Leftie Support for the Lords

Published: 15/10/2008

The Lords

The newly ennobled (Peter) Mandelson, bedecked in proud red robes is the latest Lord to go a-leaping into power in our parliament, bypassing the tedium of elections. For years, I was with those who believed the second chamber is a bastion of unfair privilege. Peers are still largely appointed on winks and nods and too many are elevated for party donations, partisan loyalties or to placate certain interests. It all felt terribly wrong, shady.

If, instead we had elections to the House of Lords, no doubt, people who would never get ‘chosen’ by the chosen would gain entry. But simplistic redress can rebound on itself. You don’t just want more women, disabled, black and Asian Peers. You want them to be worthy of the seriously responsible job.

I am coming round to the idea that a wholly ITLALS PREVIOUS elected House of Lords would actually diminish parliament. Mediocre (though ambitious) people would get in and they would be easily manipulated by the ruling party to weaken the processes that ensure our laws are good, just and workable. This is what our Lords and Baronesses did last night and Oh so brilliantly. They threw out the proposed law that would allow an individual to be detained for 42 days without charge. In the Commons, the government was able to get a majority by whipping its MPs into line. Muslim MPs were shamefully compliant. The Peers, on the other hand, would not be cowed and royally won the battle.

I had tea with Baroness Liz Symons in the Lords last week and looking around the tearoom it was noticeable that the upper chamber is now impressively diverse, and high calibre. There was Lord Desai, the erudite economist, Attorney General Patricia Scotland, Liz Symons herself, once a high flying civil servant, the LibDem Baroness Faulkner, Tory Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, Shriti Vadhera, woman of many portfolios, doughty lawyer Helena Kennedy. It is no longer just a white gents club, nor a retiring home for befuddled aristocrats. Some of those who have served this country best would not have got in playing the electoral game which rewards populism and low common sense.

Women, black and Asian Britons are still underrepresented in the Commons and numbers must be increased but some, alas, who have entered the corridors of power were never worth it. Many Lords and Ladies who have been ennobled in the last decade certainly are more than worth it. These undemocratically selected patricians fiercely protect our democratic rights. And so this leftie now salutes the erudite and independent bigwigs, and even the archaic system that put them there. Strange old world.

Published in Evening Standard