Comments on: Questions remain over Labour’s plans to axe Lords

By: Reformers demand no more appointments to Lords | Left Foot Forward

Reformers demand no more appointments to Lords | Left Foot Forward — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 12:25:30 +0000

[...] with the Guardian on Monday justice secretary Jack Straw went some of the way to answering the three questions I posed in a post for Left Foot Forward on Labour’s plans for an elected senate of 300 members to [...]

By: George Gabriel

George Gabriel — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 19:02:44 +0000

RT @leftfootfwd: Questions remain over Labour's plans to axe Lords http://cli.gs/vGQYj

By: Jamie

Jamie — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 12:46:05 +0000

Guy, I don’t think the Athenian Option is a good idea either. At least most of the Lords have experience in either defence, business, law or science. They do know what they are talking about. The recent embryology bill was pretty much done entirely in the Lords.

With an increasing number of our MPs coming from a law background, or even being ‘career politicians’, I cannot help but feel that the House of Lords is ever more important. There is no doubt that it needs reform, but making it wholly elected would be a recipe for disaster

By: Senate for Britain: the campaign » Questions remain over Labour’s plans to axe Lords

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 11:35:34 +0000

[...] blog was first published on Left Foot Forward and Open Democracy. Guy Aitchison is a campaigner from [...]

By: Stuart Weir

Stuart Weir — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:58:46 +0000

Guy Aitchison raises an important quetion about the system chosen to elect senators, but he could go further. First, surely STV should be a serious option as well as Open List PR; secondly, the system for allocating seats ought not to be D’Hondt, which favours big parties (and Straw chose this system for the Euro-elections, but the more pluralist Sainte-Lague; and thirdly, there are significant differences in Open List PR which could make the elections more or less voter-friendly – about which reform-minded people should educate themselves.

By: Guy Aitchison

Guy Aitchison — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 23:59:06 +0000

Mr. Sensible, how about other more radical non-elected solutions like random selection of citizens by lot, the Athenian Option?

By: Mr. Sensible

Mr. Sensible — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:59:46 +0000

I have to say that I am totally opposed to an elected second chamber.
Because, I think in order to fulfill its function as a “revising chamber”, the Lords needs to be apolitical, and I fear this would not happen with an elected house.

So, in my view, we should get rid of the remaining hereditary, have the power to expel from the house but then leave things as they are.

By: Deb Swinney

Deb Swinney — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:50:12 +0000

RT @Power_2010: RT @leftfootfwd: Questions remain over Labour's plans to axe Lords: http://cli.gs/vGQYj

By: Sam Hopper

Sam Hopper — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 15:42:16 +0000

Questions remain over Labour’s plans to axe Lords http://bit.ly/cjtHnK

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:07:24 +0000

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by leftfootfwd: Questions remain over Labour’s plans to axe Lords: http://cli.gs/vGQYj...