New Privy Councillors of the United Kingdom

Her Majesty the Queen approved the following people members of Her Majesty’s most Honourable Privy Council.

Mr Robert Buckland QC MP
Mr Alister Jack MP
Mr Robert Jenrick MP
The Honourable Jacob Rees-Mogg MP
Mr Alok Sharma MP
Mr Jake Berry MP
Mr Oliver Dowden CBE MP
Mr Joseph Johnson MP
Mr Kwasi Kwarteng MP
Mr Mark Spencer MP
Mr Rishi Sunak MP

New Member of the United Kingdom Privy Council

Her Majesty the Queen approved the following person member of Her Majesty’s most Honourable Privy Council.

Ms Elizabeth Saville Roberts MP

New Privy Councillors of the United Kingdom

Her Majesty the Queen approved the following people members of Her Majesty’s most Honourable Privy Council.

Ms Diane Abbott MP
Mr Richard Benyon MP
Ms Emily Thornberry MP

New Privy Councillors of the United Kingdom

Her Majesty the Queen approved the following people members of Her Majesty’s most Honourable Privy Council.

Ms Karen Bradley MP
The Rt Hon. Baroness Evans of Bowes Park
Mr Boris Johnson MP
Mrs Andrea Leadsom MP

New Member of the United Kingdom Privy Council

Her Majesty the Queen approved the following person member of Her Majesty’s most Honourable Privy Council.

Mr Jeremy Corbyn MP

New Privy Councillors of the United Kingdom

Her Majesty the Queen approved the following people members of Her Majesty’s most Honourable Privy Council.

Mr Angus Robertson MP
Ms Gisela Stuart MP

New Member of the United Kingdom Privy Council

Her Majesty the Queen approved the following person member of Her Majesty’s most Honourable Privy Council.

Mr James Brokenshire MP

Knighthood for Eric Pickles MP

Her Majesty The Queen has conferred a knighthood upon The Rt Hon. Eric Pickles MP for his service to Parliament.

New Privy Councillors of the United Kingdom

Her Majesty the Queen approved the following people members of Her Majesty’s most Honourable Privy Council.

The Rt Hon. The Lord Astor of Hever DL
The Rt Hon. The Lord Bates
The Rt Hon. The Lord Feldman
The Rt Hon. The Lord Freud
Mr Robert Halfon MP
Mr Mark Harper MP
Mr Edward Llewellyn OBE MP
Ms Priti Patel MP
Ms Amber Rudd MP
Ms Anna Soubry MP
Mr John Whittingdale OBE MP
Mr Gavin Williamson MP
Mr Andrew Tyrie MP

Life Peerage for Former Clerk of the House of Commons

Sir Robert James Rogers KCB has been granted the title of Baron Lisvane, of Blakemere in the County of Herefordshire and of Lisvane in the City and County of Cardiff. Under the Life Peerage Act 1958 and will sit in the House of Lords as a Crossbencher.

New Privy Councillors of the United Kingdom

Her Majesty the Queen approved the following people members of Her Majesty’s most Honourable Privy Council.

Mr Norman Baker MP
Mr Stephen Crabb MP
Ms Lynne Featherstone MP
Mr Matthew Hancock MP
Mr Norman Lamb MP
The Rt Hon. The Baroness Stowell of Beeston MBE
Mrs Elizabeth Truss MP
Mr Steve Webb MP
Mr Jeremy Wright MP

KCMG for Former Minister of State of Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The Rt Hon. Hugh Robertson MP has been appointed Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (KCMG) for his service as Minister of State of Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

KCMG for Former Minister of State of International Development

The Rt Hon. Alan Duncan MP has been appointed Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (KCMG) for his service as Minister of State of International Development.

Veteran Conservative MP becomes a Companion of Honour

Her Majesty the Queen has appointed The Rt Hon. Kenneth Clarke QC MP a member of the Order of Companions of Honour (CH) for his service to the Nation.

New Privy Councillors of the United Kingdom

Her Majesty the Queen approved the following people members of Her Majesty’s most Honourable Privy Council.

