Lords Reform Updates
| April 2012 Democracy Not a Priority for Legislators
British Politicians Unite to Save Lords' Privileges |  |
Long-awaited and overdue democratisation of Britain's legislature is threatened again as legislators-for-life, and Conservative and Labour MPs, contemptuous of democratic rights, conspire to block it.
Although all three major parties promised reform of the House of Lords in their election manifestos, a parliamentary committee has recommended that reform of Britain's semi-feudal House of Lords be delayed for ratification in a referendum. Although this might look democratic, the intention is almost certainly not so. Half of the committee members are legislators-for-life, one of whom chaired the committee.
At the same time many Tory MPs are threatening a major revolt if the reforms go ahead. At a meeting called to discuss the reforms only one Tory spoke in favour. The motivation here seems to be a mixture of hostility to the weakening of feudal traditions and class hierarchy, an indifference to democratic rights that puts them in second place on the legislative schedule, and a fear that a democratic second chamber would hold the House of Commons in check to a greater extent than the Lords. Many Tory MPs want to use the issue to "put Mr. Clegg (Deputy Prime Minister) in his place" according to the Financial Times. Prime Minister Cameron has said that “it’s not the most important priority for the government”.
Although the social-democratic Labour Party is supposedly committed to reform, it is happy to see the reform legislation obstructed in Parliament if that makes life difficult for the Conservative/Liberal Democratic coalition. Its shadow justice minister has said "it is only right" that there be a referendum. According to the Financial Times "Labour is relishing the discord the issue is sowing within the coalition". And Labour legislators-for-life have “been authorised”, according to that newspaper, to join with Conservatives to sabotage democratic reform of the legislature.
Janet Royall, leader of the Labour “Lords”, believes it is “risible” for parliament to spend time on democratic reform when there are severe economic problems. In truth the legislature spends little time on economic management. And the reform itself would not take up much time if the legislators were not intent on making trouble. Deputy Prime Minister Clegg commented that the determination of the legislators-for-life to “trample all over” the reforms was a good argument for taking away their feudal privileges.
Thomas Galbraith, the Tory legislator-for-life, who inherited a seat in parliament from his grandfather, is responsible for getting the government’s reforms through the second chamber. He claims to be committed to making the chamber more democratic but has been suggesting that the reforms would be expensive and cause problems for the House of Commons. According to the FT “his comments seem almost calculated to further incite MPs”.
Twelve members of the parliamentary committee issued a minority report opposing the reforms on the grounds of cost. Among the authors of the minority report is former trade union leader Elizabeth Symons, who was made a legislator-for-life by the Labour Party. It seems that no expense is too great to keep the Windsor clan in the style to which it is accustomed, but democracy can be just too expensive to be afforded!
Referenda are highly unusual in Britain, where legislators usually show no great reluctance to do what they know the majority of the people do not want, and where parliamentary sovereignty is considered a constitutional fundamental. All major parties made a commitment to the reforms in their election manifestos. And allowing the people a basic right denied to them for hundreds of years is hardly radical. It is odd that those who claim to be democrats would question whether the people really want such a right. Earlier reforms of the legislature have not been subject to referenda.
The committee calling for the referendum also wants there to be 450 legislators in the reformed chamber, 150 more than the government proposes. The United States makes do with 100 senators. But the committee agreed with the government that the democratic legitimacy should still be denied by allowing for twenty per cent of the legislators to be appointed by political parties and the state Anglican church. And it does not seem that the referendum would allow the people to insist that all legislators be elected or that the egregiously privileged position of the Church of England be ended. The people must not be given only so much of a say in their own affairs!
In once item of good news the government indicated that the legislators-for-life who lose their egregious privileges will not be given financial compensation. A former Liberal Party leader had said they should be paid £30,000 each.
Katie Ghose of the Electoral Reform Society said that she could understand why the legislators-for-life were hostile to reform but that MPs had no excuse. "
| February 2012 Liberal Democrat To Fight Liberal Democracy | |
Liberal Democrat legislator-for-life John Lee has threatened to resign as party whip if the government goes ahead with reform of the House of Lords. The unelected legislator told the Financial Times that there is “pretty much zero support from serious political commentators” for ending the privileges of the so called “lords” who sit in the legislature. The most recent British Attitudes Survey found that of the British people only 6% think the second chamber does not need reform. The Liberal Party proposed the first reform legislation that led to the Parliament Act 1911.
Lee threatened a “long, bitter and bloody battle” against democratisation. He added that it would be “appalling” if the House of Commons voted to force through legislation against the will of the “lords” .
