"Tim Streater" wrote in message
.. .
In article , Simon Brown
wrote:

"Tim Streater" wrote in message
...
In article , Simon Brown
wrote:

"Tim Watts" wrote in message
...
On 03/05/15 09:32, gareth wrote:
"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Mr Pounder Esquire" writes:
Their castles, not our castles. Their palaces, not our palaces.

The only ones which are theirs are Balmoral Castle and Sandringham
House. All the others are owned by the British state.

But the British State is a monarchy.

You won't be happy until you are president. Anything less and you
still have someone with more than you telling you what to do.

No president tells anyone what to do in any decent modern democracy.

You're excluding France and the USA, then, where the President is Head
of State *and* Head of Government.

No, they dont tell anyone but their personal
servants and people like that what to do.

You obviously don't know how the French and US governments work.

I do actually.

And no modern president has anything like the power she had in that
regard.

They dont even get to decide who is prime minister or have the prime
minister waste his time visiting and grovelling every now and then.

The French President appoints the French Prime minister.

But doesnt get to appoint anyone he likes. And the
US president doesnt get to appoint any equivalent.

The President has *considerably* more power than, say, the President of
Germany (the power there resides with the Chancellor).

And the Irish president has very little power at all.

Why d'ye think it's always Hollande and Merkel? Because they hold the
power.

They dont actually. Its the parliaments that have the power.

The US president appoints all the cabinet members of the US government.
These have to be approved by Congress.

And he doesnt get to tell anyone much to do anything.