Why Is The House Of Lords So Hard To Reform?

Read Complete Research Material



Why is the House of Lords so hard to Reform?



Why is the House of Lords so hard to Reform?

The legislature of the United Kingdom consists of two chambers that is it is bicameral. First chamber is the House of Commons and second chamber is the House of the Lords. The House of the Lords was the largest legislative body until 1999 in the whole world.

The total number of members in the House of Lords, at that time, was almost 1200 members. As an outcome of honours awarded by the kings on their antecedents, many of the members of the House of Lords were the possessors of inherited honours.

The House of the Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Around over a century, the United Kingdom governments have made many efforts for the search of a method to commence an inclusive reform of the House of the Lords. The reforming process was initiated by the Parliament Act 1911.

This was commenced by the Liberal Government of that time which discussed that “while it is planned for the replacement of the House of Lords. This is because at current a Second Chamber exists which is comprised on admired instead of inherited origin. However, such replacement cannot be instantly taken into action”. The chronological order of the House of Lords is discussed below.

The Parliament Act 1911 isolated the capability of the House of the Lords to veto the money bills with any other bills. After three sessions, the House of Commons was given the powers and authorities to take precedence and overrule the veto of the House of Lords.

The House of Lords reform applications were considered by the Bryce Commission in 19197. However, this attempt of the reform was botched and unsuccessful because of the rejection of the reforms by the House of Lords.

The time that the House of Lords can delay and impediment a bill from three sessions to two sessions was an amendment in the 1911 Act. This amendment was done by the Parliament Act 1949.

From 1945 to 1951 a convention was introduced naming the Salisbury Convention. This was a vocal and unrecorded constitutional convention. In this convention, the House of Commons was the elected chamber. This means that the Commons has a permission and authorization to pass anything in proposal without the veto of the House of Lords. This was needed because the Conservative Party had an unconditional mainstream in the House of Lords. Along with that, it was considered as unsuitable for them to obstruct the policies of the Labour government subsequent to their total victory in the year 1945.

Life Peerages Act 1958 permitted the engagement of a fresh division of peers that can sit and vote in the House of Lords. However, the rights and the honour will not be inherited. These appointments were based on the merit and believe on the idea of hiring “the great and the good”. These peers can be from diverse backgrounds of expertise and ...