No More Lords: Sign up to the best Power2010 campaign yet

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982

Sometimes I get frustrated with doing politics online. In the day-to-day heat of it all and with rare opportunities for perspective, the real-world worth of running LabourList can sometimes be intangible: by the weekend, I crave the opportunity to knock on doors and do the stuff that genuinely makes a difference.

But every now and then, even in online campaigning, something exciting grabs my attention. I had one of those moments last week, when Power2010 called me up and asked whether I’d be willing to help spread the word of their exciting No More Lords campaign.

Power2010’s letter to all three party leaders, published this morning and available for all to co-sign, says:

“It is 2010 and we still have a Parliament in which the upper chamber is made up of appointed cronies, a group of aristocrats who have inherited the right to rule, and 26 Bishops who sit in Parliament by right. Every one of them is unelected and unaccountable.

Politicians of all parties like to talk of a “democratic” House of Lords. It will feature in all of your manifestos. But it is how you act ithat reveals whether you truly support a cleaner, more accountable politics.

Few will have been surprised by revelations in the recent “cash for influence” affair, that retiring MPs see a seat in the Lords as the best place to pursue a career in corporate lobbying.

This can’t go on. It simply isn’t credible to talk about cleaning up politics whilst continuing to appoint new Lords, many of whom will expect to live out their retirement in the chamber whilst blocking any kind of reform.

We call on you to commit to introducing a fully elected second chamber in the next Parliament – and as of today not to appoint a single further figure to the House of Lords. Because there should be no place for Lords in a modern democracy.“

Democratic reform isn’t one of the most important issues in this or any election – and it’s not one of those that comes up on the doorsteps. Those issues are almost always housing, jobs, immigration – broadly, the economy.

But Power2010’s very simple statement of principle is nonetheless important and timely. It gets to the core of what still needs to change in politics – particularly after the last year of seemingly never-ending scandal that has tested all of our faith in the transparency of a tired British system. In returning to the first principles of democracy (accountable representation of the people by the ballot) – and in doing something about it now – this is a statement all the party leaders would do well to adopt ahead of the first post-expenses – and, yes, post Lisbon (with all its appointeeism) – general election.

Democracy, literally, means “people power”. That power doesn’t belong to Parliament, to hand down when it is expedient. On the contrary, power is entrusted unto Parliament as a body, by the people. If those people have literally no say in the selection of one half of that Parliament, its starting point is illegitimate. That disconnect is a big part of the reason there is so little trust in politicians to exercise people power at all, let alone responsibly.

Power2010’s expansive and inclusive campaign – and this part of it on Lords reform in particular – seeks to reverse that, by building a coalition of people to make democracy work for them.

For Labour, this issue is particularly pertinent. Reform of the Lords goes to the heart of Labour’s story. Even in the last 13 years of government, there has been progress on making the Lords more democratic, albeit achingly slow and totally incomplete. But, even with that slow progress, the simple fact of the matter is that in 2010 we still can’t choose the people who check and execute our legislation in the UK.

Principle should of course be enough, but if Labour is seeking electoral or strategic reasons for rejecting the dissolution appointments to the House of Lords in 2010, then those exist too. Some Conservatives seem to think that, even in 2010, peerages may be handed down to those who “deserve” them – that for some reason certain people have an entitlement to sit in the House of Lords. Just last week, ConservativeHome ran a piece called “Who should David Cameron put on the red benches?” and 13% of Iain Dale’s readers still believe that representatives in the second chamber should be “wholly hereditary”. There is little hunger in the Tory Party for the sort of “change” that would bring democracy to the second chamber, yet 75% of the public continue to favour at least some form of elected representation.

And if the purpose of Labour strategy is to expose the Tories’ willingness to embrace real, meaningful change, then what better way than by taking action now, and starting as we mean to go on?

Join the campaign here.