A touch of scepticism marked the generally positive reaction here to the move to end gender discrimination in royal succession announced by Prime Minister David Cameron at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth on Friday with commentators pointing out that similar attempts in the past failed to make much headway.
Royal experts such as the author Robert Hardman recalled that there had been at least 11 attempts over the years to amend the 300-year-old Act of Settlement that bars an elder daughter to succeed to the throne and, instead, gives precedence to a younger male heir.
Most recently, Labour MP Keith Vaz tabled a bill in the House of Commons in January describing the change as “long overdue''. He said his bill could be used to push through the reforms announced by Mr. Cameron.
“As a society that values gender equality so highly, this is a long overdue,'' he said.
The latest move, ahead of the Queen's diamond jubilee celebrations next year, follows calls for modernising the monarchy with the arrival of a younger generation of princes and princesses on the scene.
The BBC said “with the arrival of Kate and William on the public stage, a sense of urgency has overtaken the drag of inertia''.
The Queen's reference to need for gender equality in public life in her opening speech to the Perth summit was seen as signalling her personal support for the move.
The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, welcomed plans to remove the ban on future monarchs marrying Roman Catholics saying Catholics had been victims of “unjust discrimination”.
Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond said it was “deeply disappointing” that Roman Catholics would still be unable to ascend to the throne. Calling it a “missed opportunity'', he said: “It surely would have been possible to find a mechanism which would have protected the status of the Church of England without keeping in place an unjustifiable barrier on the grounds of religion in terms of the monarchy.”
Legislation will be required in Britain and 16 other Commonwealth countries, which have the Queen as their head of state, to give effect to the proposed reforms.
