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Tag Archives: house of lords

When did the Tories stop supporting Lords reform?

By Stephen Tall | Wed 9th May 2012 - 8:45 am

From all the debate and angst within the Tory party over the issue of House of Lords reform you’d imagine the plan to inject an element of democracy into the UK parliament had been foisted on David Cameron by sneakily obsessive Liberal Democrats.

Yet the reality is somewhat different. The Coalition Government’s pledge to overhaul the revising chamber (after Labour’s successive, botched failures) built on Tory promises to the electorate over a decade or more — recognising perhaps that such reform is in fact in their own interests.

Here’s what the Tory manifesto said as far back as 2001:

In

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged coalition agreement, conservative party, constitutional reform and lords reform | 12 Comments

MORE SHOCK NEWS: Bill that was going to be in Queen’s Speech will be in Queen’s Speech

By Mark Pack | Mon 7th May 2012 - 9:23 am

Pick and mix your allocation of blame between some Tory right-wing MPs and some political journalists, between deliberate deceit and genuine confusion as you wish, but as the dust settles on yesterday’s political stories about the Queen’s Speech the news is remarkably dull:

A Bill that was not going to be in the Queen’s Speech will not be in the Queen’s Speech, and
A Bill that was going to be in the Queen’s Speech will be in the Queen’s Speech.

Or in other words, ignore the nonsense about how the absence of an equal marriage Bill from the Queen’s Speech means the government …

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Posted in News | Also tagged constitutional reform, equal marriage, equalities, lords reform, lynne featherstone and nick clegg | Leave a comment

In other news… Lib Dems close no libraries, Paddick pledges 360,000 homes, & Newby is new Lords whip

By Stephen Tall | Sun 29th April 2012 - 5:15 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past few days…

Tim Farron: No library closed under Lib Dem leadership (LibDems.org.uk)

Last year, more than 40 libraries were closed by Conservative and Labour councils. In stark contrast, for the second year in a row, no Liberal Democrat-controlled council in England and Wales closed any library. Liberal Democrat-controlled Cardiff is opening five new libraries and Portsmouth and Bristol are also opening new libraries.

Tim Farron said: “Cutting services like Labour and Tory councils are doing will do long-term damage. Liberal Democrats are doing the right

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged brian paddick, dick newby, housing, lembit opik, libraries, nick clegg and tim farron | 1 Comment

Chris Rennard writes: Dick Newby to be new Liberal Democrat Chief Whip in the House of Lords

By Chris Rennard | Sun 29th April 2012 - 1:17 pm

Lord Newby (Dick Newby) has just been appointed as the new Liberal Democrat Chief Whip in the House of Lords. This appointment is made by Tom McNally (as our Leader in the House of Lords) and at the same time Nick Clegg has asked Dick to serve as Government Deputy Chief Whip in the House. Dick will take up his duties in time for the State Opening of Parliament on 9th May.

Dick is a greatly respected and much liked figure amongst all those who have worked with him (and in roles in which it is sometimes difficult to be both). …

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Posted in News | Also tagged chris rennard, david shutt and dick newby | 3 Comments

Lords Reform – if evidence were needed…

By NewsHound | Tue 24th April 2012 - 11:52 am

Yesterday, Unlock Democracy published new research confirming that a majority of the public support government plans to introduce elections to the House of Lords. A poll conducted by YouGov has found that:

69% support a half, majority or wholly elected second chamber. The most popular response was for a fully elected second chamber (33%). Just 5% support a wholly appointed second chamber (don’t know: 22%).

45% believe members of the House of Lords should not be allowed to block reform; 32% felt they should (don’t know: 17%).

48% supported experts being invited to participate in legislation on an ad hoc basis, rather

…

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Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged unlock democracy | 5 Comments

LibLink: Paul Tyler and Andrew Adonis: Reform the House of Lords now and it can survive

By The Voice | Mon 23rd April 2012 - 4:23 pm

Over on the Guardian’s Comment is free, Paul Tyler and Andrew Adonis say that the second chamber is costly and unrepresentative, and that only radical change will head off the abolitionists:

Whatever opponents say, the status quo is not a realistic option. When the majority of hereditary peers were excluded in 1999, Lords’ membership fell to 666. By the last election, it had risen to 706 and today it is 786. If those on leave of absence resumed their seats, the figure would rise to 807.

Since the pace

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Posted in News | Also tagged constitutional reform and lords reform | 8 Comments

Opinion: Lib Dems should not fear a Lords reform referendum

By Mark Thompson | Mon 23rd April 2012 - 2:54 pm

We got battered last year. So it would only be natural if we were to be a little wary of plunging headlong into another referendum for changing our political system so soon after the public rejected our proposal for AV for the Commons by such a wide margin.

