTC)

Personification of the state

Currently the article contains "is the head of state and the sovereign, but not the head of government." The Queen is the personification of the state, rather than head of state (you have to think medieval)

The monarch is commander of the armed forces; soldiers will swear allegiance to the crown rather than to the state. In this sense, the monarchy is “intelligible” as she is the personification of the British State. People can swear loyalty to the state, a social construction, via the monarchy.

— James T. Williams, The Future Of The British Monarchy Interstate - Journal of International Affairs VOL. 1998/1999 NO. 1

Of course the Queen is head of government, because the government is Her Majesty's Government (HMG). As personification of the state she is the font of all honours and all offices of state. For example the defence secretary is "Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Defence".

In practice Prime Ministers or their agents have been known to sell honours (eg Lloyd George), and they do advise the Queen on who to appoint to ministerial posts but that does not mean that the Queen is not formally head of the government.

The problem here is that one needs to make a distinction between, the formal constitution (which is basically medieval) and what is done in practice--What Baghot termed the "dignified" (that part which is symbolic) and the "efficient" (the way things actually work and get done).

Another example is the term "Freehold", the term is used because under the medieval system after the conquest all the land in England belonged to the monarch who used to parcel it out for favours, eventually people won the right to hold it perpetuity from the crown, which means to all intense and purposes it is theirs, but the origins in law are that all land belongs to the crown. As I said you have to think medieval!

I think ehat is being done with the sentence I have quoted from the article is mixing up the "dignified" and the "efficient" without making the difference clear. -- PBS (talk) 19:37, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

Yes, you are "thinking medieval". A few things have happened since the Middle Ages, such as democracy. Thinking modern, the Queen is the head of state and the Prime Minister is the head of government. The government is responsible to Parliament and does not have to answer to the monarch on matters of policy. The monarch's involvement in ministerial appointments is almost always purely formal. Wikiain (talk) 23:03, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Government of New Zealand which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 19:01, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

Lead is too long

The lead is far too long. The Manual of Style states, "The lead has no heading; its length should be commensurate with that of the article, but is normally no more than four paragraphs." The lead is over 1000 words. 14 paragraphs, and constitutes over half of the total length of the article. It should concisely summarise the content of the article. Ideally paragraphs 9 to 12 can be moved to new sections and a short summary can be written. Let's discuss a way of resolving this. --Hazhk (talk) 23:20, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

I've made a go at moving some content, but the existing lead could be rewritten. --Hazhk (talk) 23:31, 9 July 2020 (UTC)

You're an absolute saint! The lead is looking so much better now, thank you so much! ItsPugle (talk) 03:39, 10 July 2020 (UTC)