What is it about?
There have been many proposals for reforming the House of Lords over the years. This short article looks at one of the more recent, that by Nick Clegg and the Coalition government. It analyses its failings and sets out a simpler, evolutionary alternative that could have achieved most of the aims of the reformers while retaining much of what is good about the current House. A reset mechanism after each General Election could keep the House's size in check and inject an element of democracy and representativeness through using a mechanism similar to that used when most of the hereditary peers lost their seats.
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Why is it important?
The piece - building on my 2009 article House of Lords Reform: Many Anniversaries and a False Dichotomy? http://www.bailii.org/uk/other/journals/WebJCLI/2009/issue4/hand4.html and complemented by blog pieces in Halsbury's Law Exchange, the UKCLA blog and TheConversation.com - sets out a simple, size-restricting, democracy-injecting evolutionary change to the current House of Lords maintaining many of its current virtues while addressing legitimate concern.
Perspectives
A decade on and still a current issue - ahead of any reforms proposed ahead the next general election. If the role of the upper house changes, then the approach to membership may also change - but if the role remains the same then the proposals and warnings remain. See also https://jamesahand.substack.com/p/the-life-peerages-act-1958
James Hand
University of Portsmouth
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The House of Lords Reform White Paper and draft Bill 2011 and a simpler alternative, Amicus Curiae, June 2012, School of Advanced Study,
DOI: 10.14296/ac.v2011i88.1667.
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