The video above is so depressing a toffee nosed man who sits in the Lords says in a toffee nosed way that it isn't fair but he seems to be there so he goes there and everyone thinks this is quaint while in the comments the old snobberies for not electing people are wheeled out...
"There's an argument for unelected legislators... "
Well, yes, there's an argument for not using seat belts ...but it's silly.
Recent events such as the Queen's Platinum Jubilee and Prince Charles's rendition of the latest "Queen's Speech" have got me thinking about the Monarchy again.
Many commented on how outdated Charles, William and Camilla and the crown being conveyed by Rolls-Royce looked but seeing Prince Charles in the big gold chair just reminded me of how modern the monarchy actually is when put next to the House of Lords.
For example ...for all you can say against the Monarchy it has at least given up on male primogeniture which is more than can be said for 92 remaining hereditary peers who are all men. Mind you the next three Kings will all be men unless one of them pops their clogs ... Over at the Atlantic (see here) there's actually a campaign by toffee nosed women to be equally as unelected as toffee nosed men. Because that's equality. Honestly... It's enough to make you feel fondly about intersectionality. Charlotte Clare Pole suffers discrimination both because she's a woman and because she has nose made of toffee.
Of course the 92 hereditary Peers exist for two reasons. They're Tories. And when the Blair government finally got the other hereditary peers to vote themselves out of existence they needed to do a deal with some of the remaining ones to get the other ones to vote for their own demise ... otherwise they'd have had to use the 1911 Parliament Act which eats up huge swathes of parliamentary time or put up with the constant derailing of other legislation by endless amendments.
Prize parasite the Earl of Onslow openly said, "I'm happy to force a division on each and every clause of the Scotland Bill. Each division takes 20 minutes and there are more than 270 clauses." Yes, that's the one who died in 2011 from Clandon Park House (built with the profits of slavery) that was gutted by fire in April 2015. There is of course another Earl of Onslow now because the title is hereditary ... but he's not in the Lords because he hasn't won a "by-election". You see...
In order to square this circle a fudge was put in place in the House of Lords 1999 known as the Weatherill Amendment (after the Speaker of the House of Commons of the same name) whereby 92 peers were allowed to stay (as a temporary measure) so that the bill could pass. Now you might think that some of these hereditary peers would have the good grace to die and then the 92 would gradually decline to 0 without anyone having to be made redundant ... but this is Britain so instead a bizarre by-election process was created for every time one of the 92 dies ....but not a by-election you or I can vote in ...the only voters are other peers...
You'd think someone would do something about this and indeed Lord Grocott (see here) does - regularly trying to bring legislation to end the by-election farce and regularly having his attempts scuppered at every turn... but that's democracy in Britain. They don't even bother to pretend its fair...
It's all just a series of temporary measures ...
...which we will get round to sorting out ...
...eventually ...
It's something Sir Kier Starmer says Sir Gordon Brown is working on....
...if Labour ever gets out of opposition ...
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