Starmer

[scawsby steve]

Has come up with his best policy proposal so far. He intends to abolish the House of Lords and replace it with a fully elected second chamber.

Massive vote winner that IMHO.

[tyke1962]

Has come up with his best policy proposal so far. He intends to abolish the House of Lords and replace it with a fully elected second chamber.

Massive vote winner that IMHO.

At one time I thought The Lords did a very good job of keeping governments in check until of course it ended up full of people who donated to the Tory Party or pulled  strings for them to avoid democracy and scrutiny .

Pleased to see Starmer tackling this and ending it for good if he becomes PM .

Agree with Steve , a real vote winner .

[phil old leake]

Tyke the House of Lords is also full of Labour supporters , Liberal Democrats, greens, members of the church and independents and others It’s also full of old men and woman past their sell by date in a lot of cases

I do feel it needs reform but it needs to be organised better than the USA where the opposition in the House of Representatives generally win the mid terms blocking the elected parties in the senate. The one good thing about the Lords is it should be a representation of all parties.  Any replacement needs to be the same.
The worrying thing Is Starmer has been seeking advice from Tony Blair about how to get elected.  The same T Blair that lied to get the UK into an unnecessary war resulting in years of unrest through terrorism and the loss of an unknown amount of lives.   




An elected body would be tilted towards any specific party good or bad.

[ncRover]

House of Lords composition

Conservative   257
Crossbench   184
Labour   168
Liberal Democrat   84
Non-affiliated   38
Bishops   26
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)   5
Green Party   2

[tyke1962]

Tyke the House of Lords is also full of Labour supporters , Liberal Democrats, greens, members of the church and independents and others It’s also full of old men and woman past their sell by date in a lot of cases

I do feel it needs reform but it needs to be organised better than the USA where the opposition in the House of Representatives generally win the mid terms blocking the elected parties in the senate. The one good thing about the Lords is it should be a representation of all parties.  Any replacement needs to be the same.
The worrying thing Is Starmer has been seeking advice from Tony Blair about how to get elected.  The same T Blair that lied to get the UK into an unnecessary war resulting in years of unrest through terrorism and the loss of an unknown amount of lives.   




An elected body would be tilted towards any specific party good or bad.

Elected under a PR system possibly ?

[Branton Red]

This is very good news and long overdue.

I do agree with Phil that the 2nd chamber should not be allowed to become a devise for the opposition to block or needlessly delay laws being passed by the elected Government - even if the 2nd chamber is fully elected as well.

The current Parliament Acts which try to prevent this should remain in place and potentially be strengthened as part of the process of reform.

I look forward to hearing the detail behind how this will work.

Of course, as with any constitutional change, a referendum will be needed to confirm the change. Though I'd be supremely confident of a landslide victory in support.

[Glyn_Wigley]

You don't need a referendum to make Constitutional changes. The last reform of the HOF certainly didn't.

[Branton Red]

You don't need a referendum to make Constitutional changes. The last reform of the HOF certainly didn't.

True Glyn - poorly worded on my account. IMO a referendum should take place to confirm the changes.

[Glyn_Wigley]

I think we'd need to have a formal written constitution in order to be able to make amendments to it. Our constitution as it is is too loose a collection of precedents.