Evaluate the view that the House of Lords is in need of major reform. Flashcards
Introduction - Themes
- Appointments
- Legitimacy
- Representation
Introduction - Argument
The House of Lords in its current state is undemocratic and unrepresentative, this means it must be reformed in order to benefit the UK political system
Not Reform - Appointments - Point
The current process to become a peer involves being appointment, there are no elections to the House of Lords. This means that the make-up of the Lords can be manipulated to benefit democracy
Not Reform - Appointments - Examples
- The peers tend to be experts in their fields. Lord Adonis is a former academic and an expert in economics, education and transport issues
- The composition of the HOL is a lot less polarised than the Commons, the Conservatives have 260 seats, Labour 173, but there are also 185 crossbenchers who have no political affliation
Reform - Appointments - Point
In recent time, there have been accusations of cronyism which means the peers are not elected on their own merit rather their contributions to the major parties
Reform - Appointments - Examples
- Boris Johnson’s appointment to the House of Lords were a prime example of this, in 2020 he nominated 36 new peers, many of which were Brexit supporters and his brother
- The Guardian found that 1 in 10 Tory peers currently in the House of Lords have given more than £100,000 to the Conservative Party
Not Reform - Legitimacy - Point
One of the aims of the House of Lords is to check the actions of the House of Commons, arguably in our system they are able to do this without causing legislative gridlock and provide greater legitimacy to the system
Not Reform - Legitimacy - Examples
- The Parliament Act 1949 refined the delaying powers to the House of Lords down to 1 year, this has meant that they have still been able to check the Commons while not ending up in a legislative standstill
- The House of Lords Act 1999 removed many of the hereditary peers in the House of Lords reducing the number to just 92
Reform - Legitimacy - Point
Despite the UK being a bicameral state, the House of Lords is very much subordinate to the Commons, this compromises the legitimacy of the UK democracy and hinders its ability to properly scrutinise the House of Commons
Reform - Legitimacy - Examples
- The Salisbury Convention means that the House of Lords does not delay or block legislation that was included in a government’s manifesto. This means the HOL cannot effective scrutinise legislation
- The House of Commons has the ability to bypass the House of Lords, this has happened on occassion. The Hunting Act 2004 which banned fox hunting is an example of it
Not Reform - Representation - Point
The Lords currently provides alternative representation from the Commons, and in some respects perform this aim much better, making people argue it is not in need of reform
Not Reform - Representation - Examples
- The Lords performs much better at party representation than the Commons. The Conservatives do have a majority, but a relatively small one - other parties such as the Gress, Lib Dems and DUP have more seats than in Westminster
- The Lords not being as concerned with party politics are able to concern themselves with certain aspects of society - a role the HOC severely lacks in
Reform - Representation - Point
The Lords is massively unrepresentative of the UK as a whole, their social representation is even more dramatic than the Commons. This compromises democratic legitimacy and means that reform is clearly necessary
Reform - Representation - Examples
- More than half the peers are over 70, and 62% privately educated. The majority are also white, with few ethnic minorities
- The problem with the composition and appointment of the HOL points to the adoption of a PR system to elect peers. This would help to maintain party representation, but stop cronyism
