Why are Britain’s unelected Lords hiding from scrutiny? It was a Parliamentary first – and it went without a hitch. On Wednesday, voters and MPs tuned in to the first-ever 'virtual' Prime Minister’s Questions. Posted 24 Apr 2020
How do House of Lords expenses work? As Lords lobby to receive their expenses to work from home, it’s worth taking a look at the current payments system in Britain's unelected second chamber.... Posted 23 Apr 2020
Let’s postpone bizarre peer by-elections for good Even in today’s climate, hereditary peer by-elections are among the more absurd aspects of British politics. Following the retirement of the Earl of Selborne from the House of Lords after almost 50 years in office,... Posted 01 Apr 2020
Another chance to scrap an absurd Parliamentary quirk A Bill to phase out one of Parliament’s more absurd procedures is making some progress, after being talked out of time by Lords last year. Lord Grocott’s Hereditary Peers (Abolition of By-Elections) Bill underwent its... Posted 17 Mar 2020
Oh Lord… Defender of hereditary peers is made minister for political reform Last week’s government reshuffle saw some strange moves. Boris Johnson appointed a former speechwriter to John Major, Lord True, as a minister overseeing constitutional reform. A strange move because Lord True is one of just... Posted 19 Feb 2020
Spiralling size and cost of the Lords shows it’s time for an overhaul The House of Lords has again come under scrutiny this week as the Times reports that peers will see their daily pay rise by 3.1% to £323 per day if they attend from April. This development comes... Posted 13 Feb 2020
People are rightly losing faith in politics, it’s time for democratic renewal A new report by the recently established Centre for the Future of Democracy at the University of Cambridge has found that dissatisfaction with democracy has reached an all-time global high. Westminster-style democracies (the UK, Australia,... Posted 31 Jan 2020
It will take more than moving the Lords up north to mend our broken politics The phrase ‘moving the deckchairs’ has never felt so apt. Over the weekend, we learnt that Boris Johnson is mulling plans to move the House of Lords permanently to York. Or maybe Birmingham. Speaking of... Posted 23 Jan 2020
Why unions are getting serious about the need for political reform A week before the court case over prorogation reached the Supreme Court, the ERS’ Dr Jess Garland told TUC Congress delegates: “Our constitution is just a set of gentlemen’s agreements, with weak parliamentary checks and... Posted 19 Sep 2019
An elected House of Lords wouldn’t just be a clone of the House of Commons The Electoral Reform Society has long campaigned for the House of Lords to be abolished and replaced with a new modern, fairly elected democratic second chamber. We also want to see the one ‘democratic’ chamber... Posted 10 Sep 2019