Written by THERE has, rightly, been much outrage over the vote by the Church of England synod not to let women become bishops.
An e-petition has been launched to expel the House of Lords’ 25 bishops because their presence transgresses the spirit of gender equality (the Church, ludicrously, is exempt from legal prosecution on this issue).
But what about the 92 Lords who (equally ludicrously) still sit in the upper chamber by virtue of their birth? That anachronistic privilege still goes to the oldest male; for a woman to get a look in, she would have to have no brothers.
It is just another example of our revising chamber being bonkers. It comprises 810 members (according to its website), the biggest such chamber in the democratic world: there are only 100 US senators.
Proven criminals like perjurer Archer and fraudster Black are allowed to sit in it and, because the CoE is “established”, other religions do not have members there by right (although the current Chief Rabbi was selected for a seat).
If this was a set-up in another country we would sneer at its absurdity. I know political expediency has now kicked Lords reform far into the long grass: the mantra is that the country cannot be distracted from tackling its economic travails.
But this farce cannot be allowed to continue much longer. It really can’t. And of course the Church should be disestablished. It’s what Jesus would have wanted.
