The Times - UK (2021-11-10)

the times | Wednesday November 10 2021 25

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Time to reform this shabby House of Lords

Integrity of the second chamber has been undermined by the arrival of a stream of rich donors and political cronies

specialists and partly by members

who are voted in using proportional

representation. The experts could

include more scientists, judges,

theatre and museum directors, the

governor of the Bank of England.

None would be allowed to have

given a substantial donation to a

political party and the majority

should be crossbenchers.

Their role would still be to

scrutinise legislation. There are

already myriad reports along these

lines that could be dusted down from

the No 10 shelves. “The secret,” says

a former leader of the House of

Lords, “is in the mix. Like the perfect

cocktail you need all the ingredients,

but you need movers and shakers,

not stirrers.”

Strangely, the member of the

Lords who has perhaps done most

for the country this year is the 9th

Duke of Wellington, who owes his

place almost entirely to his ancestor’s

genius on the battlefield. He placed

an amendment to the Environment

Bill in an attempt to force water

companies to stop pouring so much

raw sewage into our rivers. Teaming

up with surfers and fishermen, this

non-affiliated peer forced the

government into a partial U-turn.

The title shouldn’t matter, they can

be called Dukey McDukeface or Mr

and Mrs, but in the 21st century they

should all be there on merit and

expected to prove their worth.

the sleazier they look, the better:

improper lobbying, expenses-

cheating and sex scandals in the

upper house deflect criticism from

them. But the former prime ministers

know it’s becoming a joke. John

Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown,

David Cameron and Theresa May

haven’t opted for a peerage.

No one can be bothered to reform

the Lords; the welfare of octopuses is

higher up the legislative agenda than

our democracy. But it should be

done. For a start the number of peers

needs to be cut drastically. This

should be about quality not quantity.

In America there are only 100

senators. In the short term, peers

could vote for a number to represent

them who have a genuine interest

and specialise in different policy

areas. They could sit in York, which

would deter those who only want to

pocket an attendance fee while using

a convenient club on the Thames.

In the long term, peerages should

be decoupled from the honours

system. Donors could be given

knighthoods if they are desperate for

a congratulatory bauble. The revising

chamber should be filled partly with

becoming the worst offender. He has

created dozens of peers in two years,

including one of his brothers, three

of his former colleagues at The Daily

Telegraph, Claire Fox, who once

defended the IRA, and Evgeny

Lebedev, the son of a former KGB

agent. If he attempts to pacify Owen

Paterson by giving him a peerage,

having not been able to get the Tory

MP off the hook in the Commons, it

will look even more egregious.

Now his party stands accused of

systematically offering seats in the

Lords to a group of multimillionaire

donors and party treasurers who

have paid more than £3 million each

to the Tories. In the past two

decades, 16 of them have been

offered seats.

The former anti-sleaze MP Martin

Bell was blunt. “They might as well

publish a rate card,” he said. The

footballer Gary Lineker tweeted:

“Imagine wanting to be a lord so

badly, you’d actually try and buy a

peerage.” But some people do. The

upper chamber now feels more

medievally feudal than its

predecessor. It has also grown. With

nearly 800 members, it’s the largest

debating chamber in the world after

the Chinese National People’s

Congress, bigger even than the EU

parliament.

Many MPs don’t care what the red

benches do, as long as they don’t

challenge their pre-eminence; maybe

O

ff to the Lords, my editor
said, when I became the
most junior political
correspondent on The
Times in my twenties. I
thought I’d been banished to another
century. There were footmen (never
women) in tights, viscounts who
treated journalists like badly behaved
spaniels, earls who spread
Gentleman’s Relish on their
crumpets and dukes in plus fours
who spent the weekend gralloching a
stag. But debates in the early 1990s
were often erudite and entertaining
and at least the hereditaries knew
they were an anachronism.
The distinguished, well-informed
life peers on the red benches
included independent-minded spies,
authors and scientists, as well as
more women than in the House of
Commons. They mainly queried bills
that were badly drafted “tripe”, as
Viscount Montgomery of Alamein
called them, and then were prepared
to stay up all night on camp beds to
ensure that such bills did not get on
the statute books.

Of course it had to change. I

returned in 1999 when the Lords was

at last partially reformed to watch

the majority packing their trunks.

The 11th Duke of Devonshire, who

wore yellow socks and spent his

Januarys rearranging the books in

the guest bedrooms at Chatsworth,

politely suggested this “hybrid”

wouldn’t work.

“We must have a fully elected

second chamber,” he said. “Before it

was quirky, now those who pay

money, and slimeballs, will get in.”

It never occurred to me that the

halfway house of self-elected

hereditaries and unelected working

peers would linger so long or become

so compromised. The House of

Lords this century has become a

convenient place to put political

cronies, henchmen, old friends,

expenses cheats and donors. Some

are bitter that they have been thrown

a consolation prize, others appear

more entitled than a marquess.

As a journalist, Boris Johnson once

railed against “the putrefaction of

the honours system”, calling the sale

of peerages “a suspected crime that

is quintessentially British” but he is

At least the hereditary

peers knew that they

were an anachronism

The title should not

matter but they must

all be there on merit

Alice

Thomson

@alicettimes