A letter to the Daily Telegraph which was published on 26th May 2014

In his perceptive article on how foreign London has become, Charles Moore mentions that many of the capital’s residents are “not British citizens and therefore cannot vote”.

In fact, all Commonwealth, EU and Irish citizens are permitted to vote in local and European Parliament elections.

Commonwealth citizens can vote in British general elections as well, a hangover from the Empire. In London around two million of the 5.5 million electors (36 per cent) are foreigners, a situation without parallel in any other country in the world.

A first step to making London a bit less of a foreign city would be to remove the bias in favour of continued high levels of immigration by restricting voting entitlement to British citizens only, fully accepting that this will only be possible in respect of European Union nationals when Britain leaves that organisation.

A letter to the Sunday Times, the first paragraph of which was published on 1st May 2011.

Rather than barring Catholics specifically from the throne, the 1701 Act of Settlement stipulates British sovereigns be “heirs of the body of the Princess Sophia, Electress of Hanover, being Protestant” (“Race is on to change law of succession”, News, April 17).  The act thus excludes all those who are not of the Protestant faith, not just Catholics.  This is consistent with the requirement that the sovereign is also the supreme governor of the Church of England.

It is also not the case as stated in the article that “endorsement” is required from the Commonwealth of any changes in the succession law.  It is entirely a matter for the 16 realms which retain the British monarch as their Head of State to decide individually.  This is because Headship of the Commonwealth itself is a quite separate matter: there is no formal provision for that post to be filled by the British monarch after the present Queen.

A letter to the Times which was published on 31st March 2009.

William Rees-Mogg (Comment, Mar. 30th) perpetuates two common errors about the Act of Settlement and its possible amendment.  The Act stipulates that British sovereigns shall be “heirs of the body of the Electress Sophia of Hanover, being Protestant”.  The Act thus excludes from the throne all those who are not of the Protestant (Christian) religion, not just Roman Catholics.

If any amendment of the Act were seriously contemplated, it would not require “the whole of the Commonwealth to agree”.  It would require the agreement of only those countries which retained the British monarch as their head of state at the time of the change (16 at present).

Headship of the Commonwealth itself is a quite separate matter; there is no formal provision for that post to be filled by the British monarch after the present Queen.

A letter to the Editor of the Daily Telegraph which was published on 5th June 1992.

While those few of us who have fought for years against the loss of British self-government to the EC welcome all converts to our cause, it is a pity that the majority of those 100 or so Tory MPs signing the motion welcoming Denmark’s decision to veto the Maastricht Treaty did not find the courage to vote aginst the second reading of the Maastricht Bill last week.

The Prime Minister’s absurd decision to press on with ratification is additional evidence, if any were needed, that Euroism is more to do with politicians’ job opportunities than those of our young people, 800,000 of whom are out of work.

Europe, in fact, has become both the reason and the excuse for doing nothing about the related and endemic problems of unemployment, the shrinkage of our manufacturing industry and our mounting trade deficit.

To solve these problems needs, among other things, heavy concentration on those markets of the world which are growing rapidly – and these happen to be mainly on the Pacific rim where the majority of the world’s manufacturing capacity is situated.

This is not to neglect European markets, but to recognise that the major expansion of Britain’s trade there has already taken place. The fastest rate of expansion of British exports to a major economy in the last few years has, in fact, been to Japan.

Such a refocusing of Britain’s priorities should include the Commonwealth. Here Britain, with its unique ties of kinship and history, has an opportunity to influence that important section of the Third World which we know most about towards an effective relationship with the First – the necessity of which the Rio Conference demonstrates.