The other Parliamentary electoral reform coming along

Today’s Sunday Telegraph has a piece on Lords reform – on which the Coalition Agreement from last year promises a mostly elected Upper House, with elections by “proportional representation”.

Because that’s why the agreement says, I think the Telegraph over-eggs the issue a little with the sub-headline: “David Cameron is planning to allow peers to be elected to a reformed House of Lords by a system of proportional representation in a major boost for Nick Clegg”.

But even so, given how deeply divided the Tories are on this issue, full backing from David Cameron beyond simply going through the motions is important.

As I also say in the piece:

If such a firm proposal was made, Mr Clegg’s position would be greatly strengthened. Mark Pack, editor of Lib Dem Voice, the leading website for party activists, said: “If you see House of Lords reform, under a PR system, unveiled soon afterwards, this will provide an immediate reason for Nick’s leadership to continue long term.”

PR in national elections is the Lib Dems’ ‘holy grail’. It would go much further than the proposed AV system which retains the link between MPs and constituencies and does not see candidates simply being picked from lists drawn up parties.