Another cold day. Began it with a run in the park. Snow still much in evidence and roads very icy. Into the House where I grabbed a coffee and went to read through my speech on Succession to the Crown Bill. This is ill-thought out and driven by political correctness, as the debate proved. The Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister were both out of their depth and were deliciously torn apart by constitutional expert Jacob Rees-Mogg MP. Other MPs also waded in and the debate really did show that the Government has not thought this through. Sadly, and as I said in my speech, nearly 700 years of history were trampled over in one day, effectively. Nicholas Soames made a good speech, highlighting our ancient laws and traditions which we change at our detriment. The debate went on until after 7pm. The other big issue of the day was a further round of redundancies in our armed services. These are very high risk and I disagree with them vehemently. The defence of our country is our top priority and with trouble spots bubbling up around the world, not least north Africa, how on earth are we going to meet all our commitments? I appreciate money is short, but we simply have to take money from other pots to ensure our armed services are properly manned. The overseas aid budget springs immediately to mind. I believe the Government and the country will rue the day we made these cuts, just like our predecessors did. We never seem to learn from history.