In a meeting with the House of Lords this Monday, the Viscount Linley, now Earl of Snowdon following the passing of his father in January, has requested for his right to be registered as a Hereditary Peer within the House. This would make him one of ninety-two hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords.
The House of Lords forms the upper chamber of the Houses of Parliament, and its role is to scrutinise and, if necessary, amend acts passed by the elected House of Commons. This provides a necessary check on the powers of the Commons that is independent of the influence of the electorate and theoretically helps to forestall any acts that could prove harmful to the country at large due to whims in public mood.
As was demonstrated earlier this year when Prime Minister Theresa May attempted to pass a Bill announcing Britain’s intent to withdraw from the European Union, the House of Lords can return bills to the Commons with amendments for further review and debate. While it can potentially do so a number of times to delay a bill’s passing — a process informally referred to as “ping-ponging” — it typically only does it once to prevent controversy, and the Lords cannot actively prevent Bills from being passed except in very specific circumstances. Likewise, the Lords cannot propose legislature.
Before the House of Lords Act 1999 passed under Tony Blair’s New Labour Government, the majority of hereditary peers were entitled to sit in the House of Lords. Since then, however, the number of seats allocated to Britain’s hereditary peers has been limited to 92, unless they’ve also been designated a life peer. This measure was supposed to have been temporary, with the ultimate aim of the Act to be the removal of all hereditary privileges from the House of Lords.
David Armstrong-Jones, the 2nd Earl of Snowdon, inherited his position upon the passing of his father, Anthony Armstrong-Jones on the 13th of January 2017. The Earldom was conferred in 1961 by The Queen when the 1st Earl married her sister, Princess Margaret. When the House of Lords Act 1999 was passed, the Earl was given a life peerage so that he could keep his seat.
An earlier form of the title had already existed before this point. A Barony of Snowdon was created by George I and conferred to his grandson, Frederick, the Prince of Wales, which was then passed on to George III when his father predeceased him in 1751. Upon George III’s ascension in 1760, the Barony was merged in the Crown.
Actually, the Lord’s can and do propose legislation, but with exceptions. They cannot propose taxes or other financial legislation (money Bills), which Must originate in the House of Commons. Please do your research.
Maybe there should be a requirement that all declarations of war, incorporations of cities or laws designed to regulate planning and development must originate in the Lords, after of course doing away with that stupid Lord’s “Reform” so all hereditary peers can sit.
I wonder don’t Britains believe time has come for Lords to be an elected body. Seems all very well to talk about the “whims” of the people. But the UK is a democracy. The will of the people ought prevail.
(Removed)
Because that’s worked out SO well in the States.
Indeed it has. Modeled for the Lords by our British founders, our Senate was appointed by state legislatures (2 each). Now, of course, they are elected. Because of size their rules differ from those of the larger and more “rowdy” House. They perform in many ways like the Lords. In fact the Lords have begun to emulate the US Senate in some ways. Except of course our Senate is elected by and responsible to the people whose nation this is and who pay the bills
And the result, in the US, has been that our property rights are a joke, separation of powers has dwindled to nothing, the regulatory state has grown to the point of bordering on a Fascist shadow government, the middle class has not grown since 1976, we have a law that forces people to buy health insurance and we can’t balance the budget to save our lives!
Patience, my friend, “For the times, they are a changin'”. It has begun.
The UK is already far too much of a democracy, as is evidenced by its violation of the rights of its citizens to keep and bear arms with the “Handgun Law” of 1994 and their tendency to throw billionaires in jail because they feel like it. A majority can be every bit as much of a tyrant as the Queen, and frankly, you misunderstand the legal concept of “the people”, which does not mean 50% + 1, but every person and community in a nation who is not degenerate, unruly or treasonous, or about 99% as a good rule of thumb. (Incidentally, this is also why “the right of the people to keep and bear arms” [2nd Amendment] cannot be restricted by an elected legislature except to a minimal extent required to keep it “well-regulated”, which in the language of the time basically meant “doesn’t rape and pillage”).