Madam, - David Adams (Opinion, July 20th) in criticising Pope Benedict XVI for privately lecturing Tony Blair on British legislation regarding abortion and rights of adoption for gay couples, claims that Britain is neither a dictatorship nor a theocracy, but a liberal democracy. I would argue otherwise.
The Act of Settlement of 1701 remains the cornerstone of the British constitution. It places the British monarch in a privileged position as the unelected supreme governor of the Church of England, 26 of whose bishops are appointed to the House of Lords by the reigning monarch. The Act lays down that only Protestant heirs may take the British throne. Neither Catholics, nor those who marry a Catholic, nor those born out of wedlock may remain in the line of succession.
Sons also take precedence over daughters and the right of succession belongs to the eldest son, therefore institutionalising religious discrimination and male primogeniture. To copperfasten this anachronistic Act, elected members of the House of Commons are barred from debating the role of the monarchy.
This unelected head of church and state is also colonel-in-chief of all the regiments of the British army. The British monarch has the power to dismiss parliament and appoint prime ministers, bishops and governors, and can confer honours and peerages on selected subjects. Surely any society which accepts the principle that some are born to rule while others are born to be ruled cannot be regarded as a democracy, liberal or otherwise. - Yours, etc,
TOM COOPER,
Delaford Lawn,
Knocklyon,
Dublin 16.