Uh oh. The Scottish branch of the Labour party is rearing its head again, let’s just see who gets sacked now (bet you its Anas Sarwar).
It’s quite sad really that Scots in the Labour party are never allowed any influence, the Shadow Cabinet is full of MPs representing English cities with the only non-English MPs being the token Secretaries of Scotland and Wales.
The vast majority of Scots actively want Lords abolition, it shows the contempt Westminster has for Scotland that they won’t even try to include Scottish views of reform in the Westminster political system.
“Whatever I say will be what Anas Sarwar says” — Starmer
Brave Sir Keir ran away, bravely ran away, away!
The problem with Lords abolition is the complex and time consuming process that this would involve. You can’t just abolish it, you would need to replace it with something as a complex democracy like the UK needs an upper chamber.
Any significant change in constitutional makeup requires a referendum and I don’t think we want to go down that route any time soon.
He’s never going to abolish it, he’s a sir his end goal will be to sit his arse amongst them. Keir is just a Tory with a different colour tie. Two cheeks, same arse.
Easy to say, extremely difficult to do as several administrations have found out. Nothing is impossible, of course, but reforming – let alone abolishing – the HoL is an enormously complex, time consuming task which would involve major constitutional reform for which there is little electoral reward. And an incoming government will have far more pressing issues to deal with.
If you were starting afresh from today the HoL would not exist. Neither would FPTP. But that’s not reality.
Any HoL reform would need to be a 2nd term initiative despite what the simple-minded would have us believe.
If Sarwar’s not careful, he might be subjected to a whispering campaign by Starmer’s team…
Aye right another jam tomorrow sound bite. That’s where they go after they’re an MP they aren’t scrapping jack shit.
I’m ***very*** anti HoL and think it should be abolished and replaced with a Bundesrat-type institution (an upper house representing regional/devolved administrations).
***But*** that’s going to be a long and complicated process (I want something proper and robust to replace it, not a quick fix) and considering the issues the next government is going to have to deal with I think that sort of major constitutional reform isn’t practical in a single term.
As much as I despise the HoL in principle I dread to think what would have happened if we’d had a unicameral system with the last bunch of Tories in charge. The HoL was one of the only places you heard strong opposition to Tory madness in Westminster. It’d be a disaster waiting to happen to just abolish it.
I’m not convinced Labour will get two terms – so if not done in the first term – not happening.
He’s no spine so that’ll never happen.
Hate the way UK labour does this: Gets its politicians outside of Westminster to make attractive statements that will never become policy just to keep the traditional labour voters in Scotland and the north of England onside. It works too. Some folk convinced Starmer and the Labour right will bring in these sorts of changes after they are elected. Sure…
Tony Blair said he was going to do it and never did and he had a bigger majority and more time than Starmer probably will.
Mr Blair said he would also get rid of zero hour contracts and didn’t so will be interesting to see if Starmer does as promised along with banning fire and rehire.
13 comments
Uh oh. The Scottish branch of the Labour party is rearing its head again, let’s just see who gets sacked now (bet you its Anas Sarwar).
It’s quite sad really that Scots in the Labour party are never allowed any influence, the Shadow Cabinet is full of MPs representing English cities with the only non-English MPs being the token Secretaries of Scotland and Wales.
The vast majority of Scots actively want Lords abolition, it shows the contempt Westminster has for Scotland that they won’t even try to include Scottish views of reform in the Westminster political system.
“Whatever I say will be what Anas Sarwar says” — Starmer
Brave Sir Keir ran away, bravely ran away, away!
The problem with Lords abolition is the complex and time consuming process that this would involve. You can’t just abolish it, you would need to replace it with something as a complex democracy like the UK needs an upper chamber.
Any significant change in constitutional makeup requires a referendum and I don’t think we want to go down that route any time soon.
He’s never going to abolish it, he’s a sir his end goal will be to sit his arse amongst them. Keir is just a Tory with a different colour tie. Two cheeks, same arse.
Easy to say, extremely difficult to do as several administrations have found out. Nothing is impossible, of course, but reforming – let alone abolishing – the HoL is an enormously complex, time consuming task which would involve major constitutional reform for which there is little electoral reward. And an incoming government will have far more pressing issues to deal with.
If you were starting afresh from today the HoL would not exist. Neither would FPTP. But that’s not reality.
Any HoL reform would need to be a 2nd term initiative despite what the simple-minded would have us believe.
If Sarwar’s not careful, he might be subjected to a whispering campaign by Starmer’s team…
Aye right another jam tomorrow sound bite. That’s where they go after they’re an MP they aren’t scrapping jack shit.
I’m ***very*** anti HoL and think it should be abolished and replaced with a Bundesrat-type institution (an upper house representing regional/devolved administrations).
***But*** that’s going to be a long and complicated process (I want something proper and robust to replace it, not a quick fix) and considering the issues the next government is going to have to deal with I think that sort of major constitutional reform isn’t practical in a single term.
As much as I despise the HoL in principle I dread to think what would have happened if we’d had a unicameral system with the last bunch of Tories in charge. The HoL was one of the only places you heard strong opposition to Tory madness in Westminster. It’d be a disaster waiting to happen to just abolish it.
I’m not convinced Labour will get two terms – so if not done in the first term – not happening.
He’s no spine so that’ll never happen.
Hate the way UK labour does this: Gets its politicians outside of Westminster to make attractive statements that will never become policy just to keep the traditional labour voters in Scotland and the north of England onside. It works too. Some folk convinced Starmer and the Labour right will bring in these sorts of changes after they are elected. Sure…
Tony Blair said he was going to do it and never did and he had a bigger majority and more time than Starmer probably will.
Mr Blair said he would also get rid of zero hour contracts and didn’t so will be interesting to see if Starmer does as promised along with banning fire and rehire.