High Hedges and Lèse Majesté
I'm away for the next fortnight. I'm not off to the Costa Del Sol but if I was I'd breathe a sigh of relief that Spain is not in the throes of a constitutional crisis. I am not referring here to the resurgence in ETA violence, but the fraught question of whether a Catholic or a Protestant might ever succeed King Juan Carlos the First.
Okay, I haven't been wasting a lot of time worrying about whether the Prince of Asturias will one day be thwarted from his destiny of becoming his Catholic majesty. But I am glad to see that the Imperial Orange Council has been pondering the matter on my behalf.
In a statement just released the Council says "we believe that if the Act of Settlement was changed to allow a monarch who was from the Roman Catholic tradition, it could provoke a constitutional crisis. They would be effectively serving two masters, as the head of the Roman Catholic Church is also a head of another state and the relationship between Church and State is not clearly defined."
They are referring, of course, to the UK but later the Council makes a few international comparisons. "The UK is not the only country in Europe where religious matters inform Royalty. In Spain in 2001 a precondition of marriage into the Royal Family was that the person had to change their religion to be Roman Catholic before she was allowed to do so. Each country will have its own reasons for such situations."
I am looking forward to the Order's "Save Spain From Protestantism" campaign.
By the time I get back from leave it should almost be hedge cutting time. I know this because whilst Ian Paisley Junior, in Policing Board mode, expressed his disappointment about the closure of 26 police stations, he was also, in Agriculture Committee chair mode, sending out an e-mail voicing his dismay over the discrepancy in hedge cutting dates between Northern Ireland and Scotland and England.
Ian Jr. is not convinced that the or need as much protection as the Agriculture Minister Michelle Gildernew thinks they do. He reckons we should be chopping hedges right now instead of waiting until the end of August.
Of course this isn't the only dispute over dates between republicans and unionists. In my imagination I can picture a complex autumn negotiation between the DUP and Sinn Fein, which could see a concession on the timing of devolution of justice in return for a reciprocal move on the Bull Finch or the Song Thrush. I am obviously in need of a break. In my absence Martina Purdy will be blogging here and I trust her comments will be far more sensible than mine.
I'm 
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