Should the House of Lords be abolished?

The House of Lords is in my opinion a necessary tool that is a very useful counterpart to the House of Commons. Take into account the issue mentioned above in regards to the House of Lords: The issue of Fox Hunting and other measures that the Labour party has pushed through the House of Commons due to their large majority can only be stopped by a second house that is independent and not politically motivated. Bear in mind that not all of the UK is against Fox Hunting (in actual fact I would put the figures at a rough guess at about 20% against, 20% For and around 60% indifferent who have not really thought about it. Therefore a second house that can ...  Read the complete review

House of Lords is a select group of people who keep an eye on the laws made by MP's. Lords also called Peers have to pass a bill before it becomes law. Currently there are 751 peers. 26 are Lords Spirituals 725 Lords Temporal Spiritual Lords: 2 archbishops, 24 bishops. Temporal Lords: 633 Life peers (made by government), 90 hereditary Peers and two ministers of Crown. History of Lords goes back centuries. Once Lords had more powers than Parliament. Slowly Parliament has increased its power since it is selected by the common people. I don't want the house to be abolished because it protects the rights of us ...  Read the complete review

When considering the possible abolition of the House of Lords there are several aspects of the question to consider. 1. Does the British parliamentary system, of which the House of Lords is a part, operate as effectively as possible for the benefit of the British people? 2. Would the abolition of the House of Lords improve parliamentary system? To answer the first question, Does our present parliamentary system, and the House of Lords in particular operate as effectively as possible, I believe that this question must be answered with a 'No', the main reason for that is because the parliament we have at the moment is a mess. It ...  Read the complete review

The talk of getting rid of the House of Lords raises one question: what would replace it? I would like to raise the consequences of getting shot of the Lords, but first, describe a little bit about the Lords. PS. If a cetain university lecturer is reading this, it is my work (an abridged version from one of my essays previously submitted) and so it's not plagiarism! The Lords is the supreme court in the country, and also the second chamber in the political system. It consists of approximately 700 members, 92 of which are hereditary. Lords are not elected as members of the Commons are, but are appointed on recommendation of selection committees. ...  Read the complete review

Although the political system is based upon a two chamber legislature with the monarch providing the third level of checks and balances in the system as the Queen has to sign all bits of legislation, in effect this signing of legislation is a formality, whilst the second chamber the House of Lords actually has limited powers in its ability to block or amend legislation. If a government is determined to pass a piece of legislation that the Lords keeps rejecting then it can invoke the Parliament Act to force the legislation through the Lords and onto the statute books. Given the recent press stories about the apparent loans for peerages scandal that ...  Read the complete review