Benjamin Bland writes for the University of York’s The Yorker on why he supports the abolition of the House of Lords:
There’s been a fair amount of chatter about the House of Lords in the last couple of years. Lords reform has been a part of Liberal Democrat party policy for some time and, it was suggested, would be one of the things that Nick Clegg’s party would push through during their time in coalition government.
Having said that, major Lords reform was also a policy that the Labour party looked to implement before their election in 1997, and no serious changes happened under the stewardship of Blair or Brown.
Certainly the very idea of the House of Lords having a place in modern Britain seems fairly ridiculous, given the outdated aristocratic and religious connotations of the institution. However the most important issue surrounding the continuing role of the Lords in British politics is actually a far simpler one even than that. Essentially this particular upper house has lost political credibility and usefulness. It has been a long time since the Lords have had a major impact on legislation in this country. The cabinet, for the most part, sits in the Commons and it is they who decide policy and if the Lords don’t like it – well, that’s usually tough on the Lords…
Full article here.
Abolishing the Lords is just common sense
There’s been a fair amount of chatter about the House of Lords in the last couple of years. Lords reform has been a part of Liberal Democrat party policy for some time and, it was suggested, would be one of the things that Nick Clegg’s party would push through during their time in coalition government.
Having said that, major Lords reform was also a policy that the Labour party looked to implement before their election in 1997, and no serious changes happened under the stewardship of Blair or Brown.
Certainly the very idea of the House of Lords having a place in modern Britain seems fairly ridiculous, given the outdated aristocratic and religious connotations of the institution. However the most important issue surrounding the continuing role of the Lords in British politics is actually a far simpler one even than that. Essentially this particular upper house has lost political credibility and usefulness. It has been a long time since the Lords have had a major impact on legislation in this country. The cabinet, for the most part, sits in the Commons and it is they who decide policy and if the Lords don’t like it – well, that’s usually tough on the Lords…
Full article here.
Share this:
About the author
Deputy Editor. Beckie is a final-year Japanese student at the University of Leeds. She is Editor-in-Chief of Lippy: No Gloss and Features Editor of Leeds Student.