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# New bid to reform monarchy
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/new-bid-to-reform-monarchy/
- Published: 2009-01-21T20:01:14.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:42:38.000Z
- Author: Tom Griffin
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:49

**Tom Griffin (London,** [**OK**](https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom)**):** Liberal Democrat MP Dr Evan Harris has announced that he is to table a Commons motion to [reform the Act of Settlement](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk%5Fpolitics/7841414.stm?ref=opendemocracy.net). Evans proposals would allow the sovereign to marry a Catholic and let women to take equal precedence in the line of succession.

Writing in his Telegraph blog, Holy Smoke, Catholic Herald editor [Damian Thompson](http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/damian%5Fthompson/blog/2009/01/21/evan%5Fharris%5Flet%5Fme%5Ftell%5Fyou%5Fwhere%5Fyou%5Fcan%5Fshove%5Fyour%5Fattempt%5Fto%5Freform%5Fthe%5Fact%5Fof%5Fsettlement?com%5Fnum=20&com%5Fpg=2&ref=opendemocracy.net) is not impressed:

*Dr Evan Harris, the Lib Dem MP nicknamed "Dr Death" for his creepy determination to make late-term abortions and euthanasia more widely available, now has a new cause: he wants to* [*remove the ban on the heir to the throne marrying a Catholic*](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk%5Fpolitics/7841414.stm?ref=opendemocracy.net)*.*

You know something? Catholics don't want to be liberated from this constitutional discrimination by a politician who advocates an end to the requirement that any abortion requires the consent of two doctors, arguing that the "procedure" can carried out by a nurse or even in the home.

Perhaps the alternative conclusion is that Dr Harris's obvious differences with the Catholic Church make his opposition to discrimination all the more principled.