An article in the Sunday Times by Professor Richard Ekins and Sir Stephen Laws QC advised that the Monarch could withhold Royal Assent to a bill passed if advised to do so by ministers. Robert Craig has also argued for that position in a blog post, making clear why in his view that is the democratically legitimate position. Professors Mark Elliott and Thomas Poole both refute these views, but recognize a prima facie tension between a constitutional convention that the Monarch follow ministerial advice on the one hand, and a convention that the Monarch almost automatically give Royal Assent to duly passed bills on the other. Poole assumes for the sake of argument that they might be in conflict, and argues that were it so, the convention on Royal Assent would prevail. I agree with him so far as that argument goes. (Professor Poole also alludes to the view that…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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