Lords a-leaping towards democracy? (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Lords a-leaping towards democracy?

12:34pm Monday 12th March 2007

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Interesting to see the division among the Metropolitan District's MPs regarding the proposal to inject the House of Lords with a lethal dose of democracy.

Even Keighley's Ann Cryer has reservations about a wholly-elected second chamber while Bradford South's Gerry Sutcliffe is sticking to an all-appointed Lords.

Some might say this issue has precious little to do with the real lives of ordinary people: who cares if Lord or Lady Muck are elected or appointed. Come to that, is anyone really surprised by the idea of peerages being flogged?

On the matter of peerages for sale, like it or not, patronage has always gone with power and always will, no matter what legal checks and balances are put in place. The importance of who you know operates at every level. Pointless to say it shouldn't because that is how life is.

If you want an electrician or a reliable car mechanic you ask your friends if they know of anyone who will do a good job without ripping you off.

But to return to the main theme, if I believed that an all-elected House of Lords would do a better job in its role as a government watch-dog I would go along with Bradford West's Labour MP Marsha Singh and Skipton's Conservative MP David Curry, who voted for a fully-elected Lords.

But I do not. Voting for prospective candidates - irrespective of the astronomical costs that would accrue, does not by itself give a guarantee of greater power to the people; far from it.

Joe Public would have no say in or control over the selection list: that privilege would remain firmly in the power of the party hierarchy.

A fully elected Lords might look more democratic, but in practise it would be controlled by the party in power. We should be suspicious of elective dictatorships because, in the name of democracy, their tendency is to ensnare the public in a greater web of petty rules and controls.

As a twice-bitten Labour voter since 1997, I am deeply suspicious of proposals to meddle further with the governance of this rule-throttled country.

The real change we need is to make the great and the good more responsible for what they do. Does anyone out there seriously believe that this has happened during the past ten years?