Reader's Letter Of The Day

From The Metro (26 November 2012, page 14):

Joe Alvarex said David Cameron's stand on the failure of the Church of England to approve female bishops is 'disrespectful and risks huting the independence of an important institution'.

I'm afraid he is wrong. The Church and state are not separate in this country. They are linked together. This is seen most clearly in the House of Lords, where 26 bishops sit as the Lords Spiritual.

If the Church is to have a say in the laws of this country, it should have to stick by those same laws and not be exempt from equality legislation. Bishops are allocated 26 seats in parliament - where females are woefully under-represented - that women don't have a change of filling.

While the Church has the opportunity to influence our laws, then we should have the right to demand equality from it.

Sheila Fairlamb, London.