Working for you
I suspect that few people will have been surprised by recent revelations about the House of Lords and in particular the downfall of Labour peer Lord Sewel.
However we should not be distracted by tabloid headlines when we consider the future of the House of Lords but rather stay focussed on the substantive issue- why on earth would we ever allow unelected peers to Lord it over us at the tax payers expense?
That very question, along with the abuse and manipulation of the generous expenses system that underpins the House of Lords, is the real one that needs answered.
It’s bad enough that we have an out of touch House of Commons but at least that chamber is elected, and, thank goodness we have 56 SNP MPs opposing and scrutinising the worst excesses of Tory misrule.
The unelected Lords are an affront to democracy. However it is a chamber that Labour, Tory and the Lib Dems alike continue to support.
The SNP refuse to take seats in the House of Lords and other parties should do the same.
In the short term the SNP has called on other ‘opposition’ parties to agree not to nominate any additional peers to the House of Lords.
I very much hope other will agree to this. For too long the House of Lords has been a symbol of patronage for the UK parties. That must end. That is just wrong, and it’s wrong irrespective of lurid tabloid headline engulfing one individual.
The inverted commas surrounding ‘opposition’ parties were deliberate.
There were two crucial votes in the House of Commons ahead of the UK Parliament going into recess. It was an opportunity to vote against the Welfare Reform and Finance Bills respectively.