Queen Elizabeth and the U.K.?

Not in England at least - she has previously sacked an Australian Prime Minister. Not that long ago either.

Must we let factual infomation get in the way of a good yarn?Personally I find it bizarre that Australia has a Queen and that we need the Queen's representative to sign off on our legislation and appoint Ministers etc, whether or not that power is largely ceremonial. On the other hand It's hard for me to believe our politicians here could devise a better system without introducing additional bureaucracies so why bother changing?Edited by Boof, : Expanded my thoughts a little

God no! But then again I'm not keen on separate elections for this post either.Best off just appointing our most recently retired (and successful - no losers) cricket captain methinks.Edited by Boof, : No reason given.

Not necessarily. The Governor-General in Australia is nominated by the Prime Minister and then appointed by the monarch and it seems to work pretty well. All we need to do here is remove the need for royal assent. I'm sure you could do the same.One negative of this system is that the G-G's tend to be high profile judges, lawyers and politicians, which in some ways means they don't have much connection with the majority of the Australian public, however I myself think that's a small price to pay compared to introducing another round of electioneering. Interestingly the Australian states have a similar Governor system representing the monarchy, and in many of these states more recent appointments to Governor have moved away from the political and legal regimes and include former sporting heroes such as the Lithgow Flash, prominent business people and health professionals. There has even been the odd scientist in there. Maybe this will start to happen federally as well. Would seem like a good way of antagonising our former colonial masters, but it would be at the risk of some international embarrassment. I'm sure some would think we were being ruled by G W Bush.

Possibly. Personally I like the idea that the government publicly and officially recognises it's citizens for meritorious work in the community (eg Order of Australia award) or has a representative at important memorials or to receive and entertain foreign dignitaries. I just don't want the Prime Minister to waste her time on those things.