One of the great myths of the monarchy is that it is neutral: the Queen supposedly stays out of politics and leaves it to elected politicians. Of course, its a lie:
The Queen has expressed concern for the future of ChristChurch Cathedral during a meeting with the Prime Minister.The Queen may very well be concerned. But as monarch, it is not her place to express that concern. "The Queen reigns - but Parliament rules". If she wants to break that bargain, and go back to telling politicians what to do, then I think its time we dispensed with her services and ran her and her entire family out of town at gunpoint.[...]
[Key] said the Queen has had an enormous amount of correspondence from people in Christchurch over the fate of the Anglican cathedral, which he said is the centre of heartache for many over its demolition.
Mr Key said the Queen is clearly not an engineer so is not offering advice on whether it is the right move, but is interested in what is driving the issue.
Addendum: To those saying "the Queen is also the head of the Anglican Church", I have two responses: firstly, that you can't wear two hats if one of them is a crown (by which I mean that the Queen's constitutional role, and her consequent need to be seen to be above politics, trumps any other role she may have). Secondly, she clearly wasn't speaking in that role - because if she had been, she would have been talking to her Bishop, the person who wants the Cathedral demolished, rather than our Prime Minister.
