House of Lords (Adam Teladia)

House of Lords

August 10, 2007 9:02 AM

Earlier this year the House Of Commons supported the options of 80% elected / 20% appointed second chamber passed by a simple majority (ayes: 305; nos: 267) and the option for a fully elected second chamber passed by an absolute majority (ayes: 337; nos: 224), however when the House Lords voted the option to get an majority was the option of a wholly appointed second chamber.

I believe that in the twenty-first century there is no need for a liberal democracy like the United Kingdom to have any legislators who are not elected by the public. Our laws are currently being passed by a chamber of aristocrats, bishops, businessmen, charity workers, judges and ex-MPs who have little if any support from members of the public. If a new democracy like Afghanistan had decided that some members of its legislature should be chosen by their Head of State and political leaders or if the Iraqi constitutional convention had recommended that part of its national legislature should be appointed by the head of government and political leaders because of their wealth, religious affiliation or support of their political leaders in the past, politicians from across United Kingdom would have rightly questioned if that was quite the commitment to democracy that we were hoping for. So should we not now reinforce our commitment to democracy by only supporting an elected second chamber in our country?

I support the idea of a fully elected second chamber with powers to co-opt academics (i.e. Dr Robert Winston), former civil servants (i.e. Robin Butler) and others with special experience, familiarity or understanding such as Adair Turner or Geoffrey Dear to their scrutiny committees on Individual Bills or for departments. I also believe that the Bishops should be removed from the House of Lords but that elected members should be able to co-opt religious "leaders" if they want on to scrutiny committees on Individual Bills or for departments if they believe they could benefit from their expertise.

If the supporters of reform become complacent, relaxed and satisfied now the success of earlier this year will remain unfulfilled for years, even decades to come.

If you are a supporter of reform I would like to urge you to continue to pressure politicians to support plans for an elected House of Lords.