Reform of the House of Lords II

Commenting on Reform of the House of Lords by Stuart Wonko`s World But it was the fact that the Lords got their position by lottery of birth that made them an effective check on the power of the Commons. British MP's will sell their grandmothers if it means they might win an election. How many times has a leadership candidate or prospective parliamentary candidate abandoned their long held beliefs and principles and toed the party line for the furtherance of their career? I can give you a few examples in the last few month off the top of my head. The Lords had no reliance on popularity with either the electorate or the party and, rather than turning them into raving dictators, it made them into effective opposition and overseers of the career politicians in the Commons who stand to lose if they lose support of their party. Since the last "reform" of the House of Lords, the Labour Stazi has appointed itself a majority in the upper house where previously it had been a Conservative majority. The proposed "reform" to make it an elected upper house is nothing to do with democracy or accountability but merely an attempt to legitimise the situation whereby the upper house is 99.99999% guaranteed to have the same party in control as the Commons. If the people vote for a Labour government in the Commons, they sure as hell aren't going to vote for a Conservative government in the Lords are they? Once the same party has absolute control of both houses there is no opposition or oversight and the Lords becomes an expensive talking shop - this is what the Commons has been reduced to over the last few years.