In a new demonstration of its commitment to equal opportunities the government has announced that it will end discrimination against female members of the Windsor family. A sixteenth century law currently gives male family members precedence over older sisters for the office of head of state.
Solicitor General Vera Baird is reported to have called the feudal law “a load of rubbish”. Lynne Featherstone of the Liberal Democrat party agreed that it should be “confined to the dustbin of history”.
The government has not indicated that it intends to legislate to end the discrimination that bars females and males who are not members of the Windsor family from the country’s chief public office.
Nor is it believed that it intends to abolish laws that ban republicans from serving in parliament, the police and the armed forces.
Britain’s feudal constitution requires that the head of state be a northern European and a member of the Church of England. Ms. Baird’s opinion as to whether this is “a load of rubbish” has not been reported.