Member

Then we have the Salisbury convention, which both parties, sometimes reluctantly, adhere to. If the elections to both Houses were on the same day, there might be a possibility that the majority party forming a Government in the Commons might also have a majority in the Lords. But if elections were at different times, as Gordon Brown proposed, there could be a majority of elected politicians in the Lords opposed to those in the Commons. If there were a regional PR system, it is highly likely that the governing party in the Commons would never have a majority in the Lords. As we know, that does not matter as long as the Lords adheres to the Salisbury convention, as we currently do, but I suggest that a highly politically elected Lords Chamber would never endorse the Salisbury convention and we would have a US-style Senate/Congress deadlