Clegg's Lords proposals are made of fail

[Filuwaúrdjan]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13428909

He doth propose a Lords (or whatever it'd be called) of 300 members, 80% of which would be elected and for which terms would be 15 years. The elected members would be elected by STV and in thirds.

...

I think that's actually far worse than what we have at the moment.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Why, out of interest?

Because it would not work. At all. If you must have an upper chamber, then in order for it to work it either has to be a weak revising chamber or a powerful body in its own right (the latter being a very bad idea of course, as the US Senate shows). Clegg's proposals manage to combine aspects of both in a way that's almost impressive in its lack of logic. It would also make certain specific problems that the Lords has worse; you are not going to solve the problem of lobbying by creating posts elected for fifteen year terms! There's a massive corruption scandal - and then a constitutional crisis - just waiting to happen right there.

Or, for that matter, patronage. Who will control the rights to these precious fifteen year terms, exactly? The party leaders.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I wouldn't go that far. I think what we have now is an abomination since the abolition of hereditary peers and the now annual ritual of busing in new Lords so one party get's an advantage over the other.

You mean it was better when it was full (in theory, but almost never in practice) of hereditaries? Is there any reason to think that, beyond partisan interest?

Obviously the current system is a joke, but it's also a comparatively toothless one.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I would have a massive problem with calling any kind of upper house a 'Senate'. Urgh.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Do they have any red lines at all?

[Filuwaúrdjan]

The man from Washington County is not entirely wrong, actually. The comparatively clever thing to do would have been to have at least threatened (in public) to end the coalition and maybe to bring down the government; it's true that a snap election would likely reduce the LibDems back to phone box status, but it would also likely see the defeat of the government generally and don't think that all those senior Tories would happily wave goodbye to their ministerial cars...

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Obviously not. All I'm doing is pointing out that, actually, they do have a little bit of leverage over their senior partner. Or at least they would do if they weren't so utterly incompetent at this whole 'politics' lark.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

This would be an incredibly stupid issue to die in a ditch for. Just saying.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Only technically.