King’s Speech signals first moves on Lords and electoral reformThe first King’s Speech of any new government is a significant political moment. Amid the ostentation and pomp of the ceremony, the government lays out in detail the plans for its legislation in the new...Posted 24 Jul 2024
A Labour Peer is trying to abolish hereditary peers (again)There is overwhelming support for reform but Friday once again showed there is little chance of it succeeding. On Friday 3rd December, for the fourth time in just five years, Labour peer Lord Bruce Grocott...Posted 07 Dec 2021
The aristocratic by-elections continue to make a mockery out of our democracy On the 9th and 10th November, the House of Lords will be hosting their fifth hereditary peer by-election this year. The House of Lords Act 1999 led to the removal of all but 90 hereditary...Posted 08 Nov 2021
There is nothing democratic about these by-electionsWhile the Conservatives' shock loss in the Chesham and Amersham by-election might dominate the headlines, Liberal Democrat Sarah Green MP will not be the only parliamentarian to join Westminster this week.Posted 18 Jun 2021
Lords call for decisive action to slim down the ever-expanding second chamberBuried amidst last week’s fall-out from the Queen’s Speech and the elections was the fourth report of the Lord Speaker’s Committee on the Size of the House. The committee, established in 2016 by Lord Fowler,...Posted 21 May 2021
Hereditary Peers highlight the absurdity of our system and the case for reformMomentum is building for wholesale reform of the House of Lords, as hereditary peerages are under public scrutiny after a Sunday Times report shed light on the absurdity of inherited titles – twenty years after...Posted 26 Mar 2021
Why are there still hereditary peers in the House of Lords?The ancient triumvirate of the British constitution – the Monarchy, the Lords and the Commons – is a historical trait whose origins can be traced all the way back to the 11th century. Such history...Posted 05 Mar 2021
Hereditary peer by-elections have been paused. They should be scrapped entirelyThe House of Lords just keeps getting bigger. Following the PM’s appointment of 36 new unelected peers, each week sees more introduced to a chamber that is bursting at the seams. The Lords themselves have...Posted 18 Sep 2020