SIR – I am pleased that Parliament has agreed to change the rules surrounding royal succession and that they now recognise that royal women should be treated equally.

Maybe it is also time to start to modernise other parts of the constitution.

I have long believed the Oath of Allegiance to the crown needs to be changed.

Public officials and elected representatives are there to serve the people, not the Queen.

In a democracy it should be us, not the Windsors, to whom our politicians, police, Armed Forces and judges swear allegiance.

It is perhaps the parliamentary oath which is most offensive.

It is the people of a constituency who freely choose someone to represent them in Parliament, yet when that person arrives in Westminster they are forced to take an oath not to their electorate but to the monarch.

Surely, this must change or be reformed so we can clearly see that those who represent us have an allegiance to the people or to the country, not to just one family.

RICHARD UDALL

Worcestershire county councillor