According to the same report the Labour Party will not oppose reform legislation in the House of Commons. But it is hoping that opposition from the legislators-for-life will obstruct the reform bill so as to cause maximum trouble for the coalition government.
If the new law is passed the changes will be phased-in between 2015 and 2025. The “lords” will be paid off with as much as £30,000.
Democrats have been fighting for more than 350 years to free their country of the “lords”. As long ago as 1646 Richard Overton informed MPs that they “prejudiced us in acting so as if you could not make a law without both the royal assent of the king (so you are pleased to express yourselves) and the assent of the Lords".
More recently, in 2002, The Economist expressed the case for reform succinctly:
"The amount of time spent arguing about whether or not Britain's second chamber should be directly elected or not seems bizarre. Of course it should be. Direct elections are how democratic countries get their legislatures. Legislatures are reckoned to work better if they have second chambers. Ergo, Britain should have an elected second chamber. Hard, wasn't it?"
| June 2011 Time Warped Britain Set To Keep Hereditary Legislators | |
Britain may be stuck with the feudal obscenity of hereditary legislators for a long time yet according to an interview in the Financial Times. Thomas Galbraith, the leader of the House of Lords who inherited his own seat in Britain's legislature and had held it without a vote for 25 years, warned that it was unlikely that the legislation to reform the feudal chamber of Britain's legislature would be passed by 2015, the latest date for a general election.
Galbraith wants twenty per cent of the legislators in the reformed chamber to be unelected, including some hereditary legislators. In the same report Nick Clegg, Deputy Prime Minister and promoter of the current reform proposals, was said to be willing to tolerate the feudal leftovers as the price of making progress in democratising what is sometimes misleadingly referred to as “the mother of parliaments”.
Mr. Galbraith warned that the legislature might refuse to democratise the second house or “we may be overwhelmed with other legislation” leaving insufficient time for democracy. In fact the amount of new legislation has been predicted to fall in the second half of the coalition's term of office. The truth is that 80 per cent of legislators-for-life are determined to defend their privileges according to an opinion poll. The Financial Times reported that these opponents of democratic government come from “across the political spectrum”.
British democrats have been waiting for at least 350 to be free of illegitimate power of the legislators-for-life. It is 100 years since the first reform was enacted.
| May 2011 Conservatives Plot Against Democratic Reform | |
Conservatives are plotting to sabotage the democratisation of the House of Lords, according to newspaper reports.
According to the Daily Telegraph the Conservative Christian Fellowship is working to protect the ability of the state Church of England to bypass the democratic process and appoint its bishops as legislators. In a recent paper it proposed that Baptist, Catholic, Methodist and "black-led" congregations also be allowed to appoint legislators. They apparently hope that this broadening of undemocratic privilege would weaken opposition to the state church's privileges.
Apparently the Conservatives are not so keen on Muslim representation but may be willing to swallow that if necessary to protect the privileges of Christians.
Prime Minister Cameron was reported by the Telegraph to be "determined that the House of Lords is not turned into a secular institution".
At the same time Conservatives are hoping to delay the replacement of other legislators-for-life with elected senators. One plan is to start with only 76 elected senators out of a final 500.
The Telegraph reported that both Conservative and Labour legislators-for-life would not be "bullied" into accepting reforms with which they disagreed. The last time the House of Commons voted to reform the second chamber the Lords resisted "bullying" by voting down the reform in a remarkably boisterous display of arrogance.
The Financial Times reported that Conservative MPs would also be trying to prevent reform out of pique over the behaviour of their Liberal Democrat coalition partners. They were said to have described the long-awaited reform as driving "a coach and horses through our constitution". And as "revolutionary" rather than "evolutionary". One MP said that "Tory backbenchers don't like mucking around with the constitution".
In fact Britain does not have a real constitution and progress towards a democratic legislature has been made very slowly over hundreds of years. Anti-democratic forces have long been successful in denying the people the basic democratic right of choosing all legislators.
| May 2010 350 Years - A Nation Still Waits | |
"Direct elections are how democratic countries get their legislatures. Legislatures are reckoned to work better if they have second chambers. Ergo, Britain should have an elected second chamber. Hard, wasn't it?"
That's how in 2002 the Economist magazine answered the question of what was to be done about the feudal House of Lords. But the Economist was not the first to notice this. Richard Overton, 350 years before, had seen the incompatibility of democracy and Lords. "You only are chosen by the people" he told MPs in A Remonstrance of Many Thousand Citizens, "and therefore in you only is the power of binding the whole nation by making, altering or abolishing of laws. You have therefore prejudiced us in acting so as if you could not make a law without both the royal assent of the king (so you are pleased to express yourselves) and the assent of the Lords".
