Reform of Second Chamber

According to Unlock Democracy a joint committee of both Houses of Parliament is at present considering reform of the second chamber and graciously requesting submissions from we, the public, which, again according to Unlock Democracy, must be both electronic and on paper (presumably just to make life more difficult). We have until 12th October.

The easy way out is to go to this site to answer an electronic questionnaire, and this site to send them a letter.

If you're short of ideas, my own submission was along the following lines.

Dear Committee Members,

I believe that a fully elected second chamber is the only legitimate authority in a modern democracy. The method of election should be different from that of the Commons. Whilst the Commons continues to use the largest minority system (misleadingly known as FPTP, but, if you think about it there is no post)I suggest PR by STV in constituencies based on the Wales, Ireland and Scotland, plus the regions of England.

Should the Commons adopt STV then the second chamber could use an open list system. The closed list system should not be considered as that tilts the balance of power in favour of the parties rather than the electorate.

As the Commons now has a fixed term of five years I suggest eight for the the second chamber.

If it is necessary, in order to persuade opponents to get rid of the present anachronism, to have some appointed members, then these should be no more than 20% of the membership. They should be selected by an appointments committee which contains no politicians and is as far as possible devoid of political influence. Anyone who has ever held or stood for election to public office should be ineligible for selection. The second chamber should not be a refuge for retired or failed politicians.

I believe the second chamber should be called a Senate and we should stop talking about the "reform " of the House of Lords. We want to replace it, not reform it.

For the time being the powers of the second chamber should remain as at present, with a commitment to revise them in, say, ten years' time, when we see how the new system is working.

Yours faithfully,


Please feel free to adopt or amend any of the above, and add comments for the benefit of others, but do please write, before 12th October. While the Tories fool around with the alleged effects of cat ownership on deportations it is important that some of us get on with serious politics.

Abuse of House of Lords

I can't help feeling a little bit sorry for Lord Taylor, who has been sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for fiddling his expenses to the tune of £11 000, a fleabite compared to the rakeoff the bankers are taking for the results of their incompetence. I suspect Lord Taylor felt that he was only doing what lots of others were doing and that the authorities would connive at his deceptions, but he deceived with rather less circumspection than was required.

However, his case illustrates a more flagrant abuse of authority by the establishment: the use of the House of Lords to over-rule the decisions of the electorate. Taylor was Conservative candidate for Cheltenham in 1992, but was defeated (by a Liberal Democrat, as it happens, but that is not germane to my argument.) But four years later whoever was leader of the Tories at the time said in effect "Sod the electorate, we're going to have him in parliament anyway," and gave him a peerage.

There must be dozens of similar cases, but one that has stayed in my mind for many years is the case of Joe Dean. Dean was MP for Leeds West but was defeated by Michael Meadowcroft in 1983. Yet this man, rejected by the electorate, was back in parliament within weeks as Lord Dean, nominated by no less a hero of the left than Michael Foot himself.

Now that House of Lords reform is once again on the agenda assorted peers, including, alas, some Liberal Democrats, are spouting about how wonderful they are and how the democratic process couldn't possible produce people as useful, clever, disinterested and civic minded as they are. Well, they would, wouldn't they?

Let's hope Nick Clegg sticks firmly to his guns, never ceases to remind both the Labour and Conservative dinosaurs that they too fought the last election on the promise of House of Lords reform, so that, generations after it was proposed and after every other democracy in the world has achieved it, we have a genuinely democratic legislature in the land which claims to a pioneer of democracy.

North Africa

The sentiments expressed in the final three verses of a hymn we sang at church yesterday must surely resonate around North Africa at this crucial time.

And lo, already on the hills
The flags of dawn appear;
Gird up your loins, ye prophet souls,
Proclaim the day is near:

The day in whose clear shining light
All wrong shall stand revealed,
When justice shall be throned in might,
And every hurt be healed;

When knowledge, hand in hand with peace,
Shall walk the earth abroad:
The day of perfect righteousness,
The promised day of God.

F.L. Hosmer, (1840 - 1929)