There are now rumblings from Conservative MPs and also the Labour leadership that any change to the Lords should be subject to a referendum. Nick Clegg has strongly argued that this is …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged constitutional reform, House of Lords referendum, Joint Committee of the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill and lords reform | 19 Comments

Psst! Whatever you do, don’t tell the Tories democratic reform is in their own best interests

By Stephen Tall | Mon 23rd April 2012 - 10:45 am

A few weeks ago I wrote an article for Conservative Home offering some unsolicited advice to David Cameron’s party. I argued that a party that had achieved electoral success in the 1980s by appealing to the classless entrepreneurialism of aspirant ‘Middle England’ had once again become established in the electorate’s eyes as the party of established wealth and privilege. If the Tories want to regain the voters they have lost, they need to take drastic action to counter that view.

Reform of the House of Lords was one policy area I said the Tories should seek to make their …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged alternative vote, benjamin disraeli, conservative home, david cameron, electoral reform and featured | 9 Comments

Clegg: Just “get on with” Lords reform

By The Voice | Mon 23rd April 2012 - 9:36 am

From BBC News online:

Nick Clegg has urged politicians from all parties to “get on with” reforming the House of Lords, despite disquiet among Conservative MPs over the plans…In an interview with BBC One’s Sunday Politics, Mr Clegg said: “The principle that people who make the laws of the land should be elected by the laws of the land would strike most people in the country as fairly uncontroversial.

“It’s something we have been talking about for 100 years. We should just get on with it now,

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged constitutional reform and lords reform | 23 Comments

Tim Farron: LibDems ready to sabotage a key plank of the coalition deal

By NewsHound | Sat 21st April 2012 - 10:32 am

From this morning’s Independent:

Liberal Democrat MPs are prepared to sabotage a key plank of the Coalition agreement unless rebellious Conservative backbenchers back down and support a fully elected House of Lord’s, the party’s president suggested yesterday.

Tim Farron told The Independent that the Liberal Democrats would find it impossible to back Tory proposals to reduce the number of MPs is the House of Commons unless Conservative MPs backed his party’s plan for a fully elected second chamber.

The full story is here.

Posted in News | 31 Comments

Dear Conservative MPs, Re House of Lords reform here’s what your manifesto & the Coalition Agreement say

By Stephen Tall | Fri 20th April 2012 - 9:35 am

It’s almost enough to make you feel sorry for Conservative MPs — it appears some of them have only just read their own party’s manifesto and the Coalition Agreement they signed up to. That can be the only explanation for the sudden fit of vapours which have apparently afflicted three of their number over the issue of House of Lords reform.

So as a reminder to them, and as a service to their Tory colleagues, here’s a reminder of the Conservative Party’s promise to the people back in 2010 in its manifesto:

We will work to build a consensus for a

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Posted in News | Also tagged coalition agreement, conservative party and parliamentary reform | 11 Comments

LibLink: Chris Rennard – how the Lords reminds him of Lesotho

By Mark Pack | Sun 25th March 2012 - 10:25 am

Writing for Public Service, Lord (Chris) Rennard has focused on just how unusual the House of Lords is:

In one of the many debates in the House of Lords about its future, I recently explained how, “like many noble lords, I take great pleasure in occasionally being able to show visitors around this place. Sometimes they are parliamentarians from other countries. Often they ask ‘How do you become a Lord?’ When you begin by explaining that perhaps your ancestors fought with the King in battle hundreds of years ago, or perhaps that they were what have been called ‘special friends’ of

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged chris rennard, constitutional reform and lords reform | 2 Comments

DPMQs: Trading attacks, squalidity and the long grass commission

By Paul Walter | Thu 22nd March 2012 - 11:54 am

Another Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions and another set of traded attacks. Harriet Harman has a go about the 50p tax rate and tax credit cuts. Nick Clegg lobs back this salvo:

Next month, this Government will take more than 1 million people on low pay out of paying income tax altogether. Next month, we will deliver the largest cash increase in the state pension ever. There will be no more of Labour’s 75p pension insults. Next month, thousands of children from disadvantaged backgrounds will receive an uplift

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Posted in Parliament | Also tagged constitutional reform, lords reform and nick clegg | 4 Comments

Opinion: Conference votes again on access to justice, Parliamentarians should follow

