They do,but that's the problem that needs fixing, in my mind. Personally, I think all MPs should be independent. That way the electorate would have to find out something about who they were voting for.
My problem with an elected upper house is that if both houses are chosen by the same means, then having two of them is really quite redundant. There has to be some institutionalised reason why the upper house would ever send a piece of legislation back for review, and there have been quite a few pieces of legislation that have been sent back for review lately that damn well needed sending back. On the whole, I pretty much agree with everything the House of Lords ever says and does and it would be a sorry tale if they ever got reduced to little more than an uncritical shadow of the commons.
(My problem with an elected upper house is that if both houses are chosen by the same means, then having two of them is really quite redundant. There has to be some institutionalised reason why the upper house would ever send a piece of legislation back for review, and there have been quite a few pieces of legislation that have been sent back for review lately that damn well needed sending back. On the whole, I pretty much agree with everything the House of Lords ever says and does and it would be a sorry tale if they ever got reduced to little more than an uncritical shadow of the commons.
Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag,
Fri 7 May 2010, 20:04,
archived)