Parliamnt is prorougued for a week today before returning for a new State Opening and King's Speech next week.
There are two consequences.
The first is that desperate Labour MPs can return to their seats to campaign for their futures in parliament via the local council elections, knowing that they have very little chance of ever seeing the inside of the House of Commons chamber again after 2029, if, that is, the next Labour government lasts that long.
Second, today marks the end of the line for the 88 remaining hereditary peers, who have now had their right to sit in the Lords ended by Labour, 27 years after Tony Blair promised he would deliver this reform, such is Labour's progress on any issue of significance.
Farewll, and good riddance, I say. Next, it's time for the monarchy to go, and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to have the chance to leave the Union.
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Let us hope so!
I very rarely comment nowadays, although still read on a daily basis, but can I just say I fully concur with your last two paragraphs.
Thanks
Given the state of UK politics under Starmer – or the Starmfuherer, as I call him – I can’t help picking up an almost James Joycean “Finnegan’s Wake” sort of pun in your mis-spelling of prorougued as “prorougued”, making Parliament sound like a rouged-up pantomime dame.
And actually, even the correct spelling of prorogued is Joycean, containing as it does the word “rogue”
Before the Civil War we had the Long Parliament, and then the Rump Parliament, dismissed by Cromwell.
The Starmfuherer’s Parliament is surely deservedly called the Rogue Parliament.
Oops
I will have to leave it now
I can’t help picking up an almost James Joycean “Finnegan’s Wake” sort of pun in your mis-spelling of prorogued as “prorougued”
@ Barty Long
Thanks for the necessary amendment – it’s easy to make spelling mistakes when keying in on a small, hand-h3ld mobile.
Yes indeed Richard. But the ‘honours’ system has just extended the scope for corruption by the all- powerful executive – the ‘elective dictatorship’ – resulting in a grotesque number 800 ‘peers’. Rampant bribery . <p>
Its clear no one is going to ‘reform’ or abolish this ridiculous 2nd chamber.<p>
The best way in might be to campaign for the abolition of all ‘donations’ to politicians and political parties. Difficult to argue against getting dark money out of the system.
One of the many reasons why Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales have to escape the completely dysfunctional UK is the unbelievable damage the British establishment has caused in the world during the days of the British empire and even today. I hate having to state my nationality as British as I am so ashamed of what has been done. We were deliberately kept in ignorance. An article by David Miller on Tracking Power explains The Secret British Intelligence War on Iran. It really is time for this wicked establishment to be eliminated for good. The best way is the break up of the UK.
Richard, I try to resist commenting, being aware that it then generates more work for you. But just in short response to your item above, I’m an avid reader of your work partly because it is educational and insightful, but also because you coherently put into words a view of the world that I share. Our leaders, governments and systems are making a mess of our precious world and your work is helping me understand what is going wrong and the changes that are needed. Thank you.
Thank you
I wonder if the next stage of Lords Reform should be term limits. These could be set at say 15 years after which the title could be kept but the right to sit in the House of Lords would end.
It’s good to see the back of the hereditaries. Not, of course, that the life peers cover themselves in glory; witness the Lord Offord’s attempt to brag at Tuesday night’s debate. To Ross Greer’s credit, he dismantled the chancing braggart.
While I have at present not consumed enough Whiskey (on this late Friday) to account for your spelling, I will note that Adam Smith gets a bit spicy on inherited political and economic power. (Yes, did finally read “Wealth of Nations”, and find his argument solid, given the evidence of the time.) Seems in 250 years, we have not yet acted well on what he saw then.