Posted on Twitter this morning:
Sometimes having limited space is good for refining an argument.
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And that is the truth of the matter, simply put.
That’s about it.
Starts with ‘disproportional’ voting.
“I apologize for such a long letter – I didn’t have time to write a short one.”
Mark Twain
Democracy? House of Lords, Amen
House of Lords: indefensible but indispensable. Need to before of any replacement before abolishing it.
And your suggestion is?
I was wondering whether there has been any real formal consideration of what the working of a second house should be. There must have been, given the number of times abolition of the House of Lords has been demanded, but I have not found anything useful.
Unlike the Commons, it seems that the Lord Speaker has almost no power over the house; the House itself controls itself! I wonder how anything gets done.
I was trying to find out about the administration of the House, when I came across this in Wikipedia:
“Before each day’s sitting of the House of Lords, the Lord Speaker forms part of a procession that marches from the Lord Speaker’s residence to the Lords Chamber. The Lord Speaker is preceded by the Deputy Serjeant-at-Arms or Principal Doorkeeper of the House (who bears the Mace). The procession is joined by the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod in the Prince’s Chamber. Together, they move through the Not-Content Lobby, entering the Chamber below the bar, and finish by walking up the Temporal (opposition) side toward the Woolsack. The Mace is placed on the Woolsack, where the Lord Speaker sits after a bishop has led the House in prayers.”
Surely in any new arrangement for a second chamber, all this sort of nonsense should be the first thing to go?
The trouble with that is that it would also mean the all the similar nonsense with the Commons – Black Rod, and the Kings Speech etc. etc. – must also go. No more “Non-Content Lobby” either – electronic voting with out doubt!
If we are to have an elected second chamber, I believe there has to be some sort of qualification requirement for those standing – unlike the complete lack for MPs. We need people with skills and experience in a whole range of fields. (Maybe that might be the way of specifying the numbers?) The elected will have to be paid – and that will mean salaries of over £100k at least. No second jobs. Minimum attendance specified too.
Who has considered such matters (and much more) and published results?
I don’t know
Anyone?
I should like a root and branch overhaul of our whole “democratic” system.
Initiate PR voting. Remove the gerrymandering voting restrictions instigated by the Conservative government.
Overhaul both Houses, getting rid of all the archaic traditions, mace, woolpack etc.
Have push-button voting with data recording.
New parliament building with circular chamber, perhaps up-country to avoid London flooding inconvenience. Remove the old building; too expensive to maintain and unsuitable for modern government.
Abolish the current House of Lords and replace it with a PR-elected chamber of qualified personell, with a small number of voting districts, ditching the current constituencies (which don’t suit PR anyway.)
Write a constitution.
Abolish the monarchy.
What a shame that I shall not live long enough to see any of it, thanks to Mr Starmer!