[TLDR warning] So, what to do with the House of Lords? [This is my opinion, which will ironically put you to sleep, so please feel free to comment on/correct this nonsense.] SNP MP Pete Wishart recently described the House of Lords as an affront to democracy which Labour is stuffing...full of their cronies and donors. This echoes the wider view of the SNP, who officially oppose the HoL as a concept and thus have no Lords in it. Alex Salmonds rocks would melt quote springs to mind here. So the idea of replacing it with a senate which is wholly elected instead of appointed, as Labour leader Ed Miliband has recently suggested, must seem like a great idea to the SNP in principle, although of course they will instead be publicly (and perhaps quite rightly) claiming Mr Miliband will never follow through on that pledge. Having a fully elected House of Lords, a parliament.uk page says, would mandate its legislation scrutiny role and broaden out the variety of individuals who could appear in some ways - not least in terms of age; as a child, I believed the House of Lords was a retirement home for politicians. Of course, its not actually like that. Well, not quite. However, in my view, while Mr Milibands idea sounds great at first, having a fully elected second chamber could be quite problematic because - so my understanding of the arguments goes - it would be expensive because of the electoral process costs, it could cause a political deadlock as is so frequently the case with the United States electoral chambers now and it would place pressure on members to be populist like House of Commons politicians are, pushing bills through even if they genuinely believe the bills could be problematic or not in the national interest, in part due to the so-called tyranny of the majority. Now that last point is also important because its feared having a fully elected second chamber would give rise to a wave of career politicians - which, if Im not mistaken, SNP supporters dont particularly like - and cause the expertise and experience its many members often bring to the table to be flung out the window. In addition, if the House of Lords were completely abolished, leaving just the House of Commons to pass legislation, its not difficult to see why alarm bells could start ringing in the event of a majority government. Also, one of the great characteristics of Lords is that by the time most of them get there, they dont give a damn about adhering to a party line or appealing to the public anymore and will say whatever the hell they like. Again, they dont have to worry about their positions depending on public perceptions of them. Now, this I will give you: the House of Lords is by no means perfect. Im not terribly keen on the fact the HoL still has some hereditary peers and I think the fact that all Church of England bishops are allowed to contribute to those HoL debates is unacceptable; with respect to people of faith, laws aimed for people of all faiths and no faith in society should not be influenced by particular religious ideologies. However, as to whether the House of Lords as a whole should be fully appointed, half appointed and half elected, fully elected or abolished altogether is a more difficult question than I first thought. The idea of giving the people want they want all the time may seem to make perfect sense but making that principle absolute may be dangerous because the rights of minority groups in society could be placed at risk in the process, due to the aforementioned tyranny of the majority. Its also worth noting that the House of Lords can only delay or amend bills - they played a significant role in the altering of Labours anti-terrorism legislation in 2001, when fear of terrorism was riding high for obvious reasons - although their intervention did ultimately stop the passing of a mandatory ID card law in 2010. That was also Labours idea. So in summary, we do need to ask some difficult questions about whether the House of Lords is still fit for purpose today or is now in its dying days - a bit like some of the Lords are themselves, perhaps. Quick side note: Baroness Trumpington, who became an Internet legend for literally sticking two fingers up at a fellow peer who called her old - yes, really - is now 92. Gosh, shes hardy.
Posted on: Sat, 01 Nov 2014 23:17:58 +0000
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