2hago 14.08 BST
The Green party peer Jenny Jones has said that, while her party would
abolish the House of Lords, even in its current form “it actually weirdly
works”.
She was speaking in a wide-ranging interview with John McFall, the Lord
Speaker, for his Lord Speaker's Corner podcast.
Jones said:
44 Clearly, the Green Party would abolish the House of Lords. We would make it
all elected. We would sweep away some of these really stupid, archaic practices
that we have here. But at the same time, while we've got this system, it actually
weirdly works.
Most people, when I talk to them, they’ve got no idea what we do here and they
don’t understand it. But I do get more and more emails from people saying,
“Over the past few years, I always used to think that House of Lords was a
waste of time, but now I say thank God because we stopped the last government
from doing some awful things.
In the interview Jones said she thought the Lords might be more influential
than people give it credit for. Quoting the historian Lord Hennessy, who has
described the Lords as “the best thinktank in the country”, she said she
thought he had a point.
44 For example, I remember a report by the Health Committee, Lord Patel
chairing it. It was presented to the government, nothing happened for a few
years. They then came out with a white paper and almost everything that was
in Lord Patel’s paper was adopted as a white paper by the government. Maybe
it goes with age and experience. We give that information, we give it in a gentle
way, but we just hope it gets taken up at some time.
Although people are appointed to the Lords, Jones also pointed that she
became a peer after the Green party held an election for who should go to the
Lords if they were offered a seat, and she came first.
There is a transcript of the interview here. And you can watch it here.
The House of Commons such a state that the House of Lords looks pragmatic and wise in comparison. I mean, that's the idea isn't it?
Still needs massive reform though, too many Lords for a start, half of them never vote anyway, just like dressing up in Ermine […]
[Original post on mastodon.social]
