Preview

House of Lords and Commons

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2763 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
House of Lords and Commons
REFORMS OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS AND COMMONS. Over the years, there has been a lot of problem over the very fact that the house of lords are not elected and are relatively independent of party and contains members with particular skills, expertise and interest in this kind of activities which in turn has created tensions between the commons which is a legitimate elected body, regarding their function, performances and their composition. But if we take parliament to be a collaborative set of processes in which both houses are involved it seems inappropriate to consider one house separate from the other. Perhaps this explains why the processes of reforms over the years has been a very difficult issue tackling.
Reforms of electoral system
The hereditary House of Lords was widely perceived as undemocratic. The present mixture of hereditary and appointed members was intended as an improvement, but some people think it is even worse because it gives too much power to the Prime Minister of the day. It remains hard to reach a consensus on what to do about the House of Lords. http://stvaction.org.uk/house_of_lords_reform
This is seemingly the simplest and most democratic option, leaving us to be governed by the fully elected House of Commons, but it would be desirable to improve the Commons’ power to scrutinise Government legislation, perhaps by increasing the powers of cross-party committees. To avoid the risk of an elected dictatorship, it would also be essential to curb the power of the Commons to prolong the life of Parliament without elections * Introduction * Electoral system in general – how it was before * Reforms of the house of commons – pros and cons * Reforms of the house of lords – pros and cons * What problems have been encountered reforming them separately * Why will one without the other create problem * Possible solutions * conclusion
Sources and outline
Electoral reform is change in electoral systems to improve how public

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    They wasnted the Lords to never again block a measure passed by the House of Commons. Therefore in 1990 they drew up a bill to curb the power of the House of Lords by taking away the power to veto. Reform of the Lords was vital as the Conservatives were strongly opposed to Home Rule for Ireland, and would vote against any Home Rule Bill in the Lords. This was necessary as the Liberals had promised Home Rule to the Irish Nationalists, in return for their support, so reform of the Lords had to take place before Home Rule could be brought in. The 1910 Parliament Bill proposed that the House of Lords was to have the power to amend or reject those bills the speaker of the Commons certifies to be true money Bills. The Lords veto was abolished, but could delay it for no longer than two years. Also the maximum period between general elections was to be reduced from seven years to five to make parliament more accountable to electors. Although the Bill was not as radical as it could have been because it did not alter the composition of the Lord. The Bill would easily pass through the House of Commons but to curb the Lords’ power would have to be passed by the Lords themselves. Asquith planned to ask King Edward Vll to create 570 new peers, who would be willing to outvote the Conservative Lords and therefore ensure the parliament bill…

    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The house of lords is the upper chamber of the Uk’s bicameral parliament, Beginning in the the 11th century. The house of lords’ role in government is to work with the house of commons to; make laws, check and challenge the actions of government ( the house of lords has no veto power) and provide independent competence. Firstly, in 1999 the Labour party under Tony Blair as Prime Minister reformed the house of lords. For centuries the house of lords consisted of members that inherited their seats, the Act removed such right. The act reduced members of the house of lords from 1,330 members to 669 members and a proportion of the members that are ‘cross benchers’ members with no party affiliation. In order for this act to receive supported votes, Tony Blair and the labour party passed the Weatherill Amendment that put in place a deal that allowed 92 of the 669 members to remain heredity. The reforms in houses of lords progressive towards democracy due to the fact that Historically, members of the House of Lords have been the richest and most important landowners in the country, who would pass their peerages down through their family, which creates bias towards the wealthy. By…

    • 1175 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Power in theory in this system should lie with the commons and the chamber as they should be able to voice their opinions, and fight the policies of government properly but obviously parliamentary control does limit this a huge amount as how can this be true if a party does control power the opposition will be outnumbered and effectively be a lame duck and completely pointless. It means that parliament and the mps who are not inn government or the majority party have to literally sit there and can no longer really help their constituents on the issues that matter to them this certainly limits parliaments main function especially in opposition parties in particular. Secondly there is the argument that in politics and the majority party in particular there is a certain do as your told attitude, there is no more free thinking in parliament on a large scale anymore, mps are merely there to toe the party line as they cannot really step out of line as they may be deselected at the next election. This is a huge threat to there jobs basically but is very effective on behalf of the large party as it means that party whips will have to be used less, as most people in the party know that if they want to go far into the executive then they basically must…

