A blog by Luke Akehurst about politics, elections, and the Labour Party - With subtitles for the Hard of Left. Just for the record: all the views expressed here are entirely personal and do not necessarily represent the positions of any organisations I am a member of.
Why only half elected? (which seems to be what the press is saying Labour will propose).
posted by Luke Akehurst at 8:36 am
Labour Party activist since 1988 - firmly on the moderate wing of the party. Member of Labour’s NEC 2010-2012 and since 2020. National Secretary of Labour Students 1995-6. Parliamentary candidate for Aldershot (2001) and Castle Point (2005). Hackney Councillor (Chatham Ward) 2002-2014, Labour Group Chief Whip 2002-09, Chair of Health Scrutiny 2010-2014. Supporter of Europe, NATO/nuclear deterrence, Israel, electoral reform. Guardian reader. Dad. Oxford resident. Unite union member. Employment history as a Labour Party Organiser, Local Government Political Assistant, Director at a Public Affairs company. All views expressed in a personal capacity. The rest will become evident from reading the blog.
4 Comments:
More to the point - why bother with a Second Chamber at all? If it can work for New Zealand and Nebraska it can work here. But, if we must have it, agreed, all elected.
11:24 am, January 31, 2007
Are we abolishing the monarchy then?
As long as the Lords can't pass legislation without the Commons' approval, and the Commons can push through legislation if it comes down to the Lords saying no, there is no democratic problem with a system which allows for non-party political people, many of whom make a useful contribution to revising the fine and uncontroversial detail of legislation.
6:12 pm, January 31, 2007
Yes let's have some real democracy applied to the Lords. But please let's also have a different method of voting between the two Houses to ensure some kind of plurality.
Anyway I have to admit that I still cannot comprehend how come we still let their NOble Lords get away with their self-protection ways.Former boxing champion Prince Naseem Hamed (working class and Muslim) was stripped of his MBE after a four-month prison sentence for dangerous driving. Yet Lord Archer (senior Court perjurer) and Lord Watson (convicted Edinburgh arsonist), after both serving prison sentences for serious criminal offences, retain their honours.
Moreover, a peerage is a senior honour relative to an MBE. In addition, the holder rather than getting a badge, gets life membership of a top club in London and they receive a generous attendance allowance, and can contribute to the parliamentary process
Of course if the Labour Government
cleaned up its Honours act, or better still abandoned giving them, the whole edifice would fail.
8:12 pm, January 31, 2007
On this one, I'm definitley with you. Democracy casually cast aside, it would be a lot better for Labour and the values of the democratic left-of-centre generally to have a fully elected lord, possibly via PR, though I do like AV+ as I would not like to see the constituency link broken.
11:24 pm, January 31, 2007
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