Ms Annette Brooke OBE MP
The Rt Hon The Viscount Thurso MP

State Opening of Parliament 2014

The State Opening of Parliament for the 2014/15 session Parliament will take place on 3rd June 2014.

Former Minister Removed from the Privy Council

Former Minister of State for Europe Mr Denis MacShane has been removed by Her Majesty the Queen from the Privy Council.

Mr MacShane resigned as a Member of Parliament after the Parliaments Standards and Privileges Committee found 19 false invoices for expenses. Mr MacShane has been charged with False Accounting under the Theft Act 1968 and now awaits trial.

Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council have taken recent events into account and have ordered his name to be removed from the list of Members of Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council.

Succession to the Crown Bill Presented to the British Parliament

Today the Succession to the Crown bill was put before the House of Commons by the Deputy Prime Minster Nick Clegg. The Bill outlines the biggest change to the royal succession since the Act of Settlement in 1701, allowing only the descendants of Sophia of Hanover to inherit the British throne. The first point of the bill changes the succession law from Male-Preference Primogeniture to Equal Primogeniture meaning whoever is eldest will inherit the throne regardless of their gender. The practice of Equal Primogeniture is not uncommon adopted by Sweden in 1980, Netherlands in 1983, Norway in 1990, Belgium in 1991, Denmark in 2009 and in Luxembourg in 2011.The proposed change regarding gender will be back dated to the 28th of October 2011 when all 16 commonwealth realms agreed to change the laws of succession, this means royals born before the 28th will follow the old rules of succession.

The second point of the bill is concerning the rules about royals marring someone of the Roman Catholic faith. The law currently states that if a person in the royal succession marries a person who is of the Roman Catholic faith at the time of their marriage, they are disqualified from the succession. Under the proposed bill royals who marry Roman Catholics will not lose their place in the line of succession. The bill will also be retrospective to living royals who married Roman Catholics before this bill was presented meaning royals like Prince Michael of Kent, who married his Roman Catholic wife in 1978 will regain his entitlement to a place in line to the throne. However the bill does not repel the law that disqualifies a royal who becomes Roman Catholic from inheriting the throne.

The Third point of the bill regards the sovereign giving consent to a royal marriage under the Royal Marriages Act 1772. The law currently states that no descendant of George II other than the issue of Princesses who married or may marry into “foreign families” shall be capable of contracting matrimony without the previous consent of the sovereign signified under the great seal, declared in council, and entered in the Privy Council books. Every Marriage of any such descendant, without such consent, shall be null and void. Under the Proposed bill, the first six people in line to the throne will need the consent of the Sovereign signified under the great seal, declared in council, and entered in the Privy Council books. The failure to comply will result in that person and their descendants being disqualified from succeeding to the Crown. The current six people in line to the throne are:
1. Prince Charles, Prince of Wales
2. Prince William, Duke of Cambridge
3. Prince Henry of Wales
4. Prince Andrew, Duke of York
5. Princess Beatrice of York
6. Princess Eugenie of York

The fourth point of the bill is to repel the Royal Marriages Act 1772.

The fifth point of the bill concerns the Royal Marriages Act 1772 all marriages voided under act will be treated as never having been voided.

The proposed bill will make amendments to the Bill of Rights, Act of Settlement 1701, Act of Union with Scotland 1706, Act of Union with England 1707, Act of Union with Ireland 1800 and the Act of Union (Ireland) 1800.

If the proposed bill becomes law it will be known as the Succession to the Crown Act 2013.

Similar legislation will need to be passed in the Parliaments of the other 15 commonwealth realms listed below.
Antigua and Barbuda
Australia
The Bahamas
Barbados
Belize
Canada
Grenada
Jamaica
New Zealand
Papua New Guinea
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Solomon Islands
Tuvalu

This bill, if passed will change the face of the Royal Family forever. By bringing the Monarchy in to the 21st Century we change an institution at the heart of our nation. My personnel opinion is how do you change an institution that has stood for a thousand years? I worry that this bill may break the dam and allow a flood of bills that may change the monarchy into something we won’t recognise and make the monarchy seem unneeded in the 21st Century, leading one day to a British republic. I hope not.