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Category: House of Lords

Rewards for Failure

Rewards for Failure

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John Bercow, Tom Watson and Karie Murphy should be feeling quite aggrieved, having apparently been blackballed from receiving peerages because of ongoing investigations into allegations about past behaviour. What is this novel concept of holding people accountable for their actions? It hasn’t been like this for ages – ever since lying, lustful Profumo went into the library with the metaphorical whisky and revolver. Soo unfair! Consider: Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner in charge when the Met made a fool…

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Corbyn’s gift to the Tories and Mrs May – his boycott of the House of Lords

Corbyn’s gift to the Tories and Mrs May – his boycott of the House of Lords

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The balance in the Upper House has silently trended towards the blues Jeremy Corbyn doesn’t like the House of Lords and as with many things he doesn’t like, he’s gone out of his way to avoid engaging with it. When he was first running for the Labour leadership, he promised that he wouldn’t nominate any new Labour peers. That was understandable for someone who has long opposed the nature of the undemocratic upper House, and for someone who’s always believed…

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Michael Crick is right about appointments to the House of Lords

Michael Crick is right about appointments to the House of Lords

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All this speculation about who might or might not be on the imminent new peers list is silly. Appointments to our legislature – FOR LIFE – ought to be an open process, subject to proper public and media scrutiny — Michael Crick (@MichaelLCrick) January 5, 2018 If we are continuing with an appointed upper chamber then the process must be transparent With Mrs. May, who lost the CON majority last June, planning to bolster CON representation in the House of…

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BMG finds 63% now want an elected House of Lords – up 15 points on two years ago

BMG finds 63% now want an elected House of Lords – up 15 points on two years ago

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And 27% (+5) want it abolished completely Maybe its down to the Brexit-induced greater focus on constitutional affairs but support for overhauling the second chamber has soared over the past two years – from 48% backing partly- or fully-elected upper house in 2015, to 63% now, according to polling by BMG Research commissioned by the Electoral Reform Society. The poll found that 27% thought the second chamber should be abolished – up from 22% in 2015 – while only 10%…

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What I’m hoping to tell the House of Lords next week about the polling fail at the general election

What I’m hoping to tell the House of Lords next week about the polling fail at the general election

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Some thoughts on what I might say A week today I’ll be travelling to Westminster where I have been invited to give evidence before the House of Lords Committee that’s carrying out a review of what went wrong with GE2017 polls. Depending on the questioning by their Lordships I expect to make the point that the campaign had been dominated by the CON landslide narrative that had been reinforced by the May 4th local and mayoral elections where the Tories…

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Could it, should it, will it soon be Lord Farage?

Could it, should it, will it soon be Lord Farage?

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An intriguing part of PMQs today was May’s response when asked if UKIP leader Nigel Farage will be given a peerage – this starting speculation that he will be. The PM’s response was “such matters are normally never discussed in public”. But there is a strong case for UKIP should have some peers created for it. The party came top in the 2014 Euros with 27% of the vote and most MEPs. At GE2015 it chalked up 4m+ votes but…

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The Tories would be in a stronger position over the Lords if at GE2015 they’d attracted more than 36.9% of the vote

The Tories would be in a stronger position over the Lords if at GE2015 they’d attracted more than 36.9% of the vote

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@LordAshcroft Given the 36.9% national CON vote share at GE2015 that seems quite reasonable. — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) November 1, 2015 National vote shares at GE2005 & GE2015 levels do matter Yesterday afternoon the Cameron biographer, pollster and former Tory treasurer, Lord Ashcroft, made the above perceptive Tweet about the limitations of the current government’s power. While in the 2010-2015 parliament this had been because of the Lib Dem coalition the reality now is that the Cameron government’s main limitation…

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Antifrank looks at what now for the House of Lords

Antifrank looks at what now for the House of Lords

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The possible courses of action So the House of Lords has opted for confrontation with the government by asserting its right to intervene on financial matters that are not covered by the letter of the Parliament Act 1949. In turn, the government, like King Lear, has threatened that “I will do such things — what they are yet I know not — but they shall be the terrors of the earth”. We’ll see. It has long been recognised by pretty much everyone at…

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