13 September 2006

House of Lords reform.

Ooh ooh, another chance to ride a hobby horse of mine. This time on the reform of the British House of Lord's. The 'Taking Power' consultation is discussing it among other things.
We will be looking in detail at the issue of reform of the House of Lords during the conference. Let us know your view on the composition of the second chamber of Parliament at this stage.
So we were asked whether we prefer appointment, election or a combo of some kind. Of course I felt this too restrictive.
My favoured option would be to recognise that single-issue politics is quite important to many people and that engaging the voluntary sector could be very healthy. So I propose that any organisation with charitable status and more than, say 20,000 members, should be able to elect and send to the ‘Lord’s’ one representative fore every multiple of the threshold. That way we get expert advice and advocacy in the scrutiny process from Help the Aged, Churches, Greenpeace, etc etc on a basis that empowers and encourages the voluntary sector and allows their hands-on expertise to be part of the process of legislation.
Not sure if that’s election or appointment; a bit of both really.

Taking Power - Have your say about how Britain is run � Poll 5 - House of Lords:
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