Britain’s second chamber of Parliament should have 600 legislators and 15-year terms of office says a committee of legislators-for-life.
Legislator-for-life Norman Fowler presents report to House of Lords
At present 826 legislators sit in the unelected chamber and can do so until they die.
The committee recommended that the size of the house be reduced slowly by replacing every two legislators who leave with just one new one. This would take 15 years.
Most new legislators would be appointed by the main political parties in proportion to the size of their representation in the House of Commons. But a minimum of 20 per cent would be independent of those parties. The independents would be appointed by a state-run commission.
The government would continue to give seats in the House of Lords to individuals it wished to appoint as its ministers.
The people of Britain would continued to have no say in who sits in the legislative chamber.
The Church of England would keep its privilege of appointing its bishops as legislators.
The families that own a seat in the House of Lords would not lose those seats.
Apparently unaware of the irony House of Lords Speaker Norman Fowler, who appointed the committee, said that “This is the House of Lords reforming itself.”