Parliament: Elected House of Lords

Lord Stoddart of Swindon Excerpts

Wednesday 10th November 2010 Lords Chamber

[Lord Stoddart of Swindon]

My Lords, it is completely naive to think that we could have an elected second Chamber without additional powers—or, indeed, with even fewer. Not only would the inhabitants of the Chamber demand more power, but their constituents would demand more power. They would say: “What on earth are we paying these people salaries and expenses for when they have no power?”. The drive would come not only from the Chamber but from constituents as well, who would demand value for money.

My second point is that the present situation is unique and virtually perfect. You have a unicameral system posing as a bicameral system, under which the House of Commons is all-powerful but is assisted by a group of people who are very well qualified to advise it, to slow it down a bit but not to usurp its sovereignty. My advice is, quite frankly, that if something works leave it alone.