Prime Minister calls for updated rules on the monarchy
November 26, 2009
In a move that many see as a way of diverting the public’s attention from Labours plummeting popularity, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has announced plans to update the British Monarchy. During Prime Minister’s Questions in parliament this week he said that rules put in place to deal with succession to the throne were out of date. He said that he wished to reform the rules on heirs to the throne not being able to marry Roman Catholics and also to do away with conventions that meant women did not have equal rights with men. Gordon Brown claimed that most people realised that the 1701 Act of Settlement was outdated and that the rules governing succession needed to be redrawn.
The Tory opposition has attacked Labour for dwelling on issues that are not very important at a time when the country is still suffering the effects of the global economic meltdown, prisons are overcrowded and British troops are still under attack in Afghanistan. The Liberal Democrats have said that they will support Brown’s ideas for reform and have urged him to carry on. Representatives of the Palace claim that they have had nothing to do with the Prime Ministers recommendations and say that it is all purely a government initiative.
Mr. Brown says that he intends to discuss the issues at the upcoming Commonwealth summit in Trinidad and Tobago. If the rules on succession are changed then it would mean that the Queen’s second eldest child, Princess Anne would find herself elevate from tenth in line for the throne to fourth.
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