So converting the British to democratic government is a hard and long job. In 2010 hereditary legislators, Anglican bishops and state appointees still make up the second chamber. The people of Britain have no say in it.
The new governing coalition agreement between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties provides for the for "Lords" to become a "wholly or mainly elected" legislative chamber. But "mainly elected" would mean still undemocratic. Before the election Conservative Party leader David Cameron told aides that even this reform was something that might be done in the third term of a Conservative government. At the end of May, however, Cameron announced that there would be a vote on a draft reform motion in December 2010. Detailed legislation would follow, it was said.
The legislators-for-life will certainly again do their best to prevent democracy. A Financial Times commentator reported that when Parliament was told of the coalition's intention to legislate for a "wholly or mainly elected" second chamber "I saw one peeress - I think it was Baroness Howe - lift her head up and emit a sound that even from the gallery it was possible to recognise as 'Huh!'
Meanwhile both Conservative and Labour parties will be increasing the number of legislators-for-life, or "peers" as they are oddly named.
In its thirteen years of government the Labour Party was no more hungry for democracy than the Conservatives. It left the UK with the barely credible 21st century status of a nation with hereditary legislators.
It feared a chamber that might have both democratic legitimacy and the ability to hold the executive in check. The party favoured at best a reformed chamber that was only partly elected by the people. And when the legislators-for-life used their illegitimate power to block even that reform, the party failed to challenge them.
| July 2008 Democracy Delated (Again) | |
The end of feudalism in the British legislature may be delayed again. Justice minister Jack Straw has published the third discussion paper on House of Lords reform in seven years. But if he has his way there will be no more reform until after the general election, which may not be until 2010.
The Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats have agreed on some aspects of reform. But it is still possible that twenty per cent of the legislators will not be chosen by the people. This continued refusal to allow a basic democratic right to the people would be made worse by the inclusion in this twenty per cent of legislators appointed by the state Church of England.
The Labour Party wants those legislators who are elected to be chosen by the multi-seat party list system. This would reinforce the power of the major parties at the expense of the people by requiring voters to choose a list of candidates from one party or another, and not split their votes between parties if they wish.
| March 2007 Cheering Greets Democracy's Defeat | |
"Although the House of Lords is less powerful than the House of Commons, it is a fundamental part of the United Kingdom Parliament, and has an integral part to play in the creation of the laws that govern our country ? it is not powerless." White Paper
Britain?s legislators-for-life left no doubt about their contempt for democratic rights when they voted on 14 March 2007 by a majority of 361 to stop the people electing any of the members of Parliament's second chamber. Only 121 opposed this decision while, in another vote, a mere 122 supported the election of all legislators.
The feudal legislative chamber was packed for the vote. According to the Financial Times the unelected legislators "vociferously expressed" their opposition to the decision of elected members of parliament that they should lose their privileged part in law making. But "the normally solemn chamber reverberated with cheers" when the "Lords" voted by 409 to 46 against even a half-elected chamber.
The BBC predicted that this overwhelming rejection of democracy would lead to "months of parliamentary gridlock". The vote is likely to help Jack Straw, the leader of the House of Commons who has responsibility for reforming the Lords, put together a compromise deal that would leave many unelected legislators in Parliament. Mr. Straw would like only 50% to be elected.
Read the full story.
| February 2007 Another Forty Years | |
There will be another 40 plus years of legislators-for-life if government proposals for reform of the House of Lords made public by the Labour Leader of the House of Commons, Jack Straw, are agreed. The current legislators-for-life would be allowed to keep their seats until they died. Even then 50 per cent of the legislators could be representing themselves in the legislature, not the people.
These proposals were in a White Paper published in February that is intended to set out the final stage for reform of a legislative chamber that still includes hereditary legislators and legislators representing the Church of England.
Members of Parliament will have, however, a "free vote" that will allow them to reject the 50-50 proposal. They will be able to decide on the proportion of legislators that should be elected. The options will range from no elected legislators to a fully elected chamber. If any members of the reformed chamber are elected they will represent the same regional constituencies as members of the European Parliament. These representatives of the people will no longer be given the feudal title of "Lord".
In an arrangement rather like allowing criminals to form the jury, the approval of the legislators-for-life is required for any reform of the House of Lords to become law. The "Lords" are reported to be dead set against the loss of their feudal privileges.
