WI Tony Blair Coverts To Catholicism While Still PM?

In RL, Tony Blair did not want to convert to Roman Catholicism until he was out of office to avoid any trouble. What if he decided to ignore the contraversity and convert to Catholicism while in office?
 

MrP

Banned
In RL, Tony Blair did not want to convert to Roman Catholicism until he was out of office to avoid any trouble. What if he decided to ignore the contraversity and convert to Catholicism while in office?

Is it not technically illegal? It would certainly bring to the forefront the discussion over whether one can be Catholic and PM. I suppose one might see certain Catholics who hold . . . twattish opinions about Muslims forced to reassess their positions. I don't mean to drag this into PC; I simply have a cousin who's a bit of a cock about such things.
 
*Ignorant Canuckian* Why would it be illegal for a Catholic to be PM? Granted it might be awkward for a Catholic to appoint Anglican bishops and the Archbishop of Canterbury, but is there anything actually illegal about it? IIRC a UK member once said that Lab would have more issues with this than the Tories...
 

MrP

Banned
*Ignorant Canuckian* Why would it be illegal for a Catholic to be PM? Granted it might be awkward for a Catholic to appoint Anglican bishops and the Archbishop of Canterbury, but is there anything actually illegal about it? IIRC a UK member once said that Lab would have more issues with this than the Tories...

Well, I cannot answer particularly well because I am pissed. However, it is precisely because of the matters you mention that there might be a problem. I do recall that there is at least a problem, but my inebriation prevents me delving far into the question.
 
Isn't this why there's a separation between state and church? I don't think the public would be happy to know you have to be religion x to be elected. What's religion got to do with politics?
 
In the UK, religion has nothing to do with politics, to the best of my limited knowledge in that area. With all the anti-discrimination legislation on the books, it would probably overrule whatever pre-20th century statute says otherwise.
 
While there's never been a Roman Catholic Prime Minister, there's no legal barrier to a Catholic becoming Prime Minister. This Parliamentary Note explains it:

The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 provided, among other things, that Catholics could sit and vote in either House of Parliament provided that they took, instead of the oaths of supremacy, allegiance and abjuration, a new inoffensively phrased oath of allegiance. While there is no longer any statutory bar on Roman Catholics becoming Prime Minister, there are issues arising from advice on ecclesiastical preferment that is given by the Prime Minister to the Crown. Special arrangements would have to be made to ensure that he or she did not advise the Crown directly or indirectly on Church of England appointments, doing so under the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829 remains a “high misdemeanour”. This particular aspect of Prime Ministerial duties could be delegated to another minister not similarly barred.

What it doesn't mention is that a Jewish Prime Minister would also be barred from making ecclesiastical appointments. So had either Iain Duncan Smith (Roman Catholic) or Michael Howard (Jewish) become prime minister it would have required someone else (presumably the Lord Chancellor) to make the appointments - or rather 'advise the sovereign'.
 
I'm surprised that hasn't been amended given how much Wilson and Blair legislated on social policy.

I think its just one of those things that they'll change when they need to.
Thats the way the British system works generally, all sorts of archaic laws in place but no one pays any attention to them, we just wing it.

Its like with succession to the crown.
Sweden has modernised their laws so the eldest child gets the crown- no matter if it is a girl or boy.
Britain hasn't had to do this yet, we've all boys in line. If King William's first kid turns out to be a girl though they'll do a quick change.
 
It's perfectly legal for a catholic to be PM. The issue of advising the monarch as to who should be appointed as a Bishop could be resolved by handing that responsibility to the Archbishop of Canterbury (where it should lie anyway in my opinion). Advise on who should be Archbishop of Canterbury could be handed to the General Synod

It is illegal for the monarch or heir to the throne to be catholic or married to a catholic. This also holds in all countries which have the British Monarch as their monarch also
 
IIRC Brown handed over many of the ecclesiastical duties directly to church officials anyways, meaning that a Blair style situation isn't technically possible in the future either.
 
It's perfectly legal for a catholic to be PM. The issue of advising the monarch as to who should be appointed as a Bishop could be resolved by handing that responsibility to the Archbishop of Canterbury (where it should lie anyway in my opinion). Advise on who should be Archbishop of Canterbury could be handed to the General Synod

As I said above, in the event of there being a Roman Catholic or Jewish Prime Minister the duty would simply pass to the Lord Chancellor (assuming he was not similarly barred - if so, it would probably pass along the Great Officers of State to the highest one able. At the moment, this would be the Lord President of the Council - Nick Clegg: an atheist, but as such, not barred from making ecclesiastical appointments). The only thing which makes this somewhat unclear is that it has never had to be tested, but this is the presumed constitutional process. As it is, it would probably make little to no difference, as the Prime Minister would not be barred from 'advising' the Lord Chancellor on how to advise the sovereign.
 
I'd imagine the PM would simply tell the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of England to just get on with running their own church. It might however set the wheels of a complete disestablishment in motion, which wouldn't really change much.
 
I'd imagine the PM would simply tell the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Church of England to just get on with running their own church. It might however set the wheels of a complete disestablishment in motion, which wouldn't really change much.

Since we've already had a Jewish PM, I don't see why a Catholic PM should lead to disestablishment of the CoE.
 
As I said above, in the event of there being a Roman Catholic or Jewish Prime Minister the duty would simply pass to the Lord Chancellor (assuming he was not similarly barred - if so, it would probably pass along the Great Officers of State to the highest one able. At the moment, this would be the Lord President of the Council - Nick Clegg: an atheist, but as such, not barred from making ecclesiastical appointments). The only thing which makes this somewhat unclear is that it has never had to be tested, but this is the presumed constitutional process.

It has actually come up before, but with nonconformist prime ministers rather than Catholic ones (though the principle is the same). The usual procedure is that the prime minister delegates the job to a senior Anglican in the cabinet (though it's not compulsory - Mrs Thatcher is a Methodist, am I'm pretty sure she handled this herself).
 
Isn't this why there's a separation between state and church? I don't think the public would be happy to know you have to be religion x to be elected. What's religion got to do with politics?
Considering the status of Church of England, I'm pretty sure that Britain doesn't have separation of church and state.
 
It has actually come up before, but with nonconformist prime ministers rather than Catholic ones (though the principle is the same). The usual procedure is that the prime minister delegates the job to a senior Anglican in the cabinet (though it's not compulsory - Mrs Thatcher is a Methodist, am I'm pretty sure she handled this herself).

It hasn't come up before, because it is only Catholics and Jews who are barred from making ecclesiastical appointments, because of when the law was made - as a result, all other non-Anglican, non-Catholic, non-Jewish Prime Ministers have been able to make ecclesiastical appointments. The Better Regulation Executive proposed making the legislation more relevant to the multitude of faiths practiced in the UK by barring all non-Anglicans from making ecclesiastical appointments, but their idea was rejected in 2008.
 
Top