[mike777]

Good Grief Charlie Brown!

The House of Lords is to become an elective office. What is the world coming to? Voting for King or Queen? Whatever happened to good breeding and bloodlines counting for something.

[pbleighton]

"The House of Lords is to become an elective office. What is the world coming to? Voting for King or Queen? Whatever happened to good breeding and bloodlines counting for something."

Well, just look at our current President

Peter

[david_c]

I don't think there was ever any doubt that the hereditary peers would be abolished, this was just a matter of time.

But the big decision to be made was whether the members of the new "House of Lords" (if it was still to be called that) would be appointed or elected - the latest vote was in favour of them being 100% elected.

I feel this is completely wrong. We don't want politicians in the second house, we want people who are good at the job of revising legislation - experts, specialists, clear-thinkers. I don't believe it's possible for the general public to select people on that basis.

[hrothgar]

david_c, on Mar 8 2007, 09:32 PM, said:

I don't think there was ever any doubt that the hereditary peers would be abolished, this was just a matter of time.

But the big decision to be made was whether the members of the new "House of Lords" (if it was still to be called that) would be appointed or elected - the latest vote was in favour of them being 100% elected.

I feel this is completely wrong. We don't want politicians in the second house, we want people who are good at the job of revising legislation - experts, specialists, clear-thinkers. I don't believe it's possible for the general public to select people on that basis.

I never spent much time studying the British parlimentary system, however, as I understand matters the British political parties have considerable discretion in determining which individuals will stand for a given district.

One might go so far as to argue that the political parties are the ones doing the appointing... Admitted, you might not trust Labor or the Tories or whomever to do a good job appointing people. However, this begs the question: if you don't trust the political parties, just who do you trust?

[mike777]

Now we will turn the House of Lords into a bunch of hacks running for popular votes and giving out favors for campaign money. This is an improvement?

Bad enough the Brits foisted and exported the House of Commons as a political system around the world, now this?

If we cannot trust Old British bloodlines and a proper upper class training, what can we trust in?

[Al_U_Card]

In God, if I can believe your money...lol

[Winstonm]

If the U.S. can elect Sonny Bono, Great Brittain should be able to elect Ringo Starr.

[mike777]

Winstonm, on Mar 8 2007, 08:43 PM, said:

If the U.S. can elect Sonny Bono, Great Brittain should be able to elect Ringo Starr.

I think for tax purposes he may live outside of Britain but as usual my memory is a bit foggy.

[pbleighton]

"I think for tax purposes he may live outside of Britain but as usual my memory is a bit foggy."

Strawberry Fields Forever?

Peter

[Winstonm]

pbleighton, on Mar 8 2007, 11:20 PM, said:

"I think for tax purposes he may live outside of Britain but as usual my memory is a bit foggy."

Strawberry Fields Forever?

Peter

Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds

[GeeGee]

One of the big advantages of the current non-elective system, is there is a large body of independent, free-minded, 'cross-benchers' in the House of Lords. A 100% elected House of Lords means there is a second chamber just like the first chamber, of party politicians bowing to the party whip. What's the point?

I can see the point of a mix of elected and appointed members, but one big question. How do you elect a lord or lady?

[pbleighton]

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"

Nah, I see Mike as a crunchy Granola kind of guy, consuming the native organic North Carolina produce, and forming deep relationships with the local livestock.

Peter

[hotShot]

Winstonm, on Mar 9 2007, 03:43 AM, said:

If the U.S. can elect Sonny Bono, Great Brittain should be able to elect Ringo Starr.

Isn't it "Sir Ringo Starr"? ( Edit: He's not!) Maybe he and e.g. "Sir Thomas Sean Connery" could already participate in the House of Lords. Maybe some British expert can give us some insight to that.

[luke warm]

fwiw, i've always liked the british form and hate to see it go...

[Al_U_Card]

Here in Canada, we added an additional level of confusion......a senate filled with appointees!!!! Who appoints them? Why the current government, of course! For life! (well until 75 which is almost the same thing for political hacks etc.)

So what you get is a government that "packs" the senate so that when they are voted out, the new government has to deal with the old party's vestiges.....fortunately they don't have much power and the GG (Gouvernor General who is the rep. of the effing Queen of England, no less) is our ACTUAL HEAD OF STATE!!!

Every opposition party wants proportional representation for the senate but once in power, opts for the same old, tried and true, piggies at the trough method.

What a country!

[Winstonm]

Whatever happened to the "good old days" when every country had its own dictator and that was that.

[sceptic]

I quite like the House of Lords, I think it is full of daft old twats that do stupid things and have a good degree of inbreeding, I think the equivolent in America is called The kennedys (a large family group that care only about themselves and how they are perceceived)

The real issue is we should not elect the people to the House of Lords or possibly we could change the name to the house of inbreds, that have lost touch with reality and only do what benifits their cronies.

Whilst I have a somewhat simplistic view of most things, the reason for this is that at least things get done and not thought about so much that everyone forgets what the problem was in the first place, there is one issue that really concerns me with any one that wants an elected House of Lords

If we cant elect sensible people in Parliament how the F*** are we going to manage to elect a second house that is not full (censored)

[Winstonm]

The worst part of this is that it will really screw up some great lyrics of the Beetles:

He blew his mind out in a car
He didn't notice that the lights had changed
A crowd of people stood and stared
They'd seen his face before
Nobody was really sure if he was from the newly elected and infinitely better
House of Lords

[mike777]

sceptic, on Mar 10 2007, 12:13 AM, said:

I quite like the House of Lords, I think it is full of daft old twats that do stupid things and have a good degree of inbreeding, I think the equivolent in America is called The kennedys (a large family group that care only about themselves and how they are perceceived)

The real issue is we should not elect the people to the House of Lords or possibly we could change the name to the house of inbreds, that have lost touch with reality and only do what benifits their cronies.

Whilst I have a somewhat simplistic view of most things, the reason for this is that at least things get done and not thought about so much that everyone forgets what the problem was in the first place, there is one issue that really concerns me with any one that wants an elected House of Lords

If we cant elect sensible people in Parliament how the F*** are we going to manage to elect a second house that is not full (censored)

Wayne in the UK do you really elect people or do you elect a party who then puts a person in power?

Edward I rolling over in his grave

[helene_t]

As I understand it, the new second chamber will be elected through multiple-delegates districts as opposed to the single-delegate districts used for the House of Commons. This is a move towards real democracy.

It would have been better, IMHO, to get rid of the Lords altogether and introduce proportional representation for the Commons. But you can't have it all.

I fail to understand how anybody can defend the existing system. I hope they are joking. Yes, democracy sucks, but all alternatives that have been tried out so far suck more.