Class Notes - Feb 12

The House of Lords: The House of Lords is the older of the two houses parliament – (Discuss Bicameral) Second chambers of the House has a two advantages – it provides a forum for discussion and reconsideration of Bills that go through the first house, as well as a provides for a diffusion of the concentration of powers within parliament- even though this is somewhat limited in the UK system. It typically plays a vital role in the revision of legislation which has passed through the lower house. In the UK system, an upper house is particularly relevant where the lower house is dominated by a single party, an upper chamber becomes important for providing a second look at the legislation that goes through the house.

There are number of different kinds of Lords, or peers in the House: these are:

·        Hereditary Peers – which are created by royal prerogative and give a title as well as membership of the house, which can devolve to one’s success in a manner prescribed by the sovereign.

·        Life Peers – introduced in 1958, these were conferred on distinguished citizens on the advice of the sitting prime minister at the dissolution of each parliament or on special occasions – e.g. new years day or the queen’s birthday. A number of ministers and former prime ministers have have received life peerages. They cannot be transferred to one’s heirs on the death of the peer.

·        Judicial Peers – these are peerages that are conferred upon retired or sitting judges of the supreme court of the United Kingdom.

·        Lords Spiritual – A number of Anglican Bishops and Archbishops are also members of the House of Lords.

The House of Lords is in a state of flux. It is currently undergoing a series of reforms. These include reforms that are designed to convert it from a chamber that is primarily unelected (i.e. a chamber consisting of mostly hereditary and a few appointed members, and no elected members). The Chamber has therefore been criticized as Anachronistic and Undemocratic. Allow me to quote from the Guardian an article I came across when I was preparing for this class.

Name me the country in which more than 50 new members of parliament have just been appointed for life. Most of them have been nominated by a political party, without any vote. No secret is made of the fact that for several of the appointees, as has long been the custom in that country, this life membership of the legislature is a reward for their generous financial contributions to one or other party. And, unlike for prisoners, "life" means until they die. As a result, one in three members of the existing chamber is over 75 years old.

Turkmenistan? Zimbabwe? Transnistria? No, that country is Britain, one of the oldest parliamentary democracies in the world.

Today, most members of the House of Lords are appointed, and as the quotation shows, often they are appointed because they have been lifelong donors or supporters of various political parties. Furthermore, the heridatary peers in the House of Lords disproportionally support the conservative party over the labour party as a number. This informed the first stage of reforms which Tony Blair undertook in 1999, which reduced the number of hereditary peers from several hundred to 92. These reforms also allowed for the labor government to appoint a number of “life” peers which had a more favourable political disposition.