V
Villan Of The North
Guest
The Fear - 22/9/2013 11:12
I'd need to see the structure of the plan BBJ, but instinctively against the house of lords and the ruling from hereditary peers, people of privileged and indeed, the Church.
Should really have gone years ago or seen a more radical reform.
I think a second house is more or less essential to temper executive power. I also like the fact that they are not elected. I know that some will see this as anti-democratic but as executive power lies with the elected parliament I see no issue with this. The fact that it's not elected means that the Lords is in a unique position to be the conscience of government, not dependant on either contributions for business or unions or concerned with re-election.
I do think there is room for reform though, I totally agree that there should be a separation of state and Church, so no bishops should be in there, and I also am dubious about hereditary peerages voting. Similarly, life peerages can be stacked by the sitting government so that has its flaws too.
In essence I think it's good to allow hereditary peers to sit in the Lords as an independent voice, they will have their own views, admittedly many politically biased, but will not be beholden to anyone, their input could be invaluable but for them to vote purely by right of birth is on morally unstable ground as they have done nothing to earn it. Life peers should be the voting members of the Lords but there should be some sort of control on the appointments process to prevent a government "stacking" the Lords with former MPs and other party members.
Alternatively, members of the second house could be elected for life, meaning that we would have a fixed number of seats and when one dies or retires (should there be a mandatory retirement age from the Lords?) a new mandate is elected. These elections could be directly geographically elected, like the commons, or based on a national vote, when two or more mandates are being elected a form of PR being used. It can be useful to avoid local interests and using a PR system would be a good way of keeping things on a national interest level.
Just a few thought there, not too radical but certainly more democratic tan the current system whilst, I believe, maintaining an independent check on the Commons.