If your home is broken into the British Prime Minister and his counterparts in 15 former colonies will worry about whether the burglars divide their takings equitably. They will not give a damn about your losses. That, at least, seems to be what can be concluded from the decision of those countries that share Britain’s hereditary head of state to reform the institutionalised inequality that is the British monarchy. If the reform is implemented female members of the Windsor clan, which benefits from the most egregious privileges, will have equal status when their brothers when a new head of state is needed. But while the female Windsors will no longer suffer from discrimination, millions of citizens of both sexes will – they will not be eligible to hold their country’s highest public office in any circumstances.
The proposed changes will also allow the hereditary head of state to marry a Catholic.
In an absurd attempt to make feudalism seem modern and progressive Prime Minister David Cameron told the news media that “This is a simple act of modernization and one that is right for our time. . . . The great strength of our constitutional approach is its ability to evolve. Attitudes have changed fundamentally over the centuries, and some of the outdated rules, like some of the rules of succession, just don’t make sense to us any more.”
The New Zealand republican movement did not see it that way, reacting with contempt and saying
“The proposed changes . . . are irrelevant to every day New Zealanders, just like the monarchy itself. The changes, to remove the sexist rules from the succession, only remind us how long the monarchy has discriminated against women and Catholics . . . These aren’t just out of date rules about which Windsor will assume the British throne. They’re a statement about our constitution and about who is and who isn’t allowed to be New Zealand’s head of state.”
The British Republic group pointed out that Britain was embarrassing itself by confusing feudal privilege and gender equality. “This is not an equality issue” it told the Financial Times. “The monarchy is based on discrimination and elitism. The idea that the UK is fretting about who comes first in the line of succession is just embarrassing.”.