House of Lords Degraded (Again)
‘I don’t want to be a member of the House of Lords. I will not accept it,’
It reads like Wilson’s Lavender list – a shameful compilation of has-beens, never-will-be’s and frankly disturbing toadys. This is the list of people that the One Eyed SnotGobbler thinks make a worthwhile addition to our legislature. After the headlines, though, don’t read on for big hitters or worthy appointees. It’s as memorable as the Earl of Derby’s Who?Who? Ministry of 1852.
On it we have such odious characters as treacherous floor-crosser Quentin Davies, the worlds worst bullimic John Shagger Prescott, Ex-Defence Secretary John “Gordon Brown will be a fucking disaster as PM” Hutton (okay, so he got that right), knuckledragger John Reid, the nosebleed-inducingly useless Des Browne and one-time Chief Whip Hilary Armstrong – runner up to Margaret Beckett in the annual Parliamentary Face Like A Horse competition ever since the event began.
In the Services To Terrorism section we have the PC PC, Iain Blair (who thinks innocent electricians are easier targets) and Ian Paisley (who is happy to sit in govenment with them).
That required section of Oh Bugger, Check If We Forgot To Put Any Blacks In candidates is ably filled by Paul Boateng who will be delighted to have left being High Commissioner to crimestruck, AIDS-ridden and BBC success story South Africa. Showing that they are ready to play in the big leagues with the adults now, the LibDems selected ex-children’s television presenter Floella Benjamin.
Corrupt fake-charity the Smith Sith Institute’s Wilf Stevenson gets that organisation’s last hurrah before the rich teat of Labour government funding dries up and they all have to find real jobs.
Prescott is joined by fellow socialist class-warfare veteran John Monks of the TUC and BigotGate’s very own walking disaster zone Sue Nye.
There are some good nominations on the Conservative benches: Michael Howard and Guy Black will make good lawmakers in the Upper Chamber. However you’ve got to wonder why the newly invented category of Services To Winding Up The Grassroots was required specifically for John Maples and Shireen Ritchie. Tim Boswell and Angela Browning are worthy enough but will doubtless continue to be as anonymous in their new House as they were in the old.
As far as the naked figures go, the changes are:
Labour 211 to 240
Conservative 118 to 204
LibDems 72 to 81
Crossbenchers 182 to 183
Which takes the Labour majority over the Conservatives from 23 to 36.
Whilst it’s arguable that Gordoom’s last flail of the scorched earth policy was always going to have this result, number-crunchers will be divided between whether the largest party in the Commons should have the most aligned seats (it most certainly does not) or whether the Coalition should (which it does). Whichever is right, Conservative B-List peerage contenders will feel that they have missed out badly after being on the squeaky side of the election result. There could have been another 50+ names pulled from the hat.
After Labour’s appalling chop-shop butchery of constitutional “reform” this is bound to reignite the questions opened up by their incompetence. Another mess to clear up now that they are gone.
A post on House of Lords reform has been bubbling for months now. It will probably stay bubbling where it is.
I wonder if the Labour peers will be as intransigent with LibCon legislation as Tory peers were with Liberal legislation in the early 20th century?
Thats a major part of the problem, though. The constitutional position is lost at sea. Precedent and detailed historical comparisons don’t stand up in this new situation. With the HoL especially, in many ways it feels as if we’re just in a holding pattern until a new settlement is put into place.