William, Kate and the strange law of promogeniture

Reforming the Act of Succession may mean that if the first child of Prince William and Kate Middleton is a daughter, she will automatically become queen. 

There's no respect for age any more. Last week the chairman of the home affairs select committee, Keith Vaz, introduced a Commons motion to tackle the venerable 300-year-old Act of Succession: that's the one that says that if William and Kate have a daughter first, then a son, the throne will pass to the boy in preference to the girl. The usual policy, as those familiar with their British history will know, is that anyone ought to be better at ruling our great nation than a girl, even if they're mad, bedridden, dangerously stupid, or five years old.

But instead those mischievous MPs want to replace it under some sort of anti-discrimination clause that insists that a woman should have equal rights to a man. Luckily, the prime minister has recognised that this is a matter of the deepest seriousness that – unlike, say, dismantling the university system, or handing the NHS over to GPs – requires years to fully debate. It is, said his spokesman, "a complex and difficult matter that requires careful and thoughtful consideration", which is true, not least because you could easily mistake primogeniture for one of those face creams they sell at Boots.

Of course, it's nice that we no longer threaten to behead people like Vaz for high treason/blasphemy for effectively challenging the headship and thus the divinity of the crown.

But what's perhaps most notable about this latest attempt to drag themonarchy into the 21st century is that it really doesn't even make it past the 18th. It's the constitutional equivalent of making a computer out of cardboard.

Vaz may have tackled the sexism, but what about the ageism? Why should the eldest be the one to automatically get the job? If we really want a monarchy that's contemporarily relevant, surely it's about time all candidates – anyone in line to the throne – were sent off to Sir Alan for an Apprentice Special. That would be a real royal knockout.

Posted in: kate middleton