How democratic is America?

[regexcellent]

The Canadians shared nukes with us for a while; it's possible they still do but I don't remember. Canadian aircraft were armed with nuclear air to air missiles for a while and were responsible for intercepting Soviet bomber formations.

Britain would be pretty well destroyed very quickly if nuclear war broke out. Flight time from the Soviet Union to the UK for a nuclear missile is very short. Probably around 15 minutes, maybe less.

[Dauphin]

I think you'll find its about 22 years at a minimum.

[The Mad Monk]

In 1940 they were still competitors.

[PLATO]

As I was trying to look up the answer of who has an easier time of ordering a nuclear strike (a measure of real power!) I discovered that in the event of the UK being wiped out in a nuclear attack one of the standard positions for the "letters of last resort" held by submarine captains is to subsume into the American or Australian fleets (guess Canucks are too squirmish about controlling WMD themselves).

If only the French at Mers-el-Kébir had done something like that in 1940.

I saw something on TV about this not to long ago. They asked an Admiral if he got an order from the PM to launch and the Queen disgreed if they would launch. After hemhawing around for a bit. he finally confirmed that they would not launch if the Queen did not assent. He declined to answer if the Queen ordered a strike and the PM did not agree. Perhaps her words are backed by Nuclear weapons!

[The Mad Monk]

Wait.

The British Monarchy is the failsafe?

Am I reading that right?

[regexcellent]

I think you'll find its about 22 years at a minimum.

...I'm sorry? Not sure what you mean.

[Dauphin]

Wait.

The British Monarchy is the failsafe?

Am I reading that right?

"a", not "the".

[Dauphin]

...I'm sorry? Not sure what you mean.

You'd have to travel 22 years through time to reach the Soviets.

[PLATO]

Wait.

The British Monarchy is the failsafe?

Am I reading that right?

The British Army Oath of Allegiance.



" I ____________ swear by almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Second, Her heirs and successors and that I will as in duty bound honestly and faithfully defend Her Majesty, Her heirs and successors in Person, Crown and dignity against all enemies and will observe and obey all orders of Her Majesty, Her heirs and successors and of the Generals and Officers set over me."

Interesting, isn't it?

[kentonio]

The Queen is considered a completely neutral political entity, which is why she never, ever takes a partisan political position on anything. She's also however been receiving security briefings for the last 50 odd years, making her extremely well versed in security related issues.

The monarchy are a failsafe on abuse of political power, which of course includes the right to dissolve parliament. If the Queen ever countered a nuclear order, the assumption would be that our political leaders were basically overstepping their democratic bounds and doing something not in the best interests of our country. If it were afterwards discovered that she had misused that power, it would lead to the abolition of the monarchy, although if we're talking about nuclear war it's not like it matters so much.

The point that Americans tend to not understand however is that by having the Queen as our Commander in Chief instead of an elected President, we ensure that our military always has a non-political figurehead. No matter how unpopular the decision making of the government of the day, the Queen remains untarnished and we avoid potential issues of divided loyalty.

It's a position of incredible theoretical power and yet set out in such a way as to be virtually powerless. Even if you imagine a scenario where an insane monarch might try and use that power inappropriately, the machinery of state is such that they would be prevented from doing so long before any harm was actually done.

[The Mad Monk]

Prince Charles, future failsafe of England!

[kentonio]

Prince Charles would do a fine job as monarch, what's your point?

[regexcellent]

He'd like to be your tampon.

[Imran Siddiqui]

kentonio is the Dutchess of Cornwall?!

[PLATO]

Prince Charles would do a fine job as monarch, what's your point?

He has been in traing for 65 years

I actually think he would be an effective monarch as well...as long as he didn't damage the popularity of the institution to much.