This is pretty big news in British Politics and could fundmentally change the way government works in Great Britain. The current Labour Government has always pushed for reforming the House of Lords – currently a mixture of life appointed peers and hereditary Lords.
Now, with an election looming, the time is right to propose changes since the strategy can be used to drum up support for Labour. And the changes are pretty drastic.
According to the Telegraph – who got their hands on a leaked proposal – the House of Lords reforms will include:
- Members will have to be UK residents and tax domiciled in the UK
- Members can be subject to a recall initiative and be kicked out of office for imcompetence
- All members will be directly elected – ending party patronage awarded peerages
- Government Ministers chosen from the Lords will have to be elected
- 1/3 of Members will be up for election in a general election – similar to the US Senate. Terms will be 15 years (if I’m reading it right).
- The name of the chamber ‘House of Lords’ will be scrapped as well with ‘The Senate’ being the preferred favorite name (there will be a ‘consultation’).
- Limit members to 300 (there are 700-800 now)
This is just a few of the details on House of Lords reforms that are being reported and they are far reaching.
It’s also very dangerous – once you start abolishing the remaining Lords and their chamber – it’s only a matter of time before people start wondering what the point of the Queen is.
It will be very interesting to see how it all plays out or if it will actually go anywhere at all. Either way – this is ‘the thin end of the wedge’ as Sir Humphrey Appleby would say.
Guess I can erase ‘Get a Life Peerage’ off my bucket list now…
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Anglotopia was founded by Jonathan and Jackie Thomas for people who love Britain - whether it's British TV, Culture, History or Travel - we cover it all. Anglotopia was started to get us back to the UK for a trip and it did that in 2009. Now, the goal is for Anglotopia to make our dreams of traveling to the UK whenever we want a reality.
It’s very unlikely that Labour will get elected with a big enough majority to push this through. Even if they did, would they really want to push it though, they never bothered with the EU referendum? Even if Labour did try to push this through there would be massive opposition from the Lords and others, I’m sure other parties would use this as an hammer to beat them on the head with.
If by some remote chance it did get through I think you are quite right, the justification for the monarchy would be weakened; not, I think, while the Queen was on the thrown – but after that. As it is I don’t expect William to reign and I’m not sure he wants to. Sad, really.
The possibility that the House of Lords would be abolished is bad enough; it would be terribly sad to see the monarchy itself removed. As far as ancient hereditary institutions go, it has adapted to modern times very well and if it’s being changed just to try and prove how “modern” the Labour party is, then that is pathetic.
Many people think that by getting rid of the Queen and the Royal Family that somehow the cost to the taxpayer will magically be lifted. Not so. The cost to the taxpayer will remain the same or probably go up even without a monarch.
I think somewhere, somehow, politicians are looking to deal with their own corruptible kind. They don’t want to be bothered about any historical or emotional significance to the nation.
To think that Labour would go so far to destroy our heritage is scandalous. They’ve already brought the country to become a laughing stock during the reign of Blair/Brown – immigration and loving anyone but Brits anyone? It seems that the Labour party wants to model the UK on US concepts – and we all know how well that’s doing over here these days. What exactly is wrong with the wonderful traditions we have in place and that are still so admired throughout the world? Political corruption is rife – deal with the politicians, not the tools they use.