A report in the Financial Times has confirmed the extraordinary arrogance and contempt for democratic principles of the hereditary legislators who have seats in Britain’s parliament and their supporters.
The House of Lords has amended legislation to abolish hereditary seats in parliament to allow the former hereditary legislators to keep their seats until death if they wish.
The government will try to overturn this anti-democracy amendment in the House of Commons.
Thomas Gailbraith, a leading member of the conservatives in the House of Lords, claimed absurdly to the newspaper that “In any other country doing this (removing hereditary legislators), we would be launching petitions at the UN” in protest.
Britain has 91 hereditary legislators. The monarchy of Lesotho is the only other country that has such law-makers.
Galbraith complained that the conservatives were getting “nothing in return” for the democratic reform. He said that it was “only right” that the hereditaries be allowed to keep their seats until death if they chose so. The government was “playing with fire” if it changed this. He threatened “repercussions” and “hugh problems” for that government.
The Lords amendment was to allow the hereditaries to keep their seats until death was won by the anti-democracy legislators when 280 of them turned up in the House of Lords to vote in favour. The Labour Party turned out only 243 legislators to stop this affront to democracy.
Not all of the hereditary legislators are conservatives. The Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats each have four.
The Conservative Party’s legislators-for-life are now threatening to disrupt the democratic process in parliament in protest at the democratic reform if the amendment to allow the hereditaries to keep their seats till they die is overturned by the House of Commons.