A question for the Brits

[reprise]

While reading a thread about how many women have had the power to launch a nuclear strike yesterday, I noticed that Margaret Thatcher was included in the list.

In Australia, it is our Governor-General - not our Prime Minister - who is our Commander-in-Chief.

So my question is whether the monarch or the British PM is the Commander-in-Chief of your armed forces, because if it's the monarch then QEII has had her "finger on the button" for a very long time.

[Seismosaurus]

It's the PM. The Queen may be the commander in chief in some ceremonial sense - I don't know. But the Prime Minister is the one with his or her finger on the button.

[Jon_in_london]

Actually, its the queen- who passes the power on to the PM by royal warrant. Part of our bizarre and arcane system of government. Designed to overawe the prols' no doubt.

So in theory both of them but in reality its the PM.