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Royal Marriages and Succession to the Crown (Prevention of Discrimination) Bill

I agree. Generally, we should tread carefully when we seek to make major constitutional changes. It may well be that the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon is on the money and doing the right thing and that it all makes perfect sense. I am just not convinced that we have considered all the implications or sufficiently understood how complicated it could all be to deliver. We should tread more carefully and not rush headlong into giving the issue further consideration in Committee. If the Government are true in coming forward with their own proposals, they can take their time. The Bishop of Winchester was trenchant in his views about the impact that the measures would have on the constitution; he even questioned whether the position of the Crown as the head of the established Church might be affected. In his contribution to the debate, he quoted Lord Campbell of Alloway, who pointed out:""There is the need, approached in part in the Statute of Westminster Act 1931, to maintain a uniform succession to the throne by ensuring that precisely the same rules govern that succession in each of the independent monarchies of which Her Majesty is Queen…any change in those rules would have to be precisely replicated in the law of each of…the…other Commonwealth countries". —[Official Report, House of Lords, 14 January 2005; Vol. 668, c. 501.]"