Vocal Voices

Is the time now right for reducing the numbers in the bloated House of Lords. Do they actually serve a purpose other than to sign in, have lunch, and collect their daily allowance. In my opinion, for what it is worth, such large numbers are an unnecessary expense when the country is facing an uphill struggle to balance its books. The gesture may only be symbolic in the scheme of things, but nevertheless a reduction in numbers, even by half, would be welcomed by many taxpayers.

They should only received payment if the attend and take part in debates in the House of Lords a minimum of 20% of sitting in any year.
This will mean they would not get paid just for signing in.

Compare this with USA. In the Senate there are only 100--one hundred senators, two for each state.
We should have a similar system.
The Lords should not be able to vote on any changes.

In the scheme of things I don't think they are overly expensive, I just don't see what purpose they serve apart from providing jobs for B list members of the political class.

We have a friend who is a Lord he gives all his attendance money etc to a Military charity.

Even he says they should be done away with as unnecessary .

Cromwell from the things he tells us i can assure you that they are expensive

I have long been a supporter of abolishing or reforming the expensive HoL

However, democracies do need a handbrake chamber to the government so we would have to come up with something else.

On a related note we have to do something about the Honours' system. It's a joke. People shouldn't be made Peers just by doing the job they are handsomely paid for or because they are on TV or in mags, and there should be no political appointments. Having said that it would not matter if we were all made into Lords and Ladies as we would not automatically get to vote in the upper house because its members (about 75 to 100) would be elected. The already independent Lords appointments commission could set the rules.