Is it right that the UK prime minister has the powers of a medieval king?
Benn was right inasmuch as he referred to the powers vested in the Monarch and exercised by the government of the day; most especially over the right to declare war without any sanction from Parliament for example. Of course, the Scottish Parliament, in its Act Anent Peace and War of 1703 abolished those powers and made the right to declare war and make treaty entirely the responsibility of Parliament and not the Monarch. Like so much else following the Union of 1707, it was assumed that what was custom, practice and law in England must continue in the new United Kingdom and nobody has ever paid any attention to Scotland’s very sensible legislation.
