House of Lords: Reform

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean Excerpts

Monday 11th October 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean]

My Lords, I feel as if I have bumped into a Radio 4 programme, “Just a Minute”, where you have to speak for two minutes without hesitation or repetition on a given topic. The Question before us, on what the purpose of this House is, is the key question that we need to answer. I believe in the supremacy of the House of Commons. I believe that this House is here to reform legislation and to pass it down to the elected House, which is accountable to the voters, for its consideration. In the end, the Commons must have its way.

I enjoyed the speech of the noble Lord. He was honest enough to acknowledge that making this an elected House, or having an elected element, will change the nature of this Chamber. If we are going to have an elected House, I shall stand for election, but I am not going to knock on doors, saying, “Vote for me. I’m very good at reforming legislation but I won’t do anything to upset the House of Commons”, or, “I am going to do this for you and I’m going to challenge the House of Commons”. I certainly do not think that would be appropriate, because it would undermine the authority of the Commons, lead to conflict and, most importantly, mean that no one was here doing the very important job that this House does.

The Deputy Prime Minister is very fond of telling people that he wants to “repair our broken politics” and that we need reform. I say to those in the House of Commons that they should first put their own House in order, for that is the bit of the system that is broken, and leave this place alone. How many people in this Chamber would stand for election? I suspect very few. What sort of people would stand for election, including me? They will be the B team; they will be the people who could not get elected to the House of Commons, or felt that they were not able to. All the expertise and knowledge which come to this House, and the experience of people who have had careers and done other things—all the things that people complain about a lack of in the House of Commons—would be lost. This Chamber works. Leave it alone. It is not broken.