I saw a scene on Tuesday which summed up everything that’s wrong at the top of this country.
A large, stuffy hall in Westminster packed with subservient flunkies in tights, hundreds of ermine-clad barons and baronesses, and a king and queen decked out in gold-threaded finery, seated on bejewelled thrones. Together they make up the apex of our country’s constitutional power and earn millions every year on the back of the British taxpayer. Yet not one of them has been elected by any of us.
When the people we have elected were allowed to stand at the back of the chamber, the King read out “his” speech which contained a line that was pure comedy gold.
“My government will continue to take action to ease the cost of living for families,” said the head of a family worth £21.3billion, wearing a gem-encrusted crown worth £5billion.
Oh, how I missed Dennis Skinner pricking the pompous air with quips like “I bet he drinks Carling Black Label” aimed at Black Rod, and “get her to pay her taxes” meant for the Queen, as MPs waited meekly to be granted entry into the chamber which houses the second largest ruling clique outside of Communist China.
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The argument for getting rid of this medieval masonic boil, where 26 Church of England bishops get an automatic seat and 92 hereditary peers are allowed to pass laws simply because their rich ancestors did, has never been more powerful.
A poll by Opinium in July found that only a fifth of Britons believe the Lords acts in the public’s best interest, with two-thirds wanting it replaced by a directly elected second chamber. When people were asked to describe it in a single word, “outdated, old, corrupt, privileged” and “waste” topped the list.
Had there been another poll this week following Tory peer Michelle Mone finally admitting to her role in a £200million Covid PPE deal which is the subject of a fraud probe, I’m sure the number of abolitionists would have risen.
Especially if they’d noticed Baroness Charlotte Owen signing on for her £342-a-day tax-free allowance, despite having done nothing of note in her 30 years on Earth apart from getting close to Boris Johnson. That’s a lifetime-guaranteed sum just for signing the attendance book which a minimum wage adult worker would have to graft for 32 hours to earn.
This hall of shame, which allows 800 patronage beneficiaries to ride the gravy train until the graveyard, is a democratic outrage. Gordon Brown knows that, which is why last year he presented a plan to Keir Starmer to replace it with a much smaller, elected Assembly of the Nations and Regions to properly represent the country.
Starmer agreed back then, but, as on many fronts, is reported to have done a U-turn, preferring instead to stuff more Labour cronies in there. And of all of those U-turns, this makes the least sense as it is morally the right thing to do, would help drag the
reputation of politics out of the gutter, is a guaranteed vote winner, while Starmer himself has previously described the Lords as “indefensible”.
But maybe the real man running today’s Labour Party, Baron Mandelson of Foy, enjoys luxuriating in the perks too much to agree. Which is almost as shameful as the costly pantomime he’s a part of.
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