Quote:
Originally Posted by Incognitas
The problem with this is that the independence of the HOL may well be affected if we go for elected candidates especially if it comes down to members being promoted by either of the three main political parties. 
What I like about the present system is that each hereditary lord is not bound to support any party because their position is already secure and not reliant on support from a political party. |
A lot of those hereditaries are affiliated to the Tory party though coggy, the leader of the Conservatives in the Lords, Lord Strathclyde is an hereditary, until the 2002 house of Lords reform act the Tories had an inbuilt majority by way of hereditaries which had given them a majority for nearly a thousand years. Even now the hereditary make up of the Lords is
Conservative 42
Liberals 3
Labour 2
Cross 28
Others without voting rights 16
After the reform bill the Labour government made more life peers who were affiliated to the Labour party so as to balance the benches.
Having said this the higher echelons of the Conservative party no longer want the hereditary situation to continue, and the remaining 92 will eventually be phased out by "natural wastage" ie: death. By which time hopefully all three major parties will have agreed a consensus.
As it stands now the make up is as follows.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_o...nt_composition