House of Lords reformation.

[Steve H]

On my other forum, I wrote this:

The House of Lords should be drastically reduced in size, by about half, and all members directly elected. However, once elected, they should not have to seek re-election, but should have the job until a statutory retirement age (or statulabour in the case of left-wing ones), or they are convicted of a criminal offence and given a custodial sentence, or they lose a vote of no confidence with a 66% majority required, or they resign. That way, they'll be able to follow their real beliefs, and not have to always have one eye on the electorate.

Comments? Serious criticism, however antipathetic, welcome; sarcasm not.

[Aruntraveller]

Reform is definitely needed. I'm struggling with how this would in anyway reflect the wishes of the population if you fix the election to the chamber at a certain point in time, (that may not be what you are suggesting but it kind of reads that way to me).

For example if you did it now you would have, if the polls are to be believed, an inbuilt Tory majority.

I think there is a need to go further and somehow get people other than politicians into the mix - and I'm not sure how you achieve that in a fair and proportionate manner.

Edit: A quick goggle found this article which outlines some options:

https://constitution-unit.com/2020/02/23/lords-reform-is-back-on-the-agenda-what-are-the-options/