COMMONWEALTH PARTY
OF AMERICA
U.K. Senate Proposal
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With compromised or unaccountable governments inducing instabilities such as pension protests in France, truck protests in Canada, overzealous lockdowns in New Zealand and Australia, farm confiscations in the Netherlands, sharia takeover in Sweden, chaos across the southern U.S. border and invasive boat traffic coming over the English Channel to the Brexit-less U.K. -- we get a sense of breakdown that needs to be addressed in the institutions of governance. One complaint in this regard is the oversized and non-representative House of Lords in the U.K. which has been the subject of various attempts at reform over the years. To such end we sent a message to the House of Commons to suggest a replacement for the House of Lords which would be a U.K. Senate that has its members appointed somewhat like the original U.S. Senate had. A general outline was given with the appointment of senators done by the elected governments of the various sub-kingdoms and counties or 'nations and regions' as referenced in some of the original reform efforts espoused by U.K. sources. Appointments done by those elected governments serving as indirect elections for a senate would be an alternative to having the redundancy of another directly elected house. We suggested a staggered approach to filling in the kingdom senate rosters in order to avoid abrupt change across a delegation akin to how the U.S. Senate has 1/3 of the senators chosen every two years. Such approach does call for figuring out a nuance to how best reflect a new average power balance amongst the incoming parties within a nation for the interim period between the direct elections concerning their home parliaments. We leave it to the citizens of the U.K. to determine the final form if they wish to build on this plan:
*anchor for 'Sources'* SOURCES:'The second chamber of Parliament is steeped in an eventful history which has shaped today's House. Here are some key dates in the evolution of the Lords.' https://www.parliament.uk/business/lords/lords-history/history-of-the-lords/'But the Tory group in the Lords, as with the other parties, is heavily dominated by those with political connections. This includes almost 100 Conservative ex-MPs, booted into what many speak of as a “retirement home” where they are guaranteed a £300-plus daily allowance for turning up, and 34 former special advisers and ex-party officials.' 'More than half are politically connected people, about two in 10 are hereditary peers and the remaining tranche are from other walks of life – heavily skewed towards financiers and thinktanks.' 'Certainly, there are the 184 crossbenchers, many proposed by the House of Lords appointments commission, but they make up less than a quarter of the House of Lords. Then there are the 25 bishops – despite England and Wales being no longer majority Christian nations.' ~ Betsy Reed | Thu 29 Dec 2022 12.00 EST https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/dec/29/donors-cronies-lackeys-case-abolish-lords-reform-labour-boris-johnson'First, abolition would not be wise. To remove the House of Lords and replace it with nothing would leave the House of Commons as our sole parliamentary check on the government’s power..........Without such opportunities for second thought, government decisions would inevitably be more rushed and likely often regretted later. These dynamics explain why many of the world’s largest and longest-established democracies also have second chambers—among them the US, France, Germany, Canada, Australia and Japan.' 'There are many potential ways in which a reformed second chamber could represent the nations and regions—for example, the Australian and US Senates are directly elected by voters in the states; the Austrian and South African second chambers are elected by sub-national legislatures; the German Bundesrat represents state governments and the Canadian Senate is appointed on a provincial basis. Proposals in the last 20 years have tended to suggest direct election in nations and regions, along with some appointed members.' 'Notably, dissatisfaction with the appointments process did not necessarily drive support for an elected alternative to the Lords—respondents were equally split between supporting election and appointment. Those seeking to overhaul the House of Lords need to take into account the need for public buy-in for reform.' ~ Meg Russell | November 24, 2022 https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/60267/why-abolishing-the-house-of-lords-is-not-the-answer'And no other country in the democratic world has a second chamber bigger than ours. Globally, only Communist China has a bigger body, and they merely meet to rubber stamp government policies. France manages on 348 members. Spain with 265. India, with over a billion people, and Japan have just 245 members each.' 'In 2022, the House of Lords is dominated by London, the South East and East of England, with a majority of peers (55%) for whom we have a place of residence living in these three regions (more than 250 peers refuse to state the area they live in). By contrast, peers in the East and West Midlands make up just over six percent between them – leaving many areas of the UK woefully underrepresented.' 'The average age in the Lords is 70, and while Lords were recently been given the ability to retire, they can sit in the Lords for the rest of their life. Female representation in the Lords has only recently reached 28 percent.' https://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/campaigns/elected-house-of-lords/Labour unveil plans to abolish the House of Lords | Channel 4 News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlfIrAXTbRo
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