The House of Lords Should be entirely elected by a system of proportional representation. Discuss.

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The House of Lords Should be entirely elected by a system of proportional representation. Discuss.

The House of Lords is the second chamber of the United Kingdom’s parliament. In all matters, the House of Commons has primacy over it. Its main functions are to scrutinise legislation, both domestic and European, and to debate on issues of public policy and public concern. Since the passing of the parliament act 1911, the Lords can no longer obstruct government legislation. With the Salisbury-Addison convention, the Lords recognises that it should seek to facilitate the passage of legislation regarding to manifesto commitments of the government as they are seen to be what the public wants. The Lords is entirely appointed. Majority of the members are life peers whom are appointed by the queen on the advice of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister decides how many new members of each party to appoint as well as how many independents. The general aim being that the party balance in the Lords should be in a similar proportion to the Commons. Nominations from each party are submitted by the party leaders themselves and are accepted by the Prime Minister. For independents, the prime minister takes advice from the non-statutory Appointments Commission. In addition, the Prime Minister appoints some independents individually; generally only retiring distinguished civil servants. Further to this, the house has 92 hereditary peers and 26 Bishops of the church of London. It is worth noting that on the whole, the general consensus is that the Lords is excellent at its job. (All these figures are accurate as of October 2009.) Keeping in mind the role of the Lords and its composition, we can look at some of the pros and cons of having an entirely elected house. After which we can consider certain possible methods of election. Through all this, the essay will show that the Lords should not be wholly elected. However, if all or part of it were elected, proportional representation does seem to be the best choice.

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There is one main advantage. Namely, having an entirely elected House of Lords would give it increased legitimacy. In a democracy such as ours the theory is that parliament and the government of the day should represent the views of the electorate. Being a second chamber of parliament whom interacts with and potentially influences legislation, most feel that an appointed upper House is undemocratic and thus the legitimacy of the Lords is continually being questioned. In March 2007, each House voted on a range of proportions for elected members they would like to see in a reformed House of Lords. ...

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