Photo courtesy of UK Parliament (used under Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 2.0).
Read my posts about the upper chamber in Parliament, the House of Lords. Despite over a century of promised and attempted democratic reforms, it is still unelected, and even still has some hereditary peers in it.
All three main parties made manifesto commitments to reform the House of Lords, and between them they obtained more than 90 per cent of the vote in the general election. … Read the full post »
Well said by Ken Clarke on the contortions by some of his colleagues over House of Lords reform. … Read the full post »
Writing for Public Service, Lord (Chris) Rennard has focused on just how unusual the House of Lords is: In one of the many debates in the House of Lords about its future, I recently explained how, “like many noble lords, I take great pleasure in occasionally being able to show visitors around this place. Sometimes … Read the full post »
The FT’s increasingly must-read Kiran Stacey writes of the linkage between House of Lords reform and Parliamentary boundary changes. … Read the full post »
Norman Lamont is an excellent example of why the Lords should be reformed, for he is just the sort of MP I had mind when writing a piece for Left Foot Forward. … Read the full post »
Liberal Democrat peer John Lee has threatened to resign the party whip in the House of Lords. … Read the full post »
A sample: Mr Clegg’s efforts may indeed soothe mutinous Liberal Democrat activists smarting from the compromises of coalition. But that would hardly be sufficient benefit to warrant such an uphill climb as constitutional reform. In fact, it is that sad rarity: a matter of genuine belief. Whether or not it is a vote-winner is irrelevant. … Read the full post »
Writing for ConHome, Lord Michael Dobbs argues against reform of the House of Lords because elected peers would behave differently from unelected peers. … Read the full post »
The key feature – which is good news for the Liberal Democrats – is that David Cameron looks committed to using the Parliament Act if necessary. … Read the full post »
Conservative MP Nick de Bois put an apparently appealing case on Lords reform on Iain Dale’s website at the weekend – yes, let’s get rid of hereditaries, but hey, let’s not rush. One problem with that… … Read the full post »