UK government wants power to expel wayward lords

[Joanne98]

Source: AP


LONDON (AP) — The British government said Sunday that it wants peers who break the law to be expelled from the House of Lords.

There is currently no way to remove members from Parliament's unelected upper chamber. Members of the Lords are mostly appointed for life, although some are hereditary nobles, bishops or judges.

Several criminals retain their Lords seats, including novelist and convicted perjurer Jeffrey Archer and jailed newspaper magnate Conrad Black.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw said peers who are guilty of serious misconduct should be expelled. He said he was preparing measures to be included in the forthcoming Constitutional Renewal Bill.

"In the House of Commons if you break the criminal law, or for example it is found that although you have not broken the criminal law, you have been doing something completely improper, then the House of Commons can in extremis expel you," Straw told Sky News television. "And that must apply to the House of Lords."

The House of Lords has been in the spotlight since a newspaper alleged last week that several peers had offered to amend laws on behalf of lobbyists in return for cash.

The 700-year-old Lords does not make laws, but has the power to amend legislation or delay its passage. It is regarded by many Britons as undemocratic and outdated — and by many others as a crucial counterbalance to the elected House of Commons.



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WHOA!

[Baby Snooks]

1. It's those damn commoners!

In 1999 the House of Lords became of body of elected "Lords and Ladies" and the peerage, apart from those who were elected, disappeared and for the most part the peerage was replaced by the commoners and Parliament, as they say, went to hell in the proverbial hand basket.

There were, and are, advantages to the peerage. Many of the families are hundreds of years old. And apart from the occasional sexual scandal they hadn't brought much scandal on themselves or Parliament. The reality is that the peerage has always had a vested interest in promoting the interests of the Crown, in the constitutional sense more than the royal sense, instead of their own interest. Their own interest came from the Crown. The House of Lords no longer has a sense of direction and one reason is that it no longer has a vested interest in protecting the interests of the Crown. There is also no sense of continuity which the hereditary peerage provided.

Just my opinion. But my family on my mother's side has been part of the peerage for over 400 years. I'm a little biased I suppose.

In 1911 and 1949 Parliament decided to move towards a more "democratic" society by allowing more authority to the House of Commons than to the House of Lords. Perhaps a reflection of our own system although our system at this point is a total disaster. As is theirs.

There is no provision for expulsion because until the commoners arrived there doesn't appear to have been much basis for expulsion apart from the occasional sex scandal which even among the staid British was never sufficient for someone to be expelled from the House of Lords.

As I recall, however, there are constitutional provisions regarding "removal" from Parliament, without distinction of which house, for certain crimes members of Parliament have been convicted of.

It may be a matter of the corrupt protecting the corrupt. A reflection of how their Parliament has become a reflection of our Congress.

An interesting question with regard to the hereditary peerage is whether it would have supported the invasion of Iraq. Most likely it wouldn't have. It didn't serve the interests of the Crown.

Lady Thatcher of course would have. But she is not a hereditary peer but a life peer and an example, to be tongue-in-cheek, as to why women should never have been allowed in the House of Lords.

But what is done is done. Perhaps their Parliament will institute more exacting standards for its members. And perhaps our Congress will do the same?