The White Paper allowed the Conservative Party, long a staunch opponent of democratisation, to say correctly that "these reforms will not lead to a more democratic and independent House of Lords". Party spokesperson Theresa May said "While the Conservatives believe in election by the many, Labour?s reforms would mean selection by the few".
Mr. Straw expressed the attenuated British understanding of the rights to the people prior to the publication of the White Paper with the statement that "In a modern democracy, it is difficult to justify a second chamber where there is no elected element ? where the public has no direct input into who sits in it".
| November 2006 People May Be Denied Rights Again | |
The government announced in the ?queen's speech? to parliament on 15 November that it will propose
legislation to reform the House of Lords. A second chamber entirely elected by and accountable to
the people seems unlikely, however, unless the elected members of parliament take a stand for
democracy.
The government said that it would seek a consensus on how the feudal legislative chamber should be
changed. A white paper is expected before the end of the year. But press reports suggest that this
will propose that only a proportion of the legislators be accountable to the people.
Following the ?queen's speech? international development minister Hilary Benn called for the
government to lose its power to nominate legislators to seats in the House of Lords. However, he
wanted only eighty per cent of the legislators to be elected by the people. The rest, he said,
should be chosen by the elected legislators in what is now called the House of Lords.
A committee of the unelected legislators has reported that it believes the present undemocratic
arrangements work well and should not be changed. The committee was chaired by John Cunningham, an unelected Labor legislator. It was appointed to look at how the balance of power between the
democratic and feudal chambers might be regulated. Mr. Cunningham is reported to have said that the reformed chamber should be ?largely appointed or wholly elected?. He believed that it would be illogical for it to be a mixture of both elected and unelected legislators. Mr. Cunningham said that there was no consensus on what should be done.
Jack Straw, leader of the House of Commons, is reported to have recommended to the committee that only 50 per cent of the legislators be elected. The rest would be appointed. He also proposed that the number of legislators be reduced by one third, that no more legislators-for-life be appointed and that there be guaranteed quotas for members of ethnic minorities. Mr. Straws intends to make firm proposals to Parliament by the end of 2006. Labour MPs will not be obliged to vote in accordance with the policy of their party.
The conservative and liberal democrat parties want more elected legislators but only 80 per cent.
The current House of Lords legislators inherited their seats or were nominated by the main
political parties. A number bought their seats by making large donations to one of those parties.
None was chosen by or is accountable to the people.
Allegations being investigated by the Metropolitan Police that seats in the Lords were sold to
wealthy benefactors are causing a scandal in Britain. Giving away these seats free of charge is
still widely considered to be acceptable.
| April 2005 PM gives way on election of legislators | |
Prime Minister Tony Blair is said to have put aside his opposition to the election of House of Lords legislators after long arguments in the cabinet. As a result the Labour Party election manifesto included a commitment to a free vote on the composition of that chamber. It is likely that this will eventually lead to the election of the majority of the legislators.
Other promised reforms include the removal of the remaining 92 hereditary legislators-for-life, a limit of 60 days on the time for which the Lords can delay legislation passed by the House of Commons and a ban on Lords blocking manifesto commitments.
Tory legislators-for-life are expected to be ferocious in their resistance to the democratisation of the Lords.
| March 2004 Hereditary Legislators Reprieved | |
There will be no more reform of the House of Lords in this session of parliament, the government has announced. This means that the remaining 93 hereditary legislators-for-life will keep their seats in the legislature for the time being.
The decision not to go ahead with a bill to remove the hereditary legislators was taken because it seemed likely that the majority of legislators-for-life who are not Labour Party supporters would overrule the wishes of the elected legislators in the House of Commons. The government also feared that its own legislators in the Commons might try to amend the bill to require that legislators be elected.
The government is going ahead with a bill to removed senior judges from the legislature, however, after an agreement with tory legislators-for-life to limit the time for which the bill will be delayed in committee. This attempt to separate judicial and legislative functions is still expected to meet tough resistance from conservative legislators-for-life.
| February 2004 Indirect election proposed | |
At a Fabian Society conference in February House of Commons Leader Peter Hain suggested that legislators in Parliament's second chamber be indirectly elected. Election would be by a "secondary mandate" system under which seats would be allocated according to the parties' share of the vote in the general election to the House of Commons. Under this arrangement the parties, not by the people, would choose the legislators.
