British Politics and Scottish Independence

[Aquinas]

The state opening of parliament has got to be the most horrific, embarrassing, disgusting and cringe-worthy thing ever to grace these shores.

In the words of my peers: fuck the queen.

I'm looking forward to Skinner this year,

Queen's Speech 2015: SNP 'seat wars' silence Dennis Skinner

Skinner was silent this year, which apparently was somehow all the fault of you Scottish Nationalists .

[Aquinas]

But I agree with your point: Britain desperately needs to do something about the House of Lords. We're meant to be a democracy...

Should of voted Labour then.

I find the almost total media blackout on that policy, indeed the entire issue of constitutional reform, rather suspicious. Ed should have at least tired to mention it in some of the debates and interviews before the day of doom, too, but he allowed the other side to dictate the terms of the debate far too easily.

Labour were elected to power in 1997, 2001 and 2005, each time promising to sort out the House of Lords and each time letting it remain a fundamentally undemocratic institution. If you want serious constitutional reform...["There now follows a party political broadcast..."] vote Liberal Democrat!

[Siggon Kristov]

vote Liberal Democrat!

Who?

[Aquinas]

vote Liberal Democrat!

Who?

Don't make me any more depressed about the Lib Dems, Siggon!

Nick Clegg's party...the party that just lost 49 seats and now only has 8 left.

[MichaelReilly]

The state opening of parliament has got to be the most horrific, embarrassing, disgusting and cringe-worthy thing ever to grace these shores.

In the words of my peers: fuck the queen.

I'm looking forward to Skinner this year,

You can tell Skinner HATES the Nats.

[Captain-Socialist]

But I agree with your point: Britain desperately needs to do something about the House of Lords. We're meant to be a democracy...

Should of voted Labour then.

I find the almost total media blackout on that policy, indeed the entire issue of constitutional reform, rather suspicious. Ed should have at least tired to mention it in some of the debates and interviews before the day of doom, too, but he allowed the other side to dictate the terms of the debate far too easily.

Labour are as interested in reforming the House of Lords as the Tories are.

Did you read the link?

[Aquinas]

My faith in the Labour Party is limited when it comes to trusting them to sort out the House of Lords. They spent 13 years in power (1997-2002) without democratising it, and in the last Parliament, they voted down plans to reform it.

[Reddy]

First of all, an unelected/ partially unelected upper house is not as uncommon as most Britons, in my experience, believe it is. Second you ought to be more worried about the Privy Council rather than the House of Lords. The Privy Council can pass delegated legislation with no checks, while the Lords only has a suspensive veto at most, meaning that the Commons can override any legislative objection by the Lords.

I like the House of lords actually. It tends to have more serious and classy debates and some if not most of the members are independent minded technocrats, not just 'whipped' party hacks with Art History (or something similarly pointless IMO) degrees that you often find in the Commons. Thus it serves as a constitutional check on the Commons where destructive populism is more likely to possess many members (think the HRA) The Lords are not perfect, certainly the membership could be cut down in size by three quarters or so and it could be made more representative of the four countries.

[J4C0B65]

I would get rid of the House of Lords completely and have just one house

[CanadianEh]

Ugh, where is the fun in that? There is always more fun with two houses!