In two weeks’ time, we'll lastly escape the European Union, liberating ourselves from its monumental waste. Waste, that's, like frequently shiftin
In two weeks’ time, we’ll lastly escape the European Union, liberating ourselves from its monumental waste. Waste, that’s, like frequently shifting MEPs and their employees between the 2 seats of the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg – a farce which the European Parliament itself calculated in 2013 was costing it 103 million Euros (£88 million) a 12 months. So why, then, is our personal authorities in search of to recreate this large folly in Britain? Proposals floated right this moment embody relocating the Home of Lords to York, whereas the Commons embarks on a round-Britain tour.
I assume that carting the Commons across the nation like King John’s baggage prepare is a technique of drumming up enterprise to be able to justify HS2, whose enterprise case has in any other case disintegrated at excessive velocity. Put 650 MPs on a prepare to Liverpool, Newcastle or wherever else the Commons is assembly this week and also you’ve crammed a complete prepare. Add of their secretaries and researchers and that’s a couple of extra providers offered out. No white elephant, this – it will likely be a necessary a part of our democratic infrastructure. A parliament of no mounted abode could be an enormous enhance to the lodge commerce, too – albeit at public expense. Fairly what else there may be to be gained from shifting so many individuals and employees across the nation is tough to fathom. The areas want funding and expert jobs, not a travelling circus.
Apparently, relocating the Home of Lords outdoors London was a coverage steered by Rebecca Lengthy-Bailey on Friday. I can perceive why political events prefer to attempt to steal one another’s garments throughout an election marketing campaign in the event that they detect that the opposite facet is gaining traction with one in all its insurance policies. However having only a gained a majority of 80 Boris hardly must be fearful of insurance policies dreamed up by the fading frontrunner in a Labour management contest.
That mentioned, Lengthy-Bailey did give you one good thought: abolishing the Home of Lords in its present kind and changing it with a 100-seat Senate. That’s the actual drawback with the Home of Lords. Not that it meets in our capital metropolis, the place one may anticipate a Parliament to fulfill, however that it’s filled with 800 political cronies who’re solely there due to political patronage – whether or not it was bestowed by the Prime Minister final week or as a result of a distant ancestor slept with Edward II. No different democracy has such an over-size higher home, nor certainly one that’s unelected. This was purported to be put proper a decade in the past when all three events fought a common election promising to reform the Home of Lords. But, despite two of these events forming a coalition, it by no means occurred.
It’s mentioned that one of many authorities’s motivations in shifting the Home of Lords is to maintain attendance down. The argument being that hard-up aristocrats and aged place-men are at present within the behavior of popping their nostril into the Lords purely to select up their each day £300 attendance allowance however are unlikely to wish to maintain doing this if it includes a protracted journey north. However truthfully, why not lower your expenses by closing the entire place down and beginning afresh with not more than 100 senators who’ve democratic legitimacy?