Registered: 21/05/1999
Posts: 5335
Loc: Cambridge UK
The Queen has a political function but choose to hand responsility for its execution to the Prime Minister. In practice the Queen is a figurehead.
The royal family have two main uses now:
1. Attracting tourism - a LOT of it
2. International diplomacy (although the Japanese might not agree)
Their surname is Windsor, or Windsor-Mountbatten in full. It's got nothing on Hugo's full surname (no, I can't, he'll kill me, you'll have to google for it!).