Labour plans to axe hereditary peers in UK House of Lords

23 comments

1. About damn time. It’s frankly appalling that this archaic practice still occurs. Nobody should hold authority based on who their ancestors were.

2. How about just getting rid of the whole funking thing?

3. Political appointments into the Lords are worse than hereditary peers imho.

   At least hereditary appointments are less subject to corruption.

4. Kinda impossible as any laws the commons pass have to be passed by the lords in order to become law…

5. Sensible. Hopefully this includes ones that come along with land and/or bishoprics.

6. It also needs term limits. The average age is 71, the oldest member is 96. I watch house of lords debates sometimes and it almost seems cruel to make some of these elderly people stand to talk.

7. Doesn’t go far enough. The whole thing needs scrapping it’s absolutely ridiculous.

8. Scrap the whole thing and make it elected.

   How can we have a democracy when they upper house is appointed, often for the wrong reasons and by the wrong people.

9. Nah keep it, just stop allowing PMs to have their own honours list as that’s the main source of corruption in the Lords

10. I thought they were going to abolish the house of Lords?

11. All those cheering this need to remember that political appointments to the HoL are as and if not worse. I’m against hereditary peerage but I’m even more opposed to the government filling the House of Lords with chums and donors. The system is rotten. Let’s have term limits and an election every 5 years to elect new representatives.

12. Correct me if I’m wrong, but reading the Wikipedia page it seems like it’s already not really a thing anymore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hereditary_peer

    They already don’t have a de-facto right to a seat, and only a portion of them, *which is elected*, do.

    People should be careful with those kinds of declarations, it’s basically wind to gain support when it doesn’t actually mean anything.

13. Sounds nice, but I’m just now taking bets to myself as to how long it will be until Starmer says “Yeah, we’re not doing that now”.

14. If accurate, first thing labours said in awhile that would sway my vote.

15. At this point the stuffing of the lords by both parties, one of which has been selling appointments, is a far larger problem.

    You’ve got 20 year olds going in for no apparent reason, and having some form of a say on uk laws (without ever facing an election) for 50+ years.

    I always thought the point of life peerages was to have experts on the law, teaching, policing, medicine and the like having the opportunity to review law, **not** some form of political patronage of unqualified, oxbridge education people who “know the right sort”

16. > Sir Keir Starmer previously branded the unelected chamber “undemocratic” and “indefensible”.

    So do they plan to elect the HoL?

17. Who cares about hereditary peers?

    The problem is the corrupt peer-gifting that governments take part in to keep their donors/friends happy and reward ex-MP’s who the public have told to get lost by giving them jobs for life.

18. The house of lords is just as bad as before, we need an elected pr chamber or something that isn’t just ex political figures.

19. Good, and get rid of the 14 bishops while you’re at it.

20. And leave the political cronies that have flooded the Lords in recent years? Such as Boris’ 29 year old female SPAD…

21. “A hereditary member of the British House of Lords complained that Prime Minister Lloyd George had created new Lords solely because they were self-made millionaires who had only recently acquired large acreages. When asked, “How did your ancestor become a Lord? he replied, “With the battle-ax, sir, with the battle-ax”

22. I just read about the fucking Thatcher baron title last week… she gave her fucking husband a hereditary Barron title when she left. That’s fucking pathetic.

23. So, the hereditary peers are the only peers who have been elected (by other inbreds, but at least someone did). Just abolish the thing and give us an elected upper house