Generally speaking, you get one chance for Lords reform every 30 to 40 years. There was a Parliament Act in 1911 and another in 1949, both of which reduced the Chamber’s powers. Things briefly sped up in 1958 when Harold Macmillan introduced the notion of life peers but they then went back to their normal languid pace, with the next major reform arriving in 1999, under Tony Blair. He got rid of most of the hereditary peers, leaving just 92 behind as a compromise.
That last part was a response to Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, who treated the Chamber the way that a tinpot despot treats their parliament. Together they managed to appoint possible security threats, party donors, utter non-entities and an assortment of right-wing cranks and cronies.
In an ideal world, the prime minister should lose the power of patronage altogether, with the Commission alone taking the decision of who to appoint. But failing that, it should, at the very least, be put on a statutory footing with proper enforcement powers.
The Conservative Party in the Lords has thrown itself into a pointless doomed battle to save the hereditary peers. This is wrong on the basics – bloodline is not a good basis for establishing legislative scrutiny and no sane person would ever pretend otherwise. But it is also politically inane. Labour put the proposal in its manifesto. It has a mandate for it. And more importantly, it has the support of the Liberal Democrats, so the Tory defence will be defeated no matter what happens.
And in its own tawdry, pointless way, it has succeeded. It won’t stop the removal of hereditary peers. But it does seem to be killing the appetite for further reform.
square POLITICS ExclusiveLabour will abolish the Lords, minister confirms - but it will take 10 years
Read More
This week, one person had enough: Meg Russell, a political scientist who runs The Constitution Unit at University College London. She is probably the single most knowledgeable individual in the country on the study of parliament. She has spent decades fighting for modest, moderate constitutional reform. When she speaks, nerds listen.
“The harsh reality,” Russell wrote, “is that those changes that require legislation (which in the end is most of them) are best made in this bill, as another is unlikely to come. This is a reality that ministers, as well as others in the chamber, need to recognise.”
It was a simple message: ignore this foolish self-interested clatter. Do not say you’ll reform again later – you almost certainly won’t. Get the reforms you want right now, on this bill, through productive amendments. Labour and the Lib Dems together easily have the numbers to overrule any disruptive Tory peers standing in their way.
We should all hope they listen to her. This is a historic opportunity for Lords reform. Unless it’s grasped quickly, it’ll crumble before our eyes.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Labour is destroying its chance to reform the Lords )
Also on site :