Crossbenchers

Many members of the House of Lords sit as Crossbenchers. This means they do not support either the government or opposition parties, but instead are independent of party politics. They got their name because the benches where they sit are placed across the aisle which separates the government and opposition supporters.

Criticisms

There are several criticisms of the House of Lords, including:

  • How people are "appointed" as lords, which has often been described as undemocratic. The House of Lords is fully unelected and allows peers to hold their seats until death.[2]
  • The makeup of the Lords does not reflect the diversity of the UK, with under-representation of ethnic minorities and women when compared with the House of Commons,[3] and relative over-representation of people from South East England and people over 50.
  • The House of Lords is often criticised for being too large, and too expensive. With almost 800 members it is the second-largest house of government in the world, second only to the National People's Congress of China, and is much larger than Upper Houses in comparable countries.[4]

These criticisms have led some to question whether there is a need for a second/upper house at all, and whether the two house system in British politics is still useful.[5] People such as Tony Benn and Rebecca Long-Bailey, have said the House of Lords should be gotten rid of.[6][7] This is also supported by the Scottish National Party (SNP).[8] This would mean the United Kingdom would have one level of government, which is called unicameralism and is present in many other countries.

References

  1. ↑ "Lords by party, type of peerage and gender". Parliament of the United Kingdom.
  2. ↑ Kippin, Sean; Campion, Sonali (2018). "How undemocratic is the House of Lords?". The UK's Changing Democracy: The 2018 Democratic Audit. doi:10.31389/book1.m. ISBN 9781909890442. S2CID 158354457. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  3. ↑ Bochel, H.; Defty, A. (2012). "'A More Representative Chamber': Representation and the House of Lords" (PDF). The Journal of Legislative Studies. 18: 82–97. doi:10.1080/13572334.2012.646714. S2CID 154015595. Archived from the original (PDF) on 25 November 2023. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  4. ↑ "Replace the House of Lords". Electoral Reform Society. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  5. ↑ Russell, M.; Sciara, M. (2006). "Legitimacy and Bicameral Strength: A Case Study of the House of Lords". PSA Parliaments and Legislatures Specialist Group Conference. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  6. ↑ Benn, Tony (12 July 2012). "We should abolish the House of Lords, not reform it". New Statesman. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  7. ↑ @RLong_Bailey (12 January 2020). "We're fed up of the Westminster bubble" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  8. ↑ "House of Lords should be scrapped, says SNP". BBC News. 28 July 2015. Retrieved 15 April 2017.

Other websites

source: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Lords