To What Extent Can an Unelected House of Lords Be Considered Defensible?

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To what extent can an unelected House of Lords be considered defensible? Introduction and Context “Anyone from abroad will tell you that it is the class system that really lies at the root of our problems, economic and industrial. The House of Lords symbolises that.”[1] “There was an instinct, inarticulate but deep and sound, that the traditional, prescriptive House of Lords posed no threat and injured no interests, but might yet, for all its illogicalities and anomalies, make itself felt on occasion to useful purpose.”[2] The words of Tony Benn and Enoch Powell outline the precarious situation of debate on reform of the House of Lords, with supporters and opponents of change disputing the legitimacy and effectiveness of an unelected chamber for over a century. The importance of the Commons had overtaken that of the Lords during the latter half of the 19th century, but peers still had excessive powers and the ability to veto the elected chamber, and hence prevent complete dominance of the legislature by the prior. The rejection of the “People’s Budget” in 1909 stimulated the greatest constitutional crisis for a generation, and provided grounding for the need to introduce reform to ensure a supposedly more democratic, legitimate and effective political system, where popular will triumphed. The Parliament Act 1911 set into motion the establishment of Commons’ dominance of Parliament, and the debate over legitimacy of the upper house up until the present day.[3] In 1958, the Life Peerages Act provided for the regular creation of life peers (as opposed to hereditary peers), as a more acceptable form of new membership, yet the remaining lack of a mandate continued to make the Lords’ role questionable . This essay will contrast the merits and demerits of an unelected House of Lords to that of an elected one, and whether such characteristics could be used as
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