94 years ago today...

[matgb]

The Mother of all Parliaments. Apparently, we're supposed to be proud of that, us Brits. Um, guys? a) the Icelanders and the Isle of Man are known to have gotten in before us and b) You keep forgetting to do stuff wot you promised us.

94 years ago, a decision was made. They decided to reform Parliament, make it more democratic! What a great idea. However, they weren't certain what to do, so they did a few tweaks around the edges and announced they were going to investigate the best way to go forward. The tweaks around the edges were called the Parliament Act of 1911, itwas given Royal Assent on August 10th of that year.

I quote:

• "...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."
  

-Preamble to the Parliament Act 1911

Still waiting guys.

When elected, Mr Blair said he was going to change it too.

Still waiting.

Anyone want to guess on the odds that they'll have gotten around to finishing the job by the time the 100th anniversary of that Act comes and goes?

I want to be proud to be British. It shouldn't be hard. But, well, our politicians keep messing things up.

This post has been brought to you as part of Lords Reform Day. Go sign up. You never know, they might start listening. They may even get around to doing something. 94 years...

Comments

[iamseph.livejournal.com]

You know what 1911 means to me? The M1911, the classis Colt .45 calibre pistol used in the US army since it was released and still seeing a lot of action today.

[matgb]

I guess that's the essential difference between us; you=gun nut me=politico.

I guess one of us will send the other off to die at some point in the future ;-)

[iamseph.livejournal.com]

/golfclap

Yeah, ok, I didn't expect anything different.

[ollyb.livejournal.com]

Hereditary rulership, tempered by Parliament, led this nation to concquer half the world.

Now we're just a bit of a joke nation on the arse end of France.

Yay for democracy...

[matgb]

Failed half hearted attempt at demoracy anyway. Besides, "we" gave up ruling half the world back when the Lords was still entirely hereditary.

We may be a joke on the arse end of France (disagree, nut still), but at least we'renot France...

[bimbeeni.livejournal.com]

i always thought the lords should stay....

[shadow-exe.livejournal.com]

Having a group of unelected officials, who don't have to pander to the whims of the retards electorate, can be a positive moderating force to limit the actions of any extremists or idiots that might get themselves into the Commons and do all sorts of harm.

Blair's much-vaunted intention to nobble the Lords was less about improving the "quality of democracy" in this country than it was about appealling to Old-Labour toff-haters and limiting his own accountability for mistakes.

[matgb]

That's essentially the reason why I'm in favour of having a proportion of the Lords selected randomly from the population; a 100 or so people. The Athenians did it. Not personally in favour of a directly elected second chamber, but the current mess can't be allowed to stay as is for much longer.

[shadow-exe.livejournal.com]

"selected randomly"

Randomly? From the filth that crowd the streets here? Fuck no. I'd rather have an increasingly-isolated pack of rich wierdos with weak chins and convulted pedigrees than the drooling morons who make up the general public.

If you're going to actually select people for the Lords, you need to give peerages to people who are recognized for their intelligence and moral uprightness. People like me, basically.

The main problem with not having a House of Lords is that the electorate can't be trusted to make sensible decisions as to who is to run the country, and you think that picking 100 of them at random and giving them some political responsibility is a good idea?

After all, there's a reason that political apathy is so widespread these days: it's that most people are too stupid to understand the issues which face our country's leaders.