Saturday, May 28, 2011

Lords Reform: Lord Harries should know better...


The House of Lords is “rowdy” and “grossly inflated” because David Cameron cannot stop appointing new peers, according to Lord Harries. As reported by the Daily Telegraph, he told an audience at the Telegraph Hay Festival that the House is now full to bursting. “There is no doubt about it, the House of Lords does need reform. It’s not that it doesn’t work, it works very well indeed but it is now grossly inflated in terms of numbers,” he said.

“David Cameron is shovelling them in every week. I’m serious. There is nowhere to sit, the place has got rowdy, people can’t get in to speak. It was not like that when I first went in. We do need a smaller House.”


Now I don't entirely disagree with his first sentence, and many long-standing members in the Lords would probably agree with him. However, he might like to remember that the Labour Party wrote the first of the two lists published since the General Election, which included thirteen retiring Labour MPs and sixteen other Labour figures, sixteen Conservatives, nine Liberal Democrats, one Democratic Unionist and a cross-bencher, Sir Ian Blair (whom some might add to the Labour ranks). Yes, that's fifty-six in total.

The second list, of fifty-four, was designed to redress some of the balance lost by the first list (well, not only to do that, but I'll leave the motive assignment to others). It included twenty-seven Conservatives, fifteen Liberal Democrats, ten Labour, one Plaid Cymru and a cross-bencher, Sir Richard Dannett (not really a Conservative, honest...).

So, let's spread the blame more fairly, Lord Harries, shall we?

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