
Creator of GDS
Create a giant object of FAIL and get a peerage!
Former Cabinet Office minister and architect of the coalition government's IT spending controls Francis Maude has been handed a life peerage. The announcement means Mad Frankie can can continue to wield his axe against the IT "oligopoly" behind the scenes and in perpetuity from the House of Lords. Maude announced he would be …
The problem is that Labour filled the Lords with as many of its own people as it could, so now the Conservatives have to have a go at evening it out.
I think there should be a maximum time limit that each Lord can sit, say 15 years, with the parties being allowed to allocate new Lords by proportion of their general election vote. Lords would then become a rolling average of the last three general election results while keeping the numbers fixed and without implementing direct voting.
We'd need to get rid of a few hundred Lords first, mind.
Lib Dems wanted a directly elected upper house, which completely defeats the object of it.
My proposal gives them a fig-leaf, a fig-leaf to the parties unfairly represented by FPTP ( UKIP, Green ) while keeping the purpose of Lords intact, stops parties from rigging it in their favour and keeps it more sensibly sized.
The LibDems must be asking a very strange question if the answer is "600 more politicians".
It is all going to be moot as the various parties stitch up some answer, very much less than perfect but one that can be well greased and slipped through both houses, to the west Lothian Question, legitimate SNP aspirations, illegitimate SNP aspirations, English devolution etc.
Expect change generated by business as usual.
the second chamber should be elected by a proportional representation system - maybe single transferable vote though I'm open to other suggestions - at the same time as the general election for the commons, which should remain first-past-the-post
that way you get a majority government and lower chamber, with a more balanced and representative upper house
I'd put a rider on it as well that "professional politicians" - i.e. anyone who has not had a real job - should be barred from the second chamber. And you'd probably want to ban anyone under the age of 40