Tag Archives: lords reform

Nick T

LDVideo: Clegg takes to his soapbox on Lords reform

By Nick T | Thu 28th June 2012 - 10:54 am

To mark yesterday’s publication of the House of Lords Reform Bill, Nick Clegg delivered a “soapbox” speech in Victoria Tower Gardens, behind the Palace of Westminster, to urge legislators to get on and pass the Bill, which, he says “comes down to a very simple principle: democracy”. Here’s the video:

Continue reading »
Posted in News and YouTube | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

Lords reform, Labour and the three key tests

By Mark Pack | Thu 28th June 2012 - 9:25 am

Ed Miliband’s decision to insist on Labour backing House of Lords reform at the Second Reading vote in the House of Commons is an important and welcome one. That it was opposed by senior Labour figures such as David Blunkett probably reinforces the views of many Liberal Democrats of Blunkett and co, but it should also remind us that Miliband’s decision and leadership on this is not trivial. It is something House of Lords reformers in all parties should welcome.

More cynical people may wonder if Labour support on the Second Reading will be a distraction tactic from them trying to sink Lords reform at a later date, whether with or without Miliband’s implicit backing. There are three main opportunities for that.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , and | 14 Comments
Caron Lindsay

Jo Swinson MP says “Let’s Fix Parliament”

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 27th June 2012 - 6:56 pm

Liberal Democrat MP for East Dunbartonshire Jo Swinson has today sent out an e-mail to Liberal Democrat members and supporters asking them to spread the word about the need for Lords Reform on the day the Bill was published. This is what she had to say:

Did you know that only the UK and Lesotho allow people to inherit seats in Parliament? In the 21st century, that’s simply embarrassing, and it has to end.

We can only do this with your help. Today, the Bill for an elected House of Lords has been published. Over the coming weeks I’ll be asking you

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 13 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lords reform: did we really expect any better of either the Tories or Labour?

By Stephen Tall | Tue 26th June 2012 - 9:10 pm

All three main political parties fought the 2010 election promising the electorate that, if elected, they would reform the House of Lords. All three promised the same in 2005, too. And 2001. Yet in 2012 only one party is staying true to that promise: the Lib Dems. The Tories and Labour, in contrast, are happily indulging in party politics to block progress in advancing legislative democracy.

The Conservatives living up to their anti-reform name…

The Conservative Party has fought the last three elections promising to introduce a mainly/wholly elected second chamber to replace the current House of Patronage. They signed up …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , , , , , , and | 25 Comments
Mark Valladares

Coming up in the Lords: 25-29 June

By Mark Valladares | Fri 22nd June 2012 - 7:53 am

It’s all gone a bit quiet at the more civilised end of the Palace of Westminster, after the mayhem that came at the end of the last Parliamentary session. That isn’t to say that it’s dull, but there is rather more debate and scrutiny than voting.

The Crime and Courts Bill has reached its Committee stage, and Days 3 and 4 take place on Monday and Wednesday next week. I have to admit that I understand precious little of this, even after reading the various (astonishingly lengthy) amendments, …

Continue reading »
Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged , , and | Leave a comment
Paul Walter

Video: Lords Ashdown and Phillips clash over second chamber reform

By Paul Walter | Mon 11th June 2012 - 5:54 pm

This was already covered by Stephen Tall on Liberal Democrat Voice last month, but, in case you haven’t seen it, it is worth viewing this good-humoured but impassioned clash in the House of Lords between Paddy Ashdown and Andrew Phillips. Most entertaining.

Posted in Humour | Also tagged and | Leave a comment
Tim Hicks

The Independent View: A compromise on Lords reform to unite the parties?

By Tim Hicks | Thu 7th June 2012 - 3:26 pm

Lords reform looks set to be one of the more contentious issues in the current Parliament. Pressure for progress from the Liberal Democrat leadership looks likely to meet opposition from a combination of elements from the Conservative and Labour parties. This, despite all parties expressing manifesto support for reform of some kind. Given that, a compromise seems desirable, so I humbly offer one here.

In short, I propose that the reformed chamber should be directly elected, but that abstentions should count as ‘votes’ for an Appointments Commission list of candidates.

