ANDREW TURNER MP
Don’t do it Mr. Clegg
Many people contact MPs. Some ask
for help, others want the Government
do this or that. The subjects raised
are more varied than you can imagine
- but I can honestly say I have never
been inundated with letters, e-mails
or telephone calls demanding that the
House of Lords be reformed.
With the current state of the
economy and our nation’s finances the
Government shouldn’t be naval-gazing
but dealing with issues that are
troubling real people. I am convinced
Lords reform is high on the agenda
only for political anoraks. Yet the
coalition Government is poised to
introduce a Bill which they intend to
bulldoze through Parliament.
I believe in democracy, but I don’t
believe that Lords, whose main role
is to revise and improve legislation
from the Commons, should be elected.
There are all sorts of people in the
Lords whose knowledge and skills add
enormously to the quality of debate
and the laws that we pass. Professor
the Lord Winstone is a Labour peer,
and I certainly don’t agree with
everything he says. However Robert
Winstone is also a world renowned
medical expert on human fertility,
so when Parliament discusses IVF
treatment his expertise is invaluable
and his contribution important. I
don’t believe he would have stood for
election, but we still have access to his
knowledge, as well as his opinions.
Another facet of the House of Lords
is that although many sit as peers for
one party or the other, they are there
for life. So the whipping system
(where the party tells you how to vote)
is often seen as a rather inconvenient
irritant and ignored. A good example
was when the Government insisted
that parts of the Isle of Wight
be linked to the mainland when
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constituency boundaries changed.
It was the House of Lords, who
effectively told the Government to
‘stick it’. And, after thinking again,
the Government did!
House of Lords reform is Nick
Clegg’s political baby, yet even
LibDems haven’t been in touch about
this particular policy – I suspect Island
LibDems have too much good sense.
Mr Clegg’s other dream was a different
sort of political reform. He got his
referendum on the alternative vote. It
was a political disaster for him – and
I can see this going the same way. So
I want to give some friendly advice
to my party’s coalition partner. Stop
trying to fix the system and deal with
issues that are really worrying the
people we are privileged to represent.
The Riverside Centre,
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