According to the Financial Times it is likely that Hain has the support of Prime Minister Tony Blair for his proposal.
| September 2003 All hereditary legislators to go | |
The constitutional affairs secretary has announced that the government will propose legislation to remove the remaining 92 hereditary legislators from Parliament. New legislators-for-life will continue to be appointed however, under the supervision of a statutory commission.
The conservative party leader in the House of Lords threatened a "major fight" against the reform. Legislators-for-life from other parties also protested that their illegitimate power would be weakened if all members of the second chamber were appointed.
| February 2003 Parliament votes against elections | |
A majority of MPs have voted to prevent election by the people of the legislators who sit in the second chamber of parliament. There were 272 in favour but 289 against.
In the House of Lords, where legislators-for-life were able to vote on whether they should be chosen by the people, three-quarters voted to block democratic reform.
Most observers had expected the Commons to compromise on one of seven options for reform presented by a joint committee of both houses of parliament that mixed varying proportions of elected and appointed legislators. All of seven were voted down by MPs, however.
Some MPs put the blame at the door of PM Tony Blair, who had confessed his opposition to a democratic second chamber shortly before the vote. Both he and Chancellor Gordon Brown failed to vote.
Twenty-five members of Tony Blair?s government did vote against his preferred outcome - an all-appointed second chamber. Conservative party leader Iain Duncan Smith supported the election of 80 percent of legislators.
The joint committee will now consider what to do next. Most observers thought that the failure of MPs to agree would delay change until after the next general election.
The possibility of removing hereditary and clerical legislators as an interim step has been put forward by Downing Street. Supporters of a democratic chamber may resist that, however, as all the remaining legislators would be state-appointed.
Jack Cunningham, who chairs the joint committee, has proposed an alternative approach - indirect election by the members of the Scottish parliament, the Welsh assembly and the as yet not existent English regional assemblies.
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December 2002
People?s rights may be denied in legislative reform but people will foot huge bill | |
A legislative chamber with no elected legislators is among the options for reform of the House of Lords to be considered by parliament in 2003. It is included in seven choices set out in a report by a joint parliamentary committee which may lead to legislation a year from now. The 600 unelected legislators could cost the taxpayers £230M a year.
The committee, in which 12 legislators-for-life from the feudal Lords carried equal weight with 12 elected members of parliament, agreed that the powers of the reformed chamber should not be expanded. They were split over whether the second chamber should have democratic legitimacy, however.
The seven options for the composition of the chamber set out by the committee include a fully elected chamber, although it is clear that it was frightened by that prospect. Others allow for elected elements of 20, 40, 50, 60, and 80 per cent of people?s representatives. The option of no elections is also included. In all but the democratic option a state appointments commission would appoint some or all legislators.
The committee recommended that the 91 hereditary legislators who still sit in parliament should lose their seats. Those of the current legislators-for-life who did not inherit their seats might continue to be legislators for as long as they wanted however, since the committee was "not attracted" to the idea of removing their privileges. New law-makers would sit for 12 years.
The joint committee made no definite recommendations on whether the supreme court should continue to be a part of the legislature. Nor on whether the Church of England should keep its power to appoint legislators. However, it did hold out the possibility that judges might continue to sit in parliament even if the supreme court became independent. It also suggested that that other religious groups might join the Church of England with a privileged place in government.
No other democratic legislative chamber would have as many legislators as the 600 proposed by the joint committee. Earlier this year Public Accounts Administration Select Committee recommended that membership should be only 350. The consequent cost to the taxpayers of this huge assembly would be £230M each year, £170M more than at present.
Commentators expect members of the House of Commons to favour election to 80% of the seats in the reformed chamber, while legislators-for-life will vote for only 20%.
The joint committee report is here
May 2002
Parliament To Formulate Reforms | |
Tony Blair?s plan for a legislative chamber to replace the House of Lords that was 80% unelected seems to have been abandoned. Government ministers have announced that they want Parliament to draw up its own proposals for reform.
Some MPs hope that this change of tack will allow reforms to be agreed by the time of the next general election. Other commentators suspect a plot by Tony Blair to delay reform further in response to the hostility with which his plans were met. His government will certainly try to block any added powers for the second chamber.
A joint committee of MPs and unelected legislators from the House of Lords will draw up a range of options for reform of the composition and powers of the second chamber, possibly by the time of Parliament?s summer recess. When these have been debated by both chambers more detailed proposals will be prepared as a basis for legislation.
The change of plan seems to be the result of division within the Cabinet, opposition from MPs and the public response to the White Paper in which the government set out its intentions.
"Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same."
The preamble to a parliamentary bill in the "mother of parliaments."