By James Sandbach | Thu 15th March 2012 - 2:53 pm

For the third Party conference in a row, Liberal Democrats voted for a policy motion covering legal aid and access to justice directly contrary to the Government’s legal aid reforms – in the Legal Aid, Sentencing Punishment of Offenders Bill (LASPO) – reaching their final stages in Parliament. Gateshead conference voted to ensure that “the scope of civil legal aid covers appropriate legal help and assistance in categories of law where the issues raised are of substantial importance.. and which cannot be settled by alternative dispute resolution” but night after night I see our Peers voting to remove category after …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged dee doocey, legal aid and tom brake | 4 Comments

Baroness Dee Doocey writes: Legal Aid and Welfare Reform, spot the problem

By Dee Doocey | Wed 7th March 2012 - 12:55 pm

As one of the Liberal Democrat peers engaged in the debate on the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill as well as the recent Welfare Reform Bill debates, I am pushing today for a vital amendment which I hope will mitigate the worst aspects of cuts facing the legal aid system– something that is proving to be a controversial issue for the Party.

The coalition agreement committed to reforming legal aid to reduce its costs to the public purse; it did not commit to abolishing it for whole categories of law. Chief amongst these excluded categories in Legal Aid, …

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Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged dee doocey, legal aid, welfare reform and welfare reform bill | 6 Comments

Norman Lamont is an excellent example of why the Lords should be reformed

By Mark Pack | Thu 1st March 2012 - 12:25 pm

Yesterday Conservative peer Norman Lamont was the latest in a sequence of Tory peers to take to the pages of ConservativeHome to argue against their own party’s policy and opposed elections to the House of Lords.

However, he is also an excellent example of why the Lords should be reformed, for he is just the sort of MP I had mind when writing a piece for Left Foot Forward last year:

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged constitutional reform, lords reform and norman lamont | 10 Comments

LDVideo: Ming Campbell – House of Lords reform part of Lib Dem DNA

By Stephen Tall | Tue 28th February 2012 - 6:50 pm

Here’s a clip of former Liberal Democrat Leader Sir Menzies Campbell declaring reform of the unelected upper house — that century-old piece of ‘unfinished business’ — is an innate part of what defines Liberal Democrats:

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Posted in YouTube | Also tagged lords reform and Ming Campbell | Leave a comment

Lords Reform: Nick Clegg faces the music…

By Mark Valladares | Tue 28th February 2012 - 8:53 am

Yesterday, the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill Joint Committee met for its last public session before retreating into report writing mode. And, as a special treat, they got an opportunity to savage the midwives of the proposed reforms, Nick Clegg and Mark Harper.

It was perhaps unfortunate that their evidence was somewhat overshadowed by an interview given by Lord Lee of Trafford …

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Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged nick clegg | 8 Comments

Why Tory Euro-sceptics should back Nick Clegg

By Mark Pack | Tue 28th February 2012 - 7:50 am

Writing for ConHome, Lord Michael Dobbs argues against reform of the House of Lords because elected peers would behave differently from unelected peers:

I would demand more influence, a stronger voice, and that new power could come from only one place – the House of Commons.

There’s two flaws with that argument. The first, the most obvious, is the question of why, if such a transfer of power happens, should we fear it? Taking power away from elected politicians and giving it to the unelected is certainly often to be feared (though not always – judges and juries, not ministers, should …

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Posted in News | Also tagged constitutional reform, lords reform, michael dobbs and nick clegg | 3 Comments

Warning to Lords: if you play silly buggers with Lords reform, you’ll lose your say

By Mark Pack | Mon 27th February 2012 - 9:50 am

The last few days has seen seep into the media an idea that has been doing the rounds of pro-Lords reformers in government for a little while.

It is an answer to the question of how the Coalition Government could get Lords reform through the Lords itself without the legislation being bogged down in filibustering and disruptive tactics designed to wreck other legislation. For all the childish temper tantrum tinge to the views of some peers (mainly Conservative) – ‘if you dare take away my place in the Lords, I’ll scream and I’ll scream and I’ll wreck all your bills’ – it is a serious threat. Because, after all, unelected peers don’t have to worry about making themselves look ridiculous, out of touch or petulant in the eyes of the electorate as they’re currently blessed with a seat in Parliament for life, regardless of what the public thinks.

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Posted in News | Also tagged constitutional reform, david cameron and lords reform | 12 Comments

Nick de Bois is wrong on Lords reform

By Mark Pack | Mon 27th February 2012 - 7:50 am

Conservative MP Nick de Bois put an apparently appealing case on Lords reform at the weekend – yes, let’s get rid of hereditaries, but hey, let’s not rush:

Lords reform should not be rushed.

