Archive for constitutional reform
Massive public support for elections to the House of Lords
A new public opinion polls shows that nearly three-quarters of the public (71%) wants elections introduced for the House of Lords. Unlock Democracy reports: On the question of whether the Lords should be elected or appointed, 71% said they supported a fully or at least partially elected second chamber, with the most popular response being [...]
Promising signs ahead of next Queen’s Speech
There wouldn’t normally appear to be much of a connection between private universities and House of Lords reform, but it is there in the process details of today’s news about the government dropping its plans for a bill to allow the creation of new private universities from the forthcoming Queen’s Speech. It makes for good [...]
Clegg: we will use Parliament Act to ensure Lords is reformed
In a speech to the Demos think tank today, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg will use some particularly robust language about seeing through House of Lords reform: There is a typical Westminster village cynicism that Lords reform is never going to happen because it has not happened in 100 years. I have no doubt that [...]
House of Lords reform: the next steps
As I mentioned when blogging Ming Campbell’s speech from Liberal Democrat conference, the motion in favour of Lords reform was passed overwhelmingly. That in itself was not a surprise, but that does not mean actually securing Lords reform will be easy. Two immediate ways you can support the campaign for House of Lords reform are: [...]
Ming Campbell urges Lib Dem peers to back Lords reforms
One of the speakers in the Lords reform debate at Liberal Democrat conference was former party leader Ming Campbell, who not only backed the plans for elections to a reformed upper house but also directly addressed the Lib Dem peers who have been talking of opposing the introduction of elections: The motion was passed overwhelmingly, [...]
Have you taken part in the House of Lords reform consultation yet?
Aside from the debate at Liberal Democrat conference on Lords reform, there’s another important opportunity to have your say on Lords reform at the moment. The official public consultation from the Joint Committee of the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill runs until 12 October and Unlock Democracy have put together a very simple to [...]
Can you spare a few minutes to help the Lords reform campaign?
Liberal Democrats for Lords Reform is putting together a list of all the Liberal Democrat peers, their views on Lords reform and the best contact details for them. Once we have a (fairly) full set of data together, we can then start using it to target our campaigning at the key peers we need to [...]
Lords reform to be debated on the Saturday of Lib Dem conference
3:10pm, Saturday 17th September – that’s when the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham will be debating Lords reform. The motion aims to ensure the party both sticks to its guns on expecting Parliamentarians to be elected and also to show those Lib Dem peers who are thinking of rebelling over the matter the strength of [...]
Lords reform 1911–2011
For the latest edition of the Journal of Liberal History, I wrote up a report of our fringe meeting held at the party’s spring conference on the subject of Lords reform. Here it is. Lords reform 1911–2011 Conference fringe meeting, 11 March 2011, with Lord Norton and Lord Marks; chair: Baroness Scott One hundred years [...]
