The absurdity which is the current House of Lords
“Half the members of the House of Lords clock in and out of Parliament for a few minutes a day in order to claim a £300 daily attendance allowance, a former Conservative peer has said. Lord Hanningfield made the claim when challenged to explain his own attendance record.”
This is the opening to a story on the BBC web site about the latest scandal to hit members of the UK’s second chamber. I don’t actually believe this and I know some really excellent and very hard working peers. But the present composition of the Lords is completely indefensible.
In my “Short Guide To The British Political System”, I write:
“The House of Lords is an utterly bizarre institution that has no parallel anywhere in the democratic world. Indeed the only other country with an unelected second chamber is Lesotho.”
I point out:
“There is no fixed number of members in the House of Lords, but currently there are almost 800 active members – many more than in the House of Commons, more than the combined houses of the American Congress or the Indian Parliament (although both of these nations have a federal system), and the second biggest legislative body in the world (after the Chinese National People’s Congress which is effectively a rubber-stamping body).”
As if this was not bad enough, I add:
“A small number of … members – 26 – are Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England. Iran is the only other country in the world that provides automatic seats for senior religious figures in its legislature.”
So, why have we not reformed the Lords? I explain:
“The Queen’s Speech of May 2012 announced that there would be a Bill on Lords reform in the current session of Parliament. The latest proposal for reform comes from a Joint Committee of the two houses which recommended a 450-seat chamber with peers elected for 15 years in elections to be held every five years. Of these, 80% would be elected by a form of proportional representation with 20% appointed by an independent body.
In fact, neither the Commons (especially the Conservative Party) nor the Lords is keen on reform for very different reasons (MPs do not want the Lords to gain more legitimacy and nominated peers do not want to be replaced by elected representatives). In the summer of 2012, the Prime Minister announced that he could not deliver Conservative support for a reform measure which was therefore withdrawn to the intense anger of the Liberal Democrats who very much support reform.”