Lord, end this cosy club for jobsworths
Just 24 hours after Labour leadership hopeful Rebecca Long-Bailey called for the abolition of the House of Lords, the Lords demonstrated why it should be abolished.
Defeated Richmond Park Tory Zac Goldsmith was ennobled, in fake white fur to show he’s green, becoming Baron Goldsmith of Richmond Park. Nicky Morgan also dolled up in ermine.
This will enable Zak to continue as Environment Minister and Nicky as Culture Secretary.
That abuses Parliament. The Lords should not be a convenience store for failed MPs (Zac) or fed-up ones (Nicky) to pursue political careers.
Nor should it be a retirement home for clapped-out MPs weary of facing voters. It should be a revising chamber made up of world-renowned experts and the nation’s best brains.
Zac and Nicky joined a club ripping at the seams with 796 members, 21 created in the past six months alone as jobsworths for life. They get subsidised food and booze, a warm place at our expense to sleep them off, and £313 a day tax-free just for clocking in. It’s easier to get a peerage than an MBE. Just ingratiate yourself with Boris Johnson, whose gift it is.
All that bolsters Becky Long-B’s case for scrapping it. No one designing a new Parliament for an emerging democracy would have the Lords. But the UK is not emerging. She has emerged. And evolved.
And once bricks start being chiseled out of her 700-year-old constitutional wall she might collapse. A Royal Commission into the Lords chaired by Tory grandee John Wakeham conceded that including 26 bishops was bonkers – making Britain and Iran the only countries automatically allowing clergy to be legislators.
But Wakeham warned of “unpredictable consequences” of chucking bishops out, such as Church and State separating – removing the Queen as CofE head.
That would demolish a cornerstone of the Monarchy, and could lead to its abolition too. Ending the hereditary principle finally would drive another nail into the Royal Family’s coffin.
Better then to reform the Lords than ditch it. But not with an elected chamber in hock to party machines.
Instead, cap peer numbers at 600 by getting rid of 196 who cost £108million a year.
What we need is wise heads on experienced shoulders. So more Robert Winstons, please, for health, Richard Dannatts for defence and Ian Blairs for policing.
Unless, of course, you’d prefer to replace the UK with the Republic of Great Britain. Under our very own President Hell BJ.
Cheap food and booze, warm place to sleep... & £313 a day
Tory Kwasi Kwarteng was overheard saying: “These are the worst election results for the school in 400 years.” My snout took “the school” to mean Eton, where the business minister was educated with fellow alma mateys Boris Johnson and Jacob Rees-Mogg. And there were too few new old Etonian MPs for his liking.