Appealing that is, if you’ve missed out on the last century.

Because not only is it a century since further Lords reform was first promised by a government, but in the interim that have been proposals, debates and schemes aplenty.

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Posted in News | Also tagged constitutional reform, lords reform and nick de bois | 8 Comments

LDVideo: Liberal Democrat peers rebel against coalition plans

By Stephen Tall | Thu 9th February 2012 - 12:45 pm

More than 60 Lib Dem peers have rebelled against the Coalition government’s plans during this Parliament. Here Baroness (Susan) Kramer talks about how she and her colleagues attempt always to be constructive in their dissent.

* Warning: the following video contains scenes with Quentin Letts, which some viewers may find distressing.

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Posted in YouTube | Also tagged quentin letts and susan kramer | 1 Comment

EXCLUSIVE: Majority of Lib Dem members back Coalition’s benefits cap

By Stephen Tall | Wed 8th February 2012 - 1:20 pm

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Some 570 party members responded, and we’re publishing the full results.

59% of Lib Dem members back benefits cap at £26,000 or lower

LDV asked: Under the Coalition government’s proposal the cap on benefits will apply to the total sum of all benefits a household receives, including income support, jobseekers allowance, child benefit and housing benefit. The government is setting the maximum at £26,000, the average earnings of a British family after tax. What do …

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Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged benefits and paddy ashdown | 20 Comments

Opinion: A healthy chamber in a healthy democracy?

By Nick Hollinghurst | Mon 30th January 2012 - 1:54 pm

Well, last week Liberal Democrats had a good week in the House of Lords. Our peers played leading roles in attempts to mitigate the more regressive effects of the benefit changes. And on Thursday, with Labour supporting us effectively for once, Shirley Williams led our peers to a signal victory on the NHS Bill.

There has been a long campaign to rescue the NHS from some of the harmful changes in the Bill. One of the most fundamental and, in the longterm, the most dangerous change was the removal of the duty of the Secretary of State “to provide or secure …

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Posted in Op-eds | 1 Comment

Your LDV guide to rebel Liberal Democrat Peers

By Mark Valladares | Tue 24th January 2012 - 1:53 pm

To mark the largest rebellion by Liberal Democrat Peers, we thought that it was time we recognised those Liberal Democrat Peers most prone to rebellion, so here are the top five rebels of this Parliament so far…

1st – Baroness Tonge (26 votes against the Government)

…

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Posted in News and Parliament | 11 Comments

Opinion: the Legal Aid Bill is worth a Lib Dem revolt

By Eduardo Reyes | Tue 24th January 2012 - 8:53 am

Day-to-day I can’t help thinking about the positions our MPs and Peers would have taken on issues were we not part of a coalition. I’m far from alone in that, but I also recognise the need to choose what we decide to block with care.

Right now, we need to block the main the legal aid provisions of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (currently at committee stage in the Lords). In summary, unless amended, the Bill will take away legal aid from clinical negligence, personal injury, welfare/benefits claims, and claims under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme. …

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Posted in News, Op-eds and Parliament | Also tagged legal aid | 8 Comments

Yesterday in the Lords (part 1): let the banner of rebellion be unfurled…

By Mark Valladares | Tue 24th January 2012 - 7:45 am

In a dramatic fifth day of the Report Stage of the Welfare Reform Bill, Liberal Democrat cohesion amongst the Parliamentary Party in the Lords collapsed, with two of the three biggest rebellions in this Parliament ensuing. And, to be honest, it wasn’t difficult to see it coming. However, unexpectedly, only one of them led to a Government defeat.

Amendment 58D, moved by Labour peer, Lord Mackenzie of Luton, was a relatively opportunistic attempt to provide an exemption from the proposed benefit cap for “vulnerable individuals, and individuals and couples …

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Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged welfare reform bill | 5 Comments

Opinion: What’s happened to democracy in the Liberal Democrats?

By George Potter | Wed 18th January 2012 - 3:55 pm

What’s happened to democracy in the Liberal Democrats? Is it dead? Or is it just comatose?

The reason I ask this question comes from my own experience of our internal democracy.

When I joined the party at the age of 18, I was impressed by how, unlike any other major party, ordinary members had a real say. That I, as a member, had a voice equal to anyone else in the party, be it my local councillor or the party leader and that everyone’s vote was equal.

So, last year, when I learned about the shocking plans by the government to drastically cut …

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Posted in Conference and Op-eds | Also tagged dla, esa, internal democracy, liberal democrats and welfare reform bill | 72 Comments

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