A fascinating exchange today with an old associate who has gone on to greater things.
Among the topics covered were today's by-election to succeed Lord Methuen and today's ennoblement of Sir Andrew Green, of which latter I should disapprove strongly, were it not for the annoyance that it has caused to David Aaronovitch and Oliver Kamm.
According to my interlocutor, very serious consideration is being given to a scheme whereby the elected hereditary peers would be replaced with 100 members elected for six-year fixed terms by the members of the House of Commons.
Each of the Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat and other MPs would elect five Labour, five Conservative, five Liberal Democrat, five other party and five Crossbench Senators, or whatever they would be called.
The intention had been to use STV, and AV for by-elections, but I seem to have made the case quite well for voting for one candidate and the requisite number being elected at the end.
My friend and I have both counted STV elections the final results of which have been identical to those of the first preference count.
The eventual intention would be for this 100 to comprise the sole second chamber.
That is this week's word on the street, anyway.
Have I got this right, five Labour peers/senators elected by the Tories, five by the LibDems, five by the others and only the other five by our own Labour MPs?
ReplyDeleteThe five other parties from the four blocs of MPs would be a right little Lanchester Review reunion, though. Pirates, NHS Action, Liberals, 4 Freedoms, all sorts, plus Godfrey Bloom among the crossbenchers.
The five other party members to be elected by Labour MPs would give an insight into how much support Respect, Left Unity, TUSC, the SLP, the SSP and one other enjoyed compared to each other. That could be quite an eye-opener.
The biggest eye-opener for a lot of people would be when Dirk Hazell got 50 votes and topped the poll for other party members to be elected by Conservative MPs, beating by miles Nigel Farage or whoever UKIP put up.
DeleteSomething very similar would happen when those same MPs elected five Crossbenchers.
It would also be well worth watching the reaction when they returned Rod Liddle as a Labour member.
And so on.
I'd be surprised if anything at all ever came of this whole scheme. But you never know.