Preparing for royalty, but not high office
The government looks set to allow left-footers to marry into the royal family. Too late for me, but there's hope for my nippers, says Dougal Paver.
Plans to redraw the Act of Settlement mark a major step forward in equality laws in the UK. And for a chunk of the population of Liverpool this is big news.
Let me explain: a portion of Liverpool society, as with most other cities, is obsessed with celebrity. It seemingly offers greater validation of an individual's worth than, say, the content of their character. And top of the celebrity tree sit the royal family.
And so the fact that 45% of Scousers were barred from marrying in to the Windsors merely by dint of their left-footed predilections (meaning they're Catholics) was a major hole in the aspirations of many. And now the government is putting right that wrong.
Is it a cynical electoral ploy? Possibly. These are desperate times for Labour. But as democrats you'd have to revel in the possibilities of Miss O'Shaughnessy (19) from Bootle capturing Prince William's heart and marching him up the aisle at St. Paul's Cathedral.
Of more use, however, would be the scrapping of the constitutional convention that means Catholics can't become prime minister.
Set aside the absurdity that the country might one day want me to be their leader; instead, focus on the injustice of the fact that even if they did, I couldn't.
Last time I checked I was British (it says so on my passport and birth certificate). I'm considered responsible enough to hold a Fire Arm Certificate. And they're happy to take a goodly few quid from me in tax. But allow the people to choose me to lead them? "No thanks, Paver, you're a dodgy Fenian."
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