Letter: The MPs' oath

Sir: I take issue with your leader "Not fit to sit in Parliament? It is the oath that is not fit" (5 December). In taking an oath of allegiance to the Queen a Member of Parliament makes no statement about his views on the monarchy. He recognises a fact: the Queen is the head of state of the nation in whose governance he has been elected to take a part.

His intentions may well be to change that system, but by choosing the route of democracy he has chosen to recognise the current state of the system as a starting point.

It is spurious to make comparisons with amendments permitting those who do not believe in God to affirm their allegiance rather than to use the name of a deity in whose existence they do not believe: the Queen is head of state; belief in the Christian or any other god is a matter of opinion.

MEGAN C ROBERTSON

Crewe, Cheshire