THE House of Lords did occasionally oppose Mrs Thatcher, but it opposed the Wilson-Callaghan governments on three occasions in half as many years (S. I. Maders, Your Letters, Sept 4).
On balance, the Lords, in the words of Lloyd George, are still "Mr Balfour's poodle."
Anyone who wants a professional "think again" chamber in our democracy should think more carefully than sentiment about a quango made up of the sons of Henry the Eighth's thugs rewarded with monastery land; the sons of Charles the Second's tarts; and the dubious crew who, for the last three centuries, have bought their titles with the then equivalent of £100,000 of brewery profits, railway bubbles, the greed of the Atlantic slave triangle or pushing the opium trade onto China.
The Lords has always been a quango of those the Crown has had to talk to because they are too powerful to push around. It is time for the hereditary Lords to be sent to work or to canvass for ballots.
A proper revising house of experts, not only in technicalities but in the practical skills of operating something bigger than an estate agency or a grocer's shop, needs electing from those who have had experience and have worked their way up on merit. These could include those who have served at least four years at the top of an organisation of more than 10,000 staff; permanent professional heads of ministries, local authority departments, general officers in HM Forces, ambassadors, bishops and their equivalents, professors, ministers and council leaders.
These sorts of "constituencies" make more sense than what is basically a landlord's club indifferently educated 40 years ago. The UK is too small for another House based on geographical constituencies.
As for independence - a single term of ten years and a salary would guarantee that. Continuity is a simple matter of the first new House of Lords drawing lots for half to retire after five years. Thereafter, half would be elected every five years.
Whatever the future, the present House of Peers is farcical by any criterion of democracy, expertise, or accountability. It does nothing in particular, and not very well at that!
COUNCILLOR FRANK ADAM,
Hartley Avenue,
Prestwich.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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