House of Lords to get stuffed

[John Drake]

Remember the days when David Cameron used to witter on about 'cutting the cost of politics'? Just so much empty waffle as usual.

 

David Cameron to appoint more Tory peers to the House of Lords

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jul/28/david-cameron-to-appoint-more-tory-peers-to-the-house-of-lords

 

He still wants to cut the number of elected MPs from 650 to 600, but at the same time stuff the House of Lords full of yet more unelected, unaccountable appointees to do his bidding.

 

Democracy, eh.

[Stan Doffarf]

This country is not a democracy, never has been, never will be.

 

And they wonder why people don't bother to vote.

[Saint Toppy]

They all do it, Blair brought in loads of new Labour peers when he got in.

 

Personally I think the whole Lords system is out of date and the politics completely detracts from what they should be there to do which is to scrutinise legislation from the commons. 

 

Personally i'd be in favour of scrapping the whole lot of them and having a fully elected 2nd chamber, but for it to be completely politically neutral, with every member banned from being a member of any political party.

Legislation could then be properly scrutinised and debated so that what the country gets is right for the country and not whats right for whichever political party is in power.

[dhw]

This country is not a democracy, never has been, never will be.

 

And they wonder why people don't bother to vote.

People do not bother to vote because they are largely apathetic to politics. It has little to do with how democratic society is. How is the UK not a democracy?

[ckn]

People do not bother to vote because they are largely apathetic to politics. It has little to do with how democratic society is. How is the UK not a democracy?

We'll never have a complete democracy until the day that unelected people can't act as half of our legislature and our Prime Minister doesn't have to ask the Queen's permission to do something to do with our government.

[John Drake]

They all do it, Blair brought in loads of new Labour peers when he got in.

 

Personally I think the whole Lords system is out of date and the politics completely detracts from what they should be there to do which is to scrutinise legislation from the commons. 

 

Personally i'd be in favour of scrapping the whole lot of them and having a fully elected 2nd chamber, but for it to be completely politically neutral, with every member banned from being a member of any political party.

Legislation could then be properly scrutinised and debated so that what the country gets is right for the country and not whats right for whichever political party is in power.

 

To be fair to Tony Blair (not words you see often anywhere these days) his government did get rid of the hereditary peers in the Lords. One tiny step forward, but then, as you say, several steps further backwards because he appointed a load of so called 'working' life peers himself.

 

I'm not sure you could ever achieve a completely politically neutral and elected second chamber, however desirable that may sound, because standing for election without the support of a political party behind you is not easy and also quite expensive. Just getting a fairly basic candidate leaflet printed and distributed in a council ward is hard work. Dealing with bigger constituency areas is even harder. Plus, with no party allegiances at all, the second chamber would probably end up resembling a cat-herding conference.

 

The issue for me isn't that politicians sit in the Lords, it is that whoever sits in the Lords, they owe their positions to patronage, and though many of them work hard and with integrity, many of them also do not, but regardless of their performance, we cannot get rid of any of them, they are completely unaccountable.

 

Their numbers grow but never diminish.

 

That just ain't right.

[Bedford Roughyed]

Democracy in the lords -

 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/i-am-the-lord-of-the-dance-said-the-lib-dem#.of0dP2JbL

 

 

On 19 April possibly the strangest democratic election to any legislature in the world will take place, with seven candidates competing for the votes of three people for one place in the British parliament.