However, I disagree with Hélène Mulholland and the report she cites: the wrecking of the House of Lords is not an unintended consequence. For some time now the Upper Chamber has been the only part of the British Constitution (oh yes, we do have one) that was still functioning. It has been undermined comprehensively by successive governments and their lackeys in the House but the final destruction is being carried out by the Cleggerons. And before anyone tells me that they should all be elected, anyway, let me remind my readers of the "hugely successful" elected Lower Chamber. There is more to constitutional democracy than elections.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
That, I suspect, was the aim
For some time now I have been saying that this government is rivalling the previous one in the creation of new peers. Today we are told by the Guardian that Cameron has overtaken Blair in this particular aspect of constitutional vandalism. The House is now seriously bloated and there is little room though, as before, few of the new peers do any actual work on committees (you don't get any payment for that).
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"...And before anyone tells me that they should all be elected, anyway, let me remind my readers of the "hugely successful" elected Lower Chamber. There is more to constitutional democracy than elections."
ReplyDeleteI wasn't about to disagree! None the less, do you have any thoughts on how to repair the upper house, should we ever find the political will to do so?
It is, of course, so much easier not to get into a mess than to get out of it. Tentatively I would suggest suspending even daily expenses for signing in the Chamber and letting anyone who wants to resign. But, of course, you will have to restore some kind of an expense system afterwards. There are no salaries for being in the House of Lords. Not sure where I would go really with this. Any ideas welcome.
ReplyDeleteGood post, Helen. As a suggestion, then I would have thought that a return to the hereditary principle would be preferable.
ReplyDeleteBefore Blair started mucking around with the House it was a mixture of hereditary peers and appointed ones. That seemed to work quite well.
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