The House of Lords is a bloated, undemocratic embarrassment in need of total reinvention
In 2017 unelected codgers and useless cronies should play no part in making laws
End of the peers
THE House of Lords is a bloated, undemocratic embarrassment in need of total reinvention. Theresa May should commit to it in her next election manifesto.
As we reshape the country post-Brexit we should seize the opportunity to improve our democracy too.
There are many fine peers whose intelligence and expertise are assets to Britain. The Chamber’s function, to check and revise laws, is essential.
But the last decade has seen it stuffed, for political gain, with mediocre party cast-offs or time-servers unrepresentative not only of the people but even of the balance of power in the Commons.
The Lib Dems, for example, have only eight MPs — but 102 peers of the 805 total. Ukip, which got almost four million votes in 2015, has just three peers.
Too many Lords turn up solely for the £300 daily handout. One allegedly left a cab running as he nipped in to claim it.
Others never speak or vote. One peer denounced the place as “the best day care centre in London” for doddering grandees who like a subsidised lunch and a warm place to snooze afterwards.
The number of peers must be halved.
Most should be elected. The rest, all politically independent, can be picked by a cross-party committee based on their expertise in fields such as business, medicine, defence or foreign affairs.
The Lords’ failings have been brought into sharp focus by the efforts of some to ignore the referendum’s huge democratic mandate — and the massive Commons majority which approved it.
But this has been a long time coming.
In 2017 unelected codgers and useless cronies should play no part in making laws.
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