Minor British Institutions: The Privy Council
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The Privy Council keeps paranoid types, well, paranoid. This is because it is possible, in a political-thriller sort of way, to imagine how the Queen could dismiss her ministers, "prorogue" (or discontinue) Parliament and rule through her Privy Council. Which is how we used to be run, and Her Majesty's Privy Council is a quaint leftover from those days.
Nowadays it has only ceremonial powers, but it can stop you getting hanged in some Caribbean territories, and has "purview" over royal chartered bodies such as universities. The majority of its activities are a harmless waste of Privy Counsellors' time, but in return they, usually important politicos, get to call themselves "Right Honourable".
They can talk to each other on "Privy Council" terms, which presumably is when they speak the truth: hence the wording of the Council's oath, which dates back to Tudor times, to "keep secret all matters ... revealed unto you, or that shall be treated of secretly in Council". Feeling paranoid now?
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments