The Clock is Ticking....
August 11, 2010 1:38 PM
By Peter Facey, Unlock Democracy (incorporating POWER2010)
By Peter Facey, Unlock Democracy (incorporating POWER2010)
10th August marked a very special anniversary. 99 years ago, Parliament passed the Parliament Act. This law limited the House of Lords' powers and formally committed Parliament to replacing the Lords with a democratic second chamber.
We've made very little progress on Lords reform over the past century. Even positive moves, such as removing most (but not all) hereditary peers from the House of Lords, have been balanced out by cronyism and scandals such as the "loans for Lordships" debacle a few years ago.
The good news is that both the coalition government and the Labour Party are committed to taking action on this promise at last. But we can't assume this will just happen without outside pressure. That's why I'm asking you to write to your MP today and demand that Parliament gets moving on Lords reform over the next 12 months.
Demand Lords reform now: http://www.power2010.org/countdown
By this time next year, we want to see a full set of Lords reform proposals fully debated in the House of Commons.
We've written to the Lords Reform Committee, which is in charge of drawing up these proposals. Please write to your MP and put pressure on them as well. You can do so quickly and simply by following this link:
http://www.power2010.org/countdown
It is crucial that we keep up the pressure on this - opponents of reform in the House of Lords will do everything they can to delay the process. It is ridiculous that this absurd and undemocratic anachronism has been allowed to continue for so long.
The preamble to the Parliament Act 1911, which was finally became law on 10 August 1911, states that:
"... it is intended to substitute for the House of Lords as it at present exists a Second Chamber constituted on a popular instead of hereditary basis, but such substitution cannot be immediately brought into operation." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parliament_Acts_1911_and_1949
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