[rkosk]

Victoria didn't decree anything. There was a commission set up by the government a year or two before the Great Exhibition to oversee things and the purchasing of land and funding for construction was subject to parliamentary debate and approval.

Your comment about the Mulberry harbours is quite baffling. Are you seriously suggesting that a modern day military operation on the scale of Overlord would be subject to local consultations?

[crop_rotation]

> Victoria didn't decree anything.

I think there is a tradition in the UK to assign all government actions to be by the crown. As if the crown takes decisions on everything and everyone else just recommends.

[rsynnott]

… No, insofar as anything like that exists it’s the _crown_, not the person, but no, no-one really thinks of it like that.