The Commission would only be charged with producing a list of potential …

Continue reading »
Posted in The Independent View | Also tagged | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

Lib-Lab cooperation: there’s one easy way to find out if Labour are serious

By Stephen Tall | Wed 6th June 2012 - 5:55 pm

Today’s Guardian big-ups a call by Labour’s chief whip in the Lords, Lord Bassam, to his Lib Dem opposite number Lord Newby as a sign that ‘elements of the party are preparing the ground for a possible Lib-Lab coalition after the next election.’

I have to say on first reading the tenor of Lord Bassam’s note strikes me more as told-you-so than conciliatory, but maybe I’m being over-sensitive — judge for yourselves from this excerpt:

“The last couple of years have been a bit bruising for your colleagues in this house, and no doubt they will be looking forward to

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 28 Comments
Stephen Tall

The Weekend Debate: What’s wrong with making membership of the second chamber a lottery?

By Stephen Tall | Sat 26th May 2012 - 8:55 am

Here’s your starter for ten in our weekend slot where we throw up an idea or thought for debate…

The debate about what a reformed House of Lords should look like has been defeating legislators for well over a century — and here’s a novel proposal from Sandy Walkington, who stood for the Lib Dems in St Albans at the last election:

Greece is not exactly in fashion at the moment. But we could learn a thing or two from ancient Athens. They chose their office holders by lot from amongst the citizens, who then had to serve for a

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 40 Comments
Stephen Tall

How referendums are the most effective way to maintain the status quo & what it means for Lords reform

By Stephen Tall | Thu 24th May 2012 - 1:55 pm

Warning: this post contains paradoxes and thinking in progress…

Paradox 1: When asked, most people in this country say the current system of British politics needs to change. Yet the public consistently votes for small-c conservative parties and causes.

Paradox 2: As both a liberal and a democrat, I want a more participative democracy. Yet I’m sceptical referendums are the best way to achieve this.

A brief history of referendums in this country

Let’s take a look at our three most recent experiences in this country of referendums:

  • Just three weeks ago, 11 cities in England voted on whether or not they

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 22 Comments
Paul Walter

DPMQs: De facto but not de jure Fruit Ninja

By Paul Walter | Wed 23rd May 2012 - 11:53 am

MPs are always queuing up in droves to ask a question of the Deputy Prime Minister. He is what the Speaker describes as “box office”.

The subjects at this monthly session can, however, be a bit repetitive. House of Lords reform, electoral registration and lobbying all tend to pop up every time.

Helen Grant (Con) was anxious to get the Royal Sucession changes on the statute books pdq. But Nick Clegg reassured her that, should the Duchess of Cambridge undergo successful confinement resulting in a female happy event, …

Continue reading »
Posted in PMQs | Also tagged , and | Leave a comment
Stephen Tall

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

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 12 Comments
Mark Pack

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 …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , , , and | Leave a comment

Lord Tyler and Baroness Scott write… We urgently need to reform our bloated second chamber

By Paul Tyler and Ros Scott | Wed 25th April 2012 - 12:53 pm

This week, after 30 interminable meetings and much going round the houses, the Joint Committee on David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s Draft House of Lords Reform Bill published its report.

Within minutes, a minority group from the Committee, having lost many votes on amendments to the official text, published an “alternative report”. It advocates, guess what: more meetings, more discussion, another Commission. You name the delaying tactic, they have thought of it.

The reform opponents are also much alive to the success of misleading figures in distorting the public debate on AV last year. …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | 18 Comments
The Voice

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

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 8 Comments
Mark Thompson

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 …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 19 Comments
The Voice

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,

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged and | 23 Comments
Mark Pack

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

…

Continue reading »
Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , and | 2 Comments
Paul Walter

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

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Parliament | Also tagged , and | 4 Comments
Stephen Tall

Q: What links the AV referendum, boundary changes & Lords reform? A: The Coalition Agreement

By Stephen Tall | Thu 15th March 2012 - 9:57 am

It appears the Tories are attempting a sneaky re-write of some very recent, and well-documented, history. What prompts me to say this? Let’s look at the FT’s Kiran Stacey’s report of Nick Clegg’s feisty performance at yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions:

asked why he was so focused on House of Lords reform when there were so many other more important issues to tackle. Clegg’s response was very telling:

There are other issues like changing the boundaries which I know are close to his party’s heart…

The Tories will absolutely hate that. They say the original agreement between the two parties was

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged , , , , and | 6 Comments
Mark Pack

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:

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , and | 10 Comments
Nick T

Why Conservatives should back Lords reform

By Nick T | Thu 1st March 2012 - 7:56 am

There’s a certain irony to the fact that it seems to regularly escape the memory of Conservatives that they failed to win the general election in 2010. Despite Tory MPs having to negotiate on a daily basis with a rival political party just to keep their leader in Number 10, no substantive discussion seems to happen among Conservatives about why, in such conducive conditions, they failed to win a majority.

