Tag Archives: Lords

What this country needs: the conversion of life peerages into hereditary ones

House of Lords - Some rights reserved by UK Parliament

The House of Lords (Maximum Membership) Bill was published only yesterday and was scheduled for a second reading today.

It is one of a number of Bills introduced by backbench Conservative MPs listed for second reading which seem off the wall and it is a wonder that they were scheduled for second reading debate without having first been printed.

One would assume from its title that this Bill has the sole purpose of limiting the number of active peers. It does that and, no doubt because the Bill has been rushed into print at the last minute, the dates for it to take effect are all in the past.

It provides for a maximum number of 650 peers, and it also provides for compulsory retirement in order of seniority to reduce the number of active peers to that magic figure.

Posted in News | Also tagged | 11 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • David Allen
    "According to the headline in yesterday’s ‘Daily Telegraph’ (28 August) : “Ed Davey refuses to rule out Tory pact”." More deafening silence! Well,...
  • Peter Hirst
    If the political make up of the eu changes significantly would we be better to have stayed in? It probably depends whether you are more interested in global or ...
  • Mrs Rita Baker
    I agree with everything in this post. We need a national message as well as local ones. As I am currently disabled, waiting for a hip replacement and knee opera...
  • Peter Hirst
    An agreement with other countries to coordinate action when their interests collide would be a useful addition to the array of groups, organisations and bodies ...
  • Peter Hirst
    Our political strategy as I understand it does not make it easy for us to have a single message that gives us the publicity we need. We can talk about empowerme...