LONDON: Britain's government said Saturday it is taking formal steps toward changing the rules of royal succession so that if Prince William and Kate Middleton's first child is a girl she would eventually become queen. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the current rule that puts boys ahead of their sisters “would strike most people as a little old-fashioned.” It is less than two weeks until the prince and Middleton get married at London's Westminster Abbey. He is second in line to the throne after his father, Prince Charles. Clegg said the government is considering changing the rules so that if the couple's first child were a daughter, she would eventually inherit the throne, even if she had a younger brother. He stressed that such a change is a complex process that requires consultation with nations in the British Commonwealth – some of which recognize the British monarch as their head of state.
