The Spectator’s Notes | 26 May 2012

At a parliamentary committee on Tuesday, Nick Clegg said that if the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were to have a first-born girl, she would succeed to the throne in preference to any subsequent brothers. This rule would apply even if the proposed law to change the succession had not yet been passed. The reason for this, according to the Deputy Prime Minister, is that the change was agreed last October at a meeting of Commonwealth prime ministers in Perth in Australia. This was an extraordinary thing to say, because it is not, constitutionally, true. The succession is a matter of law, not of the generally expressed preference of political big-wigs, and until it is changed by law, it has not changed. The atmosphere at the committee was all giggly on the subject, but history shows that an unsettled succession can cause war. The Diamond Jubilee celebrated next week is a pretty strong reminder of the value of getting it right.