Member

Because many doubted Labour’s intentions to reform, the cry went up, “No stage one without stage two”, and it was on that basis as a guarantee of further reform—as certified by the Lord Chancellor, as my noble friend Lord Howard reminded us—that the Lord Chancellor gave a solemn pledge in Parliament that it was agreed that the 90 hereditary Peers would stay until stage two was delivered. After that, though, nothing happened. Reform vanished for a long decade into a thicket of royal commissions, Select Committees, Joint Committees and cross-party groups—fine words, much smooth butter, but no parsnips, except the ending of the Appellate Committee, although at that time there was no exclusion of the Law Lords who were there.