The House of Lords is beyond redemption. While recent scandals have brought this issue to the forefront of politics, the reality is that the Lords has been an outdated and defunct institution for over a century. At the last election Labour proposed to replace the Lords with an elected Senate representing the regions and nations of the […]
Posts Tagged ‘Constitutional Reform’
Whatever happened to the two party system?
Nov 20th, 2014 by Trevor Fisher.The British political system is based on two parties electing the Prime Minister, who has to command a majority in the House of Commons. The ruling assumption was that there will be only two parties, an alternating government party and an opposition. There has never been much call for proportional representation and a multi party […]
The human rights act is not enough – we need a codified constitution
Aug 19th, 2013 by Jonathan Biggins.For centuries the liberty of the British people was grounded upon the concept of negative liberty. People held the freedom to do as they wish up until they were limited by statute. The 1998 Human Rights Act changed this. Finally people were granted positive liberty: a set of apparently inalienable rights for all citizens, and […]
Do we really need a House of Lords?
Jul 31st, 2012 by Kelvin Hopkins.With the Euro getting ever nearer to collapse, the world economy moving deeper into recession, unemployment in Britain predicted to surge above three million and the IMF warning that we are facing a decade of depression unless the government does a massive u-turn, there are definitely more important matters to deal with than House of […]
When Labour (almost) threatened to abolish the House of Lords
Jul 11th, 2012 by David Osler.Ever so briefly, it was official Labour Party policy to abolish the House of Lords. A resolution demanding exactly that was carried with a two-thirds majority at the 1978 conference. As the rules then stood, that qualified the proposal for automatic inclusion in the following year’s manifesto. Indeed, in his autobiography, the late leftwing MP Eric […]
Lords reform may break up Coalition: bring it on!
Apr 23rd, 2012 by Michael Meacher.It’s almost incredible that after public spending and benefit cuts of £109bn went through with scarcely a murmur of rebellion, the reform of the Lords now look set to be the issue that splits the Coalition in two. It’s incredible because no-one in their right mind can make the argument that with 92 hereditary peers […]