Yesterday in Parliament
From today’s Hansard:
Mr. Robert Marshall-Andrews (Medway): In anticipation of tomorrow’s important debate, will the Prime Minister consider what is the point of replacing a second Chamber that was rotten because of inherited patronage with a second Chamber that is rotten because of contemporary patronage?
The Prime Minister: First, the independent Members of the House of Lords will be appointed by the independent commission. Secondly, the political appointments can be made in one of two ways. Those Members could be wholly elected — some people here in the House agree with that — or they could be appointed through the political parties. In either event, those would obviously be political appointments. That is a matter for the House to debate, and of course we will listen carefully to the House’s views about the right way to proceed with House of Lords reform. However, I have to say to my hon. and learned Friend and other hon. Members that, listening to those views, it is clear that there are almost as many different views about what should happen with the House of Lords as there are Members of Parliament.
It’s nice to know that when voters elect someone to represent them in Parliament, the Prime Minister thinks this is a “political appointment” functionally indistinguishable from the exercise of arbitrary patronage by party bosses.