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Sources Barrow, M. (2011). Project Britain: Your guide to British life,

culture and customs. Retrieved from

http://projectbritain.com/

Queen Elizabeth IIConstitutional Monarch

of the United Kingdom of Great Britain

and Northern Ireland

England has been a monarchy since itsvery beginning. There was only one 11-yearspan in the 1600s that England did not havea king or queen. Queen Elizabeth II is theUnited Kingdom's Head of State today.Sheis also known as the head of theCommonwealth, a multinational body thatwas created after the dissolution of the BritishEmpire.Queen Elizabeth II is a constitutionalmonarch. This means that even though she

is the head of the state, the country isactually run by the government, which is ledby the Prime Minister.(The English Bill ofRights Act of 1689 greatly reduced the powerof the sovereign and created Parliamentsplace at the heart of the English constitution.)As Head of State the Queen goes on officialState visits. Queen Elizabeth ll is also Headof the Armed Forces and Head of the Churchof England. The Queen appoints archbishopsand bishops with the advice of the PrimeMinister. Another duty of the Queen is to readover and sign documents and reports fromthe government and Commonwealth officials.

The Government of England/the United KingdomMarch 2, 2013 Vol. 1 Issue 1

The British GovernmentThe leader of the governmentis the Prime Minister. David Cameron ha

been the Prime Minister since May 2010. Afterelections, the leader of th

majority party, or majority coalition, usually becomes the prime minister.

The Prime Minister appoints ministers and Secretaries of State, who are

over individual government departments such as finance, international

affairs, internal affairs, legal system, education, and transport/environme

The Secretaries of State make up the Cabinet. The Prime Minister picks

around 100 people from Parliament to help him run the country. The

government is different from the parliament and separate from the major

party.

ParliamentThe Parliament is made up of two houses. The House ofCommons

consists of Members of Parliament that are elected by the people in a

General Election every 5 years. The MPs in the House of Commons

represent 659 constituencies in the United Kingdom. There are three ma

political parties in the House of Commons the Labour, Conservative, a

Liberal Democrat parties. The House of Commons is where policies are

debated and laws are made. The second house in Parliament is the

House of Lords. The House of Lords is made up of people who have

inherited family titles or been appointed titles because of their outstandin

work in various fields. There are 675 members in this house. The job of

House of Lords is to double check new laws and make sure they are fa

**England is the only country in the United Kingdom that does not have

own separate parliament. Englands issues are decided by the UK

government.

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