On June 27, the British government introduced its bill into Parliament to transform the House of Lords into a mostly-elected body. The name of the body might or might not eventually be changed, perhaps to the Senate. See this story for the details. The first elections would be in 2015. No one can predict whether or not the bill will pass. Thanks to Thomas Jones for this news.
Changes like these are way overdue so it can be rationalized that being an accomplice to gerrymandering for the conservatives is an acceptable price, I mean their constituentcies don’t even have the same number of people in them anyway–it’s already real bad.
The single 15-year elected term for upper housers sounds interesting. Nick Clegg should get SOMETHING for these five years.
What is the point of electing peers (or a vast majority of them) if they have no additional authority? If the plan is to make it more like a senate then do so. This is just nonsense.
The House of Lords belongs in the dustbin of history, along with the monarchy.
#1 The permitted variation in constituency size for the Commons has been reduced to 5%. This is somewhat favorable to the Conservatives since constituencies were smaller outside of England, but surely this can not be regarded as gerrymandering.
#2 What makes little sense is to have two bodies of comparable size who are elected on the same basis and have essentially the same powers.
Like we have in the US?
The whole purpose of the house of lords is to provide a house that is inherently stable as opposed to the continuously changing house of commons. To allow elections in the house of lords would be to destroy its purpose entirely, if anything they should go back to allowing more hereditary peers to be seated rather than having two fully elected houses.
P.R. and nonpartisan App.V.
How many national regimes have a national P.R. legislative body (even if it is the super-dangerous parliamentary form – same folks have both legislative and executive powers) ???
Hmmm. Perhaps Israel – THE outpost for REAL Democracy in the EVIL Middle East area filled with killer monarchs
/ oligarchs.
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Many of the old time killer Lords killed each other off in the late 1400s — War of the Roses [Red-White Lords killer gangs].
Result – the rise of the House of Commons — with the English Civil WAR in 1642-1649 between the Commons and the King/Lords
— with King Charles I being captured and convicted as a traitor and having his head chopped off in 1649 — a total shock to the EVIL monarchs in Europe
— setting the stage for the later 1776 American Revolution, the 1789 French Revolution and later revolutions in Europe and elsewhere.
The 6,000 plus years WAR for REAL Democracy goes on and on.
See the EVIL ANTI-Democracy gerrymander systems in the U.S.A. Constitution and in all 50 State constitutions.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/cbill/2012-2013/0052/cbill_2012-20130052_en_1.htm
House of Commons Bill 52
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Secs. 3-5 and Schedules 2 and 3 – Party List P.R.
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Machinations coming —
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18631301
Major P-O-W-E-R struggle between the good forces of Democracy and the EVIL forces of monarchy/oligarchy.
#6 The US House is over 4 times the size of the US Senate, and the electorates are not exactly comparable.
On the other extreme are States like Washington, where each legislative district elect one Senator and two Representatives. It is unrealistic to expect those elected to represent much political diversity, except in districts with a close partisan divide.
Electing a unicameral legislature from three times as many districts would produce more diversity and would be more efficient.
In the US civil unions between humans and sheep are more thinkable than a unicameral legislature-at least outside Nebraska.