House of Lords reform: navigating the obstacles - Meg Russell

Widely reported as calling for the ‘abolition’ of the Lords, the Brown commission more accurately proposed the replacement of the existing chamber with an elected ‘Assembly of the Nations and Regions’. [...] 10 REVIEW OF THE UK CONSTITUTION: GUEST PAPER The 1911 Act reduced the Lords’ power to one of delay over bills beginning their passage in the House of Commons.* Later the Parliament Act 1949, passed by Attlee’s Labour government, reduced the delaying power from roughly two years to one, and remains the framework for the powers of today’s House of Lords. [...] The first stage would remove the hereditary peers (as above) and the second would “make the House of Lords more democratic and representative”.10 This second stage was initially referred to a Royal Commission on the Reform of the House of Lords. [...] In the same poll, the equivalent figures for the House of Commons were 53% and 22%.16 These questions have not been repeated, and it is possible that attitudes may have become more negative,* but at least at that time the public clearly saw value in the work of the House of Lords, and if anything rated this slightly more highly than the work of the elected chamber. [...] First it explores the options for a second chamber of the nations and regions, particularly in the light of the ambitious proposals from the Brown commission.