The urgent need for House of Lords reform

Most democratic bodies struggle to reduce their numbers. To use an old cliché – it is like asking turkeys to vote for Christmas.

When you are voting for your own abolition you are much more likely to sit on your hands or react out of sheer self-preservation. I’ve witnessed attempts to reduce Synodical numbers, which have always resulted in special pleading on behalf of the vested interests of special constituencies.

The debate on the House of Lords is, however, urgent. A cull of Lords is vitally needed. Many people favour retirement ages. Others are calling for a more urgent reform of the peers armed with surveys that repeatedly say that the public favour a fully-elected chamber. I’m convinced, however, given the low esteem in which politicians are held, that if the question was put differently, the public would favour a fully-appointed House of Lords. They just don’t want one in which the appointments are made of politicians by politicians.

There are now over 850 members of the House of Lords. The Chamber cannot seat even half of them. David Cameron appointed 186 Peers in his first term, and has now appointed a further 45. The reason for appointing so many is to gain some kind of political majority. After over a decade of Labour dominance, the Conservatives are at a numerical disadvantage in the upper house. It requires some serious effort to appoint so many peers and it is becoming an increasingly difficult public relations battle for party leaders.

The time is now right for a serious reform of the House of Lords. First we need to decide what we want. If it is to be a revising chamber rather than a political body we need lawyers, experts and experienced people from a variety of worlds including public sector, private sector, academies, law and Church. The best people from these professions – perhaps at the end of their careers and wanting to put something back into society in the form of public service – are unlikely to put themselves forward for public office. So a politically neutral commission completely independent of any party is the way forward.

This would require the political parties to take the unprecedented step of abolishing all ‘whipping’ operations in the House of Lords. There would in future be no opposition benches only a government bench hedged in on all sides by the cross benches and perhaps the Lords Spiritual.

This would be to the betterment of politics in general because we would have one political chamber where the aim was to improve and perfect legislation – sometimes pointing out unpalatable truths to the government of the day.

I’m convinced that a House of Lords composed solely of independent appointments with no party allegiance would have a positive and improving effect on the House of Commons.