How do you legally remove the government?

Got thinking on this as the result of post on another thread.

How could you legally remove the Government of the UK?

Thinking back to my college days and reading my notes, I think the only legal way to remove the government is for the Queen to dissolve partliament.

In my living memory, 40 odd years, I believe the Queen has only dissolved partliament at the request of the prime minister to enable a general election.

I believe the only two ways a government in the UK can be removed is if either:

a) The Prime Minister asks the Queen to dissolve Parliament and calls a General Election.

b) The time limit for a government (five years) expires and thus Parliament is dissolved and a General Election occurs.

Technically Parliament could also dissolve itself if a majority of MPs supported the Bill and it passed through the House of Lords and received the Royal Assent.
Also, the Queen could technically dissolve Parliament independently but this would lead to a constitutional crisis. I suppose people might accept this if the government had been a very bad one/was attempting to become dictatorial.


Not sure if there are any other ways, but correct me if I'm wrong

Interesting question.

Technically I think you've both covered it.

Votes of 'no confidence' by the entire House of Commons are the other mechanism.
I don't know of any Gov ever being able to ignore one of those.

I don't think it could ever be possible (as the Monarch would then be able to dissolve Parliament with the full backing of the public and it would be the party attempting to ignore that vote that would be causing the problems).

[edit on 6-1-2007 by sminkeypinkey]

Originally posted by Ste2652
Also, the Queen could technically dissolve Parliament independently but this would lead to a constitutional crisis. I suppose people might accept this if the government had been a very bad one/was attempting to become dictatorial.

So no UK Government has been bad enough for the Monarch to dissolve parliament!!

mod edit: added quote tags Quote Reference (review link)

[edit on 7-1-2007 by UK Wizard]

By 'bad' I didn't mean 'unpopular'. A General Election is designed to remove an unpopular government.

What I was referring to was some sort of hopeless government that couldn't get anything right (which is unlikely if they managed to win an election but it's possible) or one which took Britain into a police state. Also, keep in mind that the Monarch would dissolve Parliament unilaterally in this situation, not on advice from the Prime Minister as is what usually happens. We have a wonderfully quirky system... the unelected head of state is the ultimate guarantee of democracy

Originally posted by Freedom ERP
In my living memory, 40 odd years, I believe the Queen has only dissolved partliament at the request of the prime minister to enable a general election.

no.
She through out a Aussie government once. She has the power to do that here and other countries where she is head of state.

The Queen can dissolve Parliament with or without the request of the Prime Minister.

Originally posted by infinite
She through out a Aussie government once. She has the power to do that here and other countries where she is head of state./quote]

Was that not the Governor General of Australia? (although his powers are exercised on her behalf, so technically she did do it... but she didn't in reality, if you see what I mean). And I believe he did it because the Australian upper house had refused to vote on some bills to try to force the PM to call an election... so it wasn't something he did randomly.

Her Majesty can do it, yes. But she won't unless it's under extraordinary circumstances, such as the Australian example.

Originally posted by infinite

Originally posted by Freedom ERP
In my living memory, 40 odd years, I believe the Queen has only dissolved partliament at the request of the prime minister to enable a general election.

no.
She through out a Aussie government once. She has the power to do that here and other countries where she is head of state.

The Queen can dissolve Parliament with or without the request of the Prime Minister.

Infinite, Can you provide more information on this example. Very interested to know more.

It was the Goeff Whitlam crisis of 1975.

Here's a link -

www.politicalinformation.net...

Originally posted by sminkeypinkey
It was the Goeff Whitlam crisis of 1975.

Here's a link -

www.politicalinformation.net...

Thanks Sminkey. And I have learnt something new today. So how many more Commonwealth countries does the Queen enjoy so power?

Canada?
New Zealand?

Not India

I think it is probably one of those instances where the power is there in theory but incapable of being used nowadays.

The Whitlam case for instance probably did more long-term damage and turned out to be so counter-productive to those interested in keeping a strong Monarchy in Australia that they would never consider doing similar ever again
(although it may be far too late for any of that now as Australia seems to be set of a course of 'when' and not 'if'.)

It could also be removed through a UN endorsed takeover by another power, the legality of which would be decided afterwards.

Out of all the possible contenders I believe it’s the European Union that has the best chance. For example if EU law takes precedent over U.K parliament law; and if U.K parliament has endorsed this then they (the European parliament) could put some new Europe wide government structure.
The European Constitution is (or was) going to put EU law above member states law; and at least technically this would-could have been possible.

However as we all know the EU constitution doesn’t seem to work too well when it comes to democracy (democratic endorsement through referendum). But there are people like the German Chancellor who want to push ahead with the constitution anyway; all very well for Germany to say that as their government denied their people a referendum on the grounds referendums are somehow “Nazi”) (Yes the Nazis used them just as they also used electricity, water, Christmas Trees ect) (and they did use Christmas trees in very political ways; e.g. by putting swastikas on them).

Anyway so if the constitution can come back in a form which allows European parliament to undermine national government; then it’s only natural it might want to use such “undermining powers”. Just how far this goes is anyone’s guess, but whose to say that in e.g. the year 2084 England might be known as “Airstrip 1”.

(P.S Does anyone think the description of Big Brother and Gordon Brown are quite a like? )

[edit on 090705 by Liberal1984]

Originally posted by Liberal1984
all very well for Germany to say that as their government denied their people a referendum on the grounds referendums are somehow “Nazi”) (Yes the Nazis used them just as they also used electricity, water, Christmas Trees ect) (and they did use Christmas trees in very political ways; e.g. by putting swastikas on them).

That's quite funny. I don't think their referendums would be quite as bad as the Nazi ones unless:

a) They had some ruling party members hanging around to intimidate voters.
b) They doctored the figures, so it didn't really matter who you voted for anyway.
c) There was an ever-present threat of a secret police force taking you away for not voting in favour of the government.

Now even though I'm not German, I don't think those things would occur in Germany these days.

Oh dear.

Looks like some people just can't let go of a whole host of 'ifs, buts and maybes and mights'.

Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

Imagination, it's a wonderful thing (usually).

Oh no, the Germans are coming to 'get' us all again.