    • 1009 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Parliament is the national representative body which has supreme legislative powers within its jurisdiction. While it oversees the completion of a number of other tasks parliaments’ main role is undoubtedly to make and pass laws and it has to be said that it achieves this role efficiently. Parliament and the members of parliament are elected solely by the people and are therefore responsible to the voting public. When passing laws parliament has the ability to, as part of its law making process obtain expert opinion with regards to tough and controversial issues. This process of law making is a completely structured procedure which follows a routine series of stages whenever a piece of legislation is proposed. These factors amongst others all contribute to the effective and efficient law making system that parliament is. While like any other structured organisation parliament has a number of weaknesses and faults these are minor and have very little effect on parliament as a law-making institution.…

    • 1245 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Another way in which the government’s power could be seen to be reduced is the reform of the House of Lords. This is because there is speculation over whether after enforcing Stage 1 of the reform (the removal of hereditary peers from the House of Lords, other than 92) the process should…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    It is no wonder that John Kerr describes Britain as being “nowhere near being democratic in 1850.” The state of democracy in Britain had been set by the Great Reform Act of 1832 which increased the number of men who could vote in a general election and redistributed parliamentary seats so that there was a more equal ratio of MPs to constituents. However Britain was still far from being democratic. The system was not fair as voting took place in hustings meaning there was no secret ballot, making it possible for candidates to bribe and intimidate the voters and general elections were only held every seven years. Another aspect of the British political system that was undemocratic was the unequal distribution of seats and MPs still representing county and borough constituencies with great variations in size of population. Moreover, the Tory dominated House of Lords was unelected and it could stop the elected majority of the House of Commons getting bills though parliament and only wealthy…

    • 1994 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The mechanisms placed in the House of Commons to ensure its effectiveness are vital to the democracy and overall quality of governing within the UK. Whilst government domination proves to be the key hindrance affecting the quality of the Commons’ work, the checks and balances and opportunities to scrutinise produce an effective chamber in regards to the most important of its functions.…

    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There is an argument that the government has the power and right to change laws and represent people without necessarily having to be elected. This can also be known as ‘Democratic deficit’. An example of democratic deficit is the House of Lords. The members in the House of Lords aren’t elected but they get to make laws and represent the people. The members in House of Lords are usually given their seats hereditarily so many people found it unfair that they’re not elected into the Parliament but they can make decisions and laws on our behalf.…

    • 1202 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    How Democratic Is the Uk?

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Firstly, the creation in 1998 of a Scottish Parliament, a Welsh Assembly and a Northern Ireland Assembly strengthened democracy. It gave constituent nations of the UK their own political voice for the first time. The representation of distinctive Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish interests through parliament was always inadequate because English MPs…

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In 1999 Labour reformed the House of Lords; Labour removed 600 hereditary peers and reduced it to only 92 hereditary Lords in the House of Lords. However, the labor government did propose a system of “elected peers”, where the public could choose peers to sit in the House of Lords. This proposal was never fully implemented into the UK constitution. Until this proposal is full entrenched it is argued that the Lords are not democratically legitimate as all policy making institutions must have legitimacy. Therefore, there is much that can be done towards constitutional reform.…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One factor which can be argued to of had the biggest effect in terms of changing where parliamentary sovereignty resides in recent years is the EU. The UK initially joined the EC in 1973 since then the EC has become the EU and has also become increasingly more powerful over the UK as time has passed, the EU could even be argued to be supreme over UK statues and the UK parliament. This is shown in the factortame case in which EU law took precedent over UK wishes, allowing Spanish fishing boats to fish in UK waters, this was the first time UK law was scrutinized and removed by courts due to EU law contradicting these laws. Furthermore, being part of the EU ultimately is a way of binding the UK governments successors partly due to the fact that if the UK left the EU there could be major…

    • 1577 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    ‘Parliamentary sovereignty is a constitutional relic. It has been rendered obsolete, in particular, by the supremacy of EU law and the UK’s statutory recognition of human rights. We should no longer talk about this irrelevant doctrine.’…

    • 793 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    As stated in the text, what we have now in the United States is a "winner takes all" system. Switching to a Parliamentary system is highly unlikely since our founders chose a completely different path. With Congress only needing two-thirds of the vote to win, it allows elected officials the power to change or not change the law based on their interests and sometimes . In years where the majority of one party rules over another, in favor of certain agendas, it risks the important minority vote. Of course, the President has the power to veto.…

    • 752 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Canadian Party Discipline

    • 3485 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Instead they are allowed to vote according to their own conscious and/or to the decisions made by the voters in their constituencies, because after all, as some critics say, members are elected by their constituents and should be responsible to them.11 This will result with the MPs playing a more important role in the House of Commons in terms of passing legislations. Also, if party discipline were relaxed in Canada, representation for all areas of Canada may improve.12 For example, it will be easier for MPs from western provinces to challenge their party, if needed, in support of western issues; coalitions of members from different political…

    • 3485 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    parliamentarian system of government, if we wish to see our country thrive as it once did.…

    • 1403 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays