by D.J. Webb
Do you recall I wrote a short article over Prince Charles vetoing laws in advance? It turns out that any laws that affect Crown rights or property are referred for comment to the Queen or Prince Charles, including, eg asking him his views on the foxhunting law – as he is the owner of a large landed estate. See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/9873731/Dozens-of-new-laws-sent-to-Prince-so-he-could-give-approval.html
The basis for getting a Royal view in advance is the Erskine May book of parliamentary procedure. But as you can see at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erskine_May:_Parliamentary_Practice , this manual was first compiled in 1844 by the clerk of the House of Commons. It’s precepts have no basis in Common Law or statute – it is just one man’s view of how things should be done constitutionally, and probably reflects the view in 1844 that the Crown had a Coronation Oath to keep up and needed to be able to give input. Just because this is how things have been done doesn’t mean in my view they should be done this way. The Queen should have the opportunity to case a royal veto at the end of the process – given the she has spurned her oath in countless ways it seems wrong to accord her any more influence than that.
