Question: "The need for reform in the House of Lords has been greatly exaggerated and therefore makes proposals for reform likely to create more problems than they would solve." Discuss.
Answer: The notion that the problems surrounding the House of Lords have been greatly exaggerated is a myth that can be quickly dispelled by looking at the facts. Prior to the House of Lords Act 1999, there were solely 16 female hereditary peers and 2 hereditary peers of ethnic minority in 1998 . The facts showed that the House of Lords was not only socially unrepresentative and undemocratic nature, but held a conservative bias; of the hereditary peers that existed, there were approximately 300 Conservatives, 200 Cross-benchers, 24 Liberal Democrats and 17 Labour peers . Furthermore, the Lords had a notoriously poor attendance record; Hereditary peers’ attendances were “lower than that of created peers”, but more emphatically, 67% of Life Peers from 1994-1997 failed to attend one third of the Lords sittings ....(short extract)
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- Subject: Law
- Course: English Legal System
- Level: Degree
- Year: 2nd/3rd
- Mark: 71%
- Words: 1432
- Date submitted: April 20, 2009
- Date written: November, 2007
- References: Yes
- Document type: Essay*
- Essay ID: 1468
