The age-old issue of an heir to the throne being unable to marry a Roman Catholic has come to the fore again. A number of MPs in the House of Commons, including Andrew MacKinlay and John Grogan from the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee, have been trying to gain support for a Bill which would bring an end to this antiquated state of affairs.

The 1701 Act of Settlement was a piece of legislation that was passed in the particular political and religious circumstances of those times. Those days, however, are long gone, and the United Kingdom |requires a modern solution for modern people.

Currently the law prevents heirs to the British throne from marrying a Catholic, but not from marrying members of other religions, or even atheists. Thus if the former Mrs Camilla Parker-Bowles had been a Catholic, she could not have married Prince Charles.

Another outdated stipulation is the requirement for a female in succession to the throne to step aside in favour of her younger brothers. This applies cur

rently to Princess Anne, and this ancient law could have prevented the Queen herself from taking the throne if she had had younger brothers. What a loss that would have been to the public life of this country.

Even to mention the absurdities of such legal bars to the succession is an indication of the need to deal with such outdated legislation. In a modern world where the former British Prime Minister converted to Catholicism, and where clerical and lay Catholics play a vital role in the life of the nation, there is no argument for maintaining the status quo.

No doubt there are people in Northern Ireland

who would view such a change with suspicion, but they too must move with the times. We live in a multi-cultural society, and an early 18th century law that discriminates against Catholics and women is simply out of date.

The Prime Minister has indicated that he is willing to remove such “discrimination”, and it has emerged that talks have been opened between representatives of the Government and of Buckingham Palace in an attempt to deal with these anachronisms.

However, Gordon Brown has warned that this is a complex legal issue, and he rightly pointed out that

this has been a matter for discussion, and even of controversy, over very many years. In fact, the issues are so complex that he will be raising the implications of any changes when he meets other Commonwealth leaders in November.

The main objective, of course, is to find a solution that would safeguard the monarchy and the role of the Queen — and her successors — as head of the established Church of England. Even this latter position might change, depending on the future status of the Church of England itself, which is under enormous pressure for change.

The Prime Minister already captured the public mood on this complex issue of the succession when he said that “in the 21st century, people do expect discrimination to be removed and they do expect us to be looking at these issues”. Quite so. The 1701 Act was fit for purpose more then three centuries ago, but not so today. Mr Brown and the Government, and their legal and constitutional advisers, should move to clear up this mess which should have been sorted out by others a long time ago.