2024-07-17 16:30:00 +07:00 by Mark Smith
There’s an interesting bit on the latest Rest is Politics podcast where they compare a subtle yet important difference between how the UK and US are organised [28:05]:
Rory Stewart: The King is the head of state, and the prime minister Keir Stalmer is the head of government, and of course Keir Stalmer has 99% of the power in the country, but I wonder whether one of the reasons why, in America, they are finding it very difficult to move president Biden, is that countries like the US and France, they have these sort of presidents that are heads of state, and the most powerful people in the country, they take on some of the kind of aura of a kind of mini King. Whereas in Britain one of the reasons we were able to get rid of Boris Johnson, and Luz Truss very very quickly, I think is we have a more pragmatic relationship to our prime minister. And I think maybe the presence of the King maybe sort of psychologically helps that a bit.
Alistair Campbell: [...] I was always conscious of this whenever I saw the Queen with the prime ministers, be that the prime minister of the day, or I remember the time when she was with all her living former prime ministers and Tony Blair at one of the Jubilees, you were always conscious of the fact that the prime minister, routinely described as the most powerful person in the country, sort of felt very…second fiddle. She was the most important person in the room. And I think you are right, that does mean there is a clear separation between executive power and formal constitutional leadership power, which is what the King has.
Rory Stewart: Yeah, and I think it can be quite healthy, I mean I know we often disagree on this, but when you see France and America getting very obsessed with their presidents, and almost turning them into these semi-regal figures, I sometimes think it’s quite useful that some of the symbolic weight is lifted off the prime minister’s shoulders and it makes them kind of get on with it in a more pragmatic way.
When you grow up as a Brit you are sort of always aware of these small subtleties that having a monarchy entails, but I don’t hear them mentioned outright all that often. I’m not saying one is better than the other just that these types of things make quite a bit of difference to how things are more generally in society.
I think it’s worth highlighting while passing, though not so important to dwell on it for too long. I found it interesting.
It reminded me of an interaction between the late Queen and Boris Johnson that I saw on YouTube a while back. They were in what looked like a very palacial and ornate room. I guess someone from the government had been involved in a scandal of some kind and had likely been fired. Boris entered the room, his body language was very interesting, sort of deferential to her, he kind of lowered his head as he spoke to her, with his feet positioned one sort of infront of the other. Anyway, she asked him about the departed fellow and Boris said simply, "He was full of beans mam", and she replied something like, "Oh right, I see".
Funny world sometimes states and governments.