Just watching the racing at Ascot where Interview a youngish lad who was a direct descendant and the son of a whoever the current Hardwick is. his ambition is to join the House of Lords…got me raging again about hereditary peers! What gives him the right to expect to walk into the upper house and decide laws of of the land it’s too hot…. nurse a towel!!
Totally agree. I think the second chamber should be made up ( at least partially) by being randomly selected like for jury service) for a year. Would fit in with working parents too, because of the holidays.
The second chamber should be made up using PR off the same set of results from the commons. That way you'd maintain the benefits of FPTP, but every vote would count. Give the second chamber expanded powers to potentially veto or propose legislation.
The hereditary peers bill is still before parliament and will progress to the report stage on 2 July 2025. It would remove the remaining rights of hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords. So the entitled young laddie interviewed may be disappointed.
That would skew things even further by making tactical voting more complicated. Labour don't represent me, but I'd probably still feel the need to vote for them in, say, a Reform/Labour marginal. By claiming that PR is in play and using my vote to top up their numbers in both houses they'd then be able to ignore tactical voting even more than they already do.
Sitting in the House of Lords gets you £300 plus a day, most go just to have a nap, all this young Toff wants is easy money with no work
Agreed. It should be a real mix of people from different backgrounds from lawyers to brickies so they can judge effectively the real world effects of law changes. I feel you’d need some sort of appointed chair to steer discussions as you’d end up with some cranks in there.