One reason for that is perhaps that would involve some rather uncomfortable truths.

It’s a fairly uncontroversial statement to say that more Britons share the fundamental beliefs of the Conservative party than …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 8 Comments
Stephen Tall

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:

Continue reading »
Posted in YouTube | Also tagged and | Leave a comment
Mark Pack

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 …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

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.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 12 Comments
Mark Pack

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.

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 8 Comments
Paul Tyler

Lord Tyler writes… Only the Government’s Bill can take the hereditary principle out of Parliament

By Paul Tyler | Wed 15th February 2012 - 2:23 pm

There has for some years been a conceit in the House of Lords that the place could gain stature and authority simply by doing a bit of tidying up at the edges, and by ending the hereditary principle. There has been a further conceit that this work can be done without controversy or delay.

Our own David Steel has been a doughty proponent of this approach, as a logical precursor to more comprehensive reform. Last Friday, he gave Peers their best opportunity ever to prove that it could work.

Yet the Lords showed itself resistant even to the modest changes on offer. …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged | 6 Comments
Mark Pack

The failure of David Steel’s Lords reform measure is good news

By Mark Pack | Sun 12th February 2012 - 1:10 pm

The attitude of former Liberal Party leader David Steel to Nick Clegg’s House of Lords reform proposals has been lukewarm at best. Although the party he headed up repeatedly called for a democratic upper house, Steel has not been supporting Nick Clegg’s attempt to turn those often made demands into policy. He even signed a cross-party letter against the proposals that was published the day of Clegg’s formal announcement.

Instead, Steel has been pursuing a different, much more modest, line – arguing that some modest reforms can be secured and they should be banked immediately as radical reform will take …

Continue reading »
Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 6 Comments
Prateek Buch

Nick Clegg on being Nick Clegg in The House magazine

By Prateek Buch | Fri 3rd February 2012 - 3:00 pm

Deputy Prime Minister gave a wide-ranging interview to The House magazine, in which he discusses how it’s right for the two coalition parties to differentiate themselves once a stable government was formed:

In the run-up to the general election, you may remember, the tabloids were screaming, saying that if there was a hung Parliament locusts would descend from the sky and the sun would be blotted out, you know… so we needed for those first few months to show the most important thing of all, which is this is a government that works, and actually works rather well.

Of course,

…

Continue reading »
Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged and | 1 Comment
Joshua Dixon

Opinion: The opportunity for Lords Reform must be taken

By Joshua Dixon | Wed 28th December 2011 - 2:57 pm

In 1997 the Labour Party manifesto outlined that under a Labour government the House of Lords would be reformed so that “the right of hereditary Peers to sit and vote in the House of Lords will be ended by statute…“. It was clear that change appeared to be on the agenda and the House of Lords Act 1999 provided changes to the rights of Hereditary Peers, removing the right for members to inherit their seats. This was achieved via a compromise which ensured 92 hereditary peers would remain in the House on an interim basis.

Although these were necessary …

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 8 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Simon R
    @Roland I think that's pretty much correct, but it's a bit deeper than that. In (IIRC 2011) the coalition Government announced it would fund a huge round of ele...
  • Roland
    I would be interested to see what information Michael has on the Midland Mainline electrification. From what information that is in the public domain, it would ...
  • Peter Martin
    Forgot the link! https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/Opinion_polling_graph_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election_%28post-2024%29.svg...
  • Peter Martin
    @ Paul Barker, "Currently Reform are losing about 1% every two Weeks, that doesn’t sound much but its enough to lose them their lead over Labour in th...
  • Peter Hirst
    We are where we are. Wales like the rest of the UK would benefit from rejoining the eu. While Wales might have benefitted from devolution, Wales also depends on...