The Queen appears to be a powerful woman, but in the sense that she carries a much more serious burden. After all, she is literally the Queen of England. But it is sometimes difficult to discern what kind of control that gravity entails. But according to The Sun, the queen has one major power: the dissolution of Parliament.

To be clear, this does not mean that she can start a group chat feud with her best friends in parliament and then dissolve the entire parliament. Rather, it is an important symbolic gesture that nods to the traditional ties between parliament and the monarchy, which historically have taken place at the end of each term of office.

The way it works now is this: every five years, 25 days before a general election, the prime minister visits the queen and asks her to dissolve parliament so that the people can elect new representatives. If the Queen accepts this (she does not have to!) ), all MPs in the government will be dissolved and a general election will be held.

Elections can be held outside of the five-year term in some circumstances: under a law enacted in 2011, a general election can be held if the House of Representatives receives enough votes (2/3 of the House, different from the majority required to hold a particular vote in the US) or if the government loses a vote of no confidence The government may hold a general election. The last time such an election was held was in 2019, which Boris Johnson won. Subsequently, in 2022, a law was passed to dissolve and recall parliament, allowing for another dissolution and general election.

The Queen, in a sense, must approve of the elections taking place, but generally "allows" them to take place as long as they do not violate constitutional convention. According to The Sun, the Queen also "may refuse to dissolve Parliament under the rascale principle," a constitutional convention that allows the sovereign to refuse "if the existing Parliament is viable, if a general election would be harmful to the country, or if the sovereign can "resort to finding another prime minister with a majority in the House of Commons. . may refuse to dissolve it.

Of course, the queen is supposed to remain politically neutral. After Boris Johnson resigned as prime minister last week following a scandal and the resignation of a party member, it was unclear whether he would actually step down from power. According to Newsweek, Johnson could have remained in power if he had intended to hold a snap election and let the people decide whether to continue as prime minister.

In short, it would have been a political headache for the Queen. Fortunately, it did not materialize and the queen was able to keep her hands clean.