Scottish independence: An opportunity to end religious
discrimination in succession to the throne.
Negotiations to achieve Scottish independence require
amendments to the Act of Union of 1707 and thus will provide an opportunity to
remove the religiously discriminatory nature of the current UK monarchy which
was built into the three centuries old legislation by negotiators from north
and south of the border. Such a step would be in accordance with the resolution
of the Scottish Parliament, agreed in 1999, to remove religious discrimination
from succession to the throne.
The Act of Union currently restricts succession to the
throne to Protestants and excludes Roman Catholics and members of other
religions from qualifying.
In a paper published in the latest issue of the Political Quarterly, Norman Bonney,
emeritus professor of Edinburgh Napier University, also states that the
negotiations over independence, could also require an end to the practice whereby
a new monarch is required to declare his or her protestant faith at the UK
parliament or at the coronation.
‘Scottish independence, state religion and the monarchy’ by
Norman Bonney is published in the latest issue of the Political Quarterly, 83,
2, April- June 2012, 360 -367.
