Voters condemn the dinosaurs in ermine
THE House of Lords is an oversized, outdated throwback, utterly out of touch with the people, stuffed with second-raters who abuse their position (and expenses) – and in crying need of radical reform.
Such is the devastating verdict of the public, revealed by the Mail today in a major poll exposing the full scale of anger over unelected peers’ attempts to thwart Brexit and subvert democracy.
As the findings make plain, voters’ fury has come a head over the 15 defeats inflicted by the Lords on the Government’s legislation to enact the referendum result.
With breathtaking arrogance, Remainer peers claim they are merely carrying out their constitutional duty to scrutinise and revise draft statutes. In fact, as voters see all too clearly, they are plotting to defy the biggest democratic mandate in UK history.
Is it any surprise that more than half of those polled by ComRes say the peers’ conduct is wrong – a figure rising to almost 90 per cent among Leavers – while only 29 per cent say they have acted properly?
Nor is Brexit the only issue over which the Upper House has brazenly overstepped itself. Over recent weeks, these dinosaurs in ermine have sought repeatedly to launch another Leveson-style crackdown on Press freedom, in defiance of a Tory manifesto pledge, which convention decrees they should honour.
It’s as if they are trying to drag us back to the 18th century, when the country was ruled by a remote and self-serving, privileged elite, oblivious of the wishes of the governed.
No wonder only 17 per cent say the Lords should be allowed to survive in its present form – with a quarter saying it should be scrapped altogether.
Indeed, voters look with growing resentment at this chamber of almost 800 members – second only in size to the National People’s Congress of China and eight times bigger than the US Senate.
Apart from a few worthy statesmen who enhance public life, they see a House of cronies, crooks, dodgy party donors, Brussels pensioners and other superannuated placemen of the political class – all helping themselves to tax-free allowances of £305 a day for life, just for turning up.
How much longer can we go on like this, with each succeeding administration creating more peerages to manipulate the balance of the House?
The Mail doesn’t have a magic formula for producing the perfect second chamber. But it surely cannot be impossible for an all-party commission to devise a system promoting the best minds in business, industry, science, trades unions, engineering, academia and the arts.
As our poll makes clear, the case for reform is overwhelming. British democracy and public trust in the legitimacy of our system of government depend on it.