Breaking the link

I support a fully elected second chamber, and that is what I will vote for if I am elected as an MP. In a democratic and multi-faith society, where there is a political consensus that reducing appointed quangocracies is part of the modernising that British politics needs to do, it is important to break the link between all peerages and a seat in the UK's second chamber. This is possible within the White Paper published in July 2008 - legislating to implement this is long overdue.

The Queen's speech commitment is to introduce a draft Bill in this Parliament - that means it will not be enacted before the next election, which is why I say how I would vote as an MP. I once had a conversation about House of Lords reform with Cornwall's former Bishop Bill, who put the argument for a proportion of appointed peers, but he didn't persuade me; even though, as a member of the House of Lords elected through the Church of England, he was an instinctive democrat in the arguments he voiced on Cornwall's behalf.