Not to mention our Queen is also the head of an entire religion and on paper has powers to suspend parliament, her assent is required on legislation passed (a power that hasn't been used for 300 years btw), she can remove Ministers (of the crown) and just for kicks she can declare war and is beyond prosecution.
Of course the second she used these powers they'd be removed but yeah, it's an interesting framework.
Edit: oops, forgot - she is also the Command in Chief of all armed forces and in theory has complete control of the disposition of forces.
As it's pedantic Wednesday I'd does like to point out that the Queen uses these powers regularly.In fact we can't pass legislation in the UK without her assent, she suspends Parliament all the time, she removes Ministers etc.
What hasn't happened in a long time is for her to act contrary to Ministers' advice.
It's probably fair to say that there is close to negligible chance that that state of affairs (or Affairs of State if you prefer) will change in the present Queen's lifetime. Charles, however, may make things a little more constitutionally interesting as he has far more activist tendencies.
Don't forget that she lords over Canada (Queen, Head of State) and laws require her royal assent.
Not a fan, and do not like that in the Canadian oath you have to pledge to her (a human) instead of something non-human that symbolizes Canada (like the Canadian flag). It is unfortunate that in the oath you have to be subservient to another person - so much for all people created equally.
No one in the UK pledges allegiance to anyone or anything, certainly not on a regular basis. What is this Canadian oath? I don't think a Brit would have to be a republican to find pledging allegiance to the monarch a rather odd thing to do. And as for pledging allegiance to the flag, well which one? Union flag, the Saltire, the Red Dragon? I might give a little respect to Saint Piran's banner but I'm not about to swear allegiance to it even though half my ancestors are Cornish. Or should I choose the Wessex Wyvern because that is the region where I was born and lived for the first 25 years of my life?
Sorry for drifting off topic, got carried away. :-)
It feels like an arrangement that's just waiting to be abused/made use of at some weird and critical juncture in history. Maybe it's useful as an "escape clause" should the nominally representative government go astray?
Well, it mattered in WWII. "The Man Called Intrepid" tells about the secret services swearing loyalty to the king. In the event that the Nazis conquered England, they could oppose the newly-formed government without feeling disloyal, because their loyalty wasn't to the government of England, it was to the king.
