Why the House of Lords is a fine institution.

This week, Ed Miliband has said Labour will replace the House of Lords with an 'elected Senate' if they win the general election in May 2015. The left has an obsession with tearing down old Great British institutions like the Lords, the Monarchy, the Church of England. They hate these historical institutions because they see them as symbols of privilege, oppression and discrimination. The facts and even public opinion suggest how wrong they are to tamper. The old cliche of course: 'if it ain't broken, don't fix it'.

The House of Lords of course historically was a forum for the great landed magnates and high clergy of Medieval England and that aspect of its history was of its time and is no longer with us. Most of the hereditary peers were removed in the late 1990s by the New Labour government. Again, they saw these ghastly fox murdering bastards as they like to believe as symbols of everything that was wrong with Britain. In fact many of them were in deep financial difficulty, many were active in charity and barely any had a large degree of influence over government policy. But since the Lords reforms of the Blair era, some just can't help themselves and want to see the whole thing, an institution over 800 years old just cast into the dustbin of history. 

In it's current formation, the House of Lords is primarily made up of 'Life Peers'- those given a seat by governments with approval from Buckingham Palace. Some of them are well knows faces. The recent death of Richard Attenborough was a loss for the Lords, a man hugely involved in charity, promoting Britain abroad and a man committed to a progressive worldview. Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Alan Sugar have both done enormous work for charity and sit in the Lords. The other peers are mostly experts in a particular field. Science, commerce, religion, technology, charity, those who have fought for justice such as Gary Newlove's wife and Stephen Lawrence's mother, poets and linguists also reside there, experts in various fields of law- they are all represented here. It doesn't matter where they come from or their backgrounds, the House of Lords is supposed and often rightly scrutinises the legislation which comes from the House of Commons. The feckless careerists in the Commons should look to their colleagues in the Lords with respect and dignity. 

Another important point is that the public cannot fathom the idea of more elected politicians from private schools who don't understand the real world or real people. The same applies to the idea of an elected head of state. The public have far more admiration for Her Majesty the Queen than any elected politician could ever dream of. She is highly respected on the global stage, herself and her family chair an enormous amount of charities and they bring in far more revenue to the UK than they take. These days, there own personal estates account for much of their revenue and local jobs. 

The House of Lords is a far more dignified institution than the House of Commons is. The debate in the Lords is often non-partisan and intelligent, sensible discussions usually take place there than you will ever see in the Commons. The Commons every Wednesday at 12 observes a spectacle not unseen from a pantomime whereas you don't see that kind of behaviour in the Lords- an elected Senate will create new levels of partisan nonsense and childish screaming and bitching. Of course nothing last forever, but it would truly be a disaster for British democracy, tradition, common sense and respect if the Lords became another victim of the fantasties and crusades of the left.