Hola a todos. Wannabe dictator, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, asked the Queen to suspend Parliament in September 2019 so that MPs would have less time to debate the very pressing matter of a no-deal Brexit. I’ll assume the reader knows what I’m talking about. If you don’t, look it up. And no, Brexit is not a side of beef.

I keep hearing from talking heads before microphones that it was expected that the Queen would approve Johnson’s request because, “Queen Elizabeth II is above politics.” That’s not true at all, and I wish people would stop mindlessly repeating that. What happened to critical thinking skills? Even the representative from the Labour Party said that. He said it was expected that the Queen would approve the request because she doesn’t get involved in politics. “She’s above politics” he said.

The Queen is not above politics. She’s around politics all the time and politicians. She meets with the Prime Minister regularly so she not above politics. If she were, she would not meet with the PM and allow him or her to do what they want, which they do anyway. She’s essentially irrelevant since whatever decisions the PM makes, the Queen will rubber-stamp. (Why is she even needed?) She hosts politicians from all over the world — even some of the most heinous and despicable politicians — at State Dinners at the Palace. She has politicians staying overnight in the palace as her guests. If she were above politics, she would not allow that. She makes speeches about working for peace — that’s covertly giving her opinion that she opposes war — at state dinners. That’s politics. Politics does not mean something bad all the time. The Queen signs off on proposed bills from Parliament before they go into effect. That’s being complicit and an enabler in politics. The Queen doesn’t outright give her opinion like politicians do, but her actions show otherwise. If she was “required” to rubber-stamp this move by Boris, what is her role then? If it’s a given that anything that comes before her from the PM will be approved by her, then why have that extra and needless step? Just because of protocol? She’s irrelevant. Why is she needed other than for purely ceremonial roles and for her to present so they can sing “God Save Our Gracious Queen” to her? Can’t they do that with a statue of the Queen of some sort? The Catholics and High Anglicans do that with a statue of the Virgin Mary when they sing to her. She’s never there either!

Why go through such ridiculous and meaningless formality? But she is not above politics, unless the woman has undergone a lobotomy. If she were above politics, she would refuse to be in the presence of politicians or hosting them or having dinners with them. If she’s not about politics, what is her purpose? What does she talk about with politicians at state dinners when she’s sitting right next to them if “she’s above politics?” Does one hear her say: “The roast beef is good, isn’t it? Cooked just the way I like it. It’s a good thing I’m a vegan.” Or does she talk about flower arranging? Her gardens? William and Kate? Her history? How her family started the Anglican Church? Harry and Meghan? Or is she just an empty public relations puppet of the Prime Minister?

Harry and Meghan didn’t invite any politicians to their wedding. Now that’s being above politics. Even though one remembers Harry snuggling up with Obama back in those days.

I heard multiple people say that it was expected that the Queen would approve Boris’s request because, well, she approves anything requested of her by the government, which is technically called Her Majesty’s Government. Even the term “Her Majesty’s Government” implies that she’s not above politics, but rather all about politics. It’s her government. Even though the government is often referred to as “The May Government” or “The Johnson Government,” (using the PM’s last name) it’s officially called “Her Majesty’s Government.” Well, that right there implies she’s not above politics when officially and formally she has her own government and is the sovereign, Head of State of that government. The PM is not the Head of State.

I had wondered if she was going to approve this request with such a new and rookie Prime Minister, who seems to be a poodle of the current ruthless White House occupant. The current White House occupant referred to Johnson as “great” for this suspending of Parliament. In the end, neither of these wannabe dictators believe in democracy.

I don’t think a King Charles would have approved the request, necessarily. He seems less lobotomised and less weak. Charles has made his opinion about the environment and climate change well known. That’s politics. Charles said he planned to talk with the current White House occupant about environmental issues when the current White House occupant was visiting the Queen, after insisting on a state visit. I thought: Charles, you’re wasting your time with him. You’re not about to change his mind on anything. If anything, raising that topic will merely raise your blood pressure. Environmental and climate change policies are based in political decision. That’s politics. So, a King Charles might have told Boris to shove it. Someone needs to! And when Charles becomes King, things might very well change with the position of sovereign where Charles takes a more active role, steering away from his mother’s role as merely the recipient of flowers, being the subject of the singing of the national anthem, and hosting and rubbing shoulders with corrupt, dictatorial politicians, such as Boris Johnson. Chau.—el barrio rosa