Conservative peer wishes for return to rule by hereditary peers

It appears Baroness D’Souza has a rival in the competition for the most implausibly anti-democratic statement by a member of the House of Lords seeking to argue against them having to win any votes in order to rule over us.

Her rival is Conservative peer Baroness Hooper not only said that the 1999 reforms, which including removing several hundred hereditary peers from the Lords, had not improved the Lords but also that she wished we could return to the having hundreds of hereditaries:

As far as I am concerned, the post-1999 House of Lords is no better, no more democratic … If I had a magic wand I would use it to return to the pre-1999 position.

Ah yes, hereditary rule.

 

Read more by or more about , , , or .
This entry was posted in News.
Advert

7 Comments

  • If only we could democratically elect our parents! Hereditary parental rule is really rather old fashioned.

  • In what way did the HoL rule? The pre-99 settlement was not democratic, indeed anachronistic. But it worked. A system of checks and balances on executive power evolved through tradition, custom and convention. In 1945 the Salisbury convention came about without the need for government legislation and diktat. It worked! We had a remarkably stable political system, that provided strong government, but also made it easy to chuck that government out. It may look nice on your fairtrade paper to mess around with the conventions of the British constitution, but reality never conforms to intention, and the progressive left has yet again messed up a system of government that was envied around the world for its stability.

  • Keith Browning 24th Jun '11 - 2:18pm

    Would you prefer the present system of patronage by Blair, Brown, Cameron et al or the previous system of patronage by Kings, Queens and PMs from the last 1000 years. Personally I’d far prefer the latter as they are unable to sway the decision by payrolling the process and at least we know what we are getting. The current system stinks to high heaven as backs are slapped and friends rewarded.

    However, if we had a proper democratic system of real elections then that would be something completely different.

  • I’ve no problem with hereditary peers. Many lefties are quick to point out it’s an accident of birth that we’re born English and that it’s ridiculous to feel pride in a randomly assigned nationality, which means these peers are just randomly chosen members of the population. They are however often brought up and educated to a higher standard than the average person in this country. It’s a rather neat system really.

  • Paul McKeown 25th Jun '11 - 12:22am

    “Conservative peer wishes for return to rule by hereditary peers”

    And bears crap in woods; surprise me for a change.

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Andy Daer
    @Mark Frankel, yes, it would be nice and neat if it were true that "the Arabs" reject the two state solution. In fact, it is the leadership of the Israeli state...
  • Mark Frankel
    If you break into your neighbour's territory, murder 1200 of its people, kidnap hundreds more and use them to further weaken your neighbour's peace and security...
  • Mark Frankel
    Israel did not emerge from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. It emerged from the ruins of the British Mandate in Palestine. The British tried to implement the ...
  • Andy Daer
    Tom is normally a reliable commentator, but his pessimism here is unjustified. Trump habitually rocks the boat with crazy ideas, and drops them if they turn out...
  • Roland
    @ Nonconformistradical Agree it’s a conundrum. Basically, the plans and thus the houses were sold on the “vision” of all the facilities being in place, ...