Contempt of Parliament

To the Editor of the Times (London),

Dear Sir,
   The Queen has indeed charged her ministers (and not the House of Commons) with the task of formulating policy and managing the day to day running of the country. But the Queen, though the monarch, is not the sovereign; the sovereign is Parliament.
   This status and hierarchy was established in the Civil War of 1642 — 1649. In some countries these battles for supremacy have to be fought every few few decades by successive generations. (See, for example, France.)  In England we have been spared such traumatic struggles by simply remembering the Civil War and its outcome. Let us continue to remember.
   Yours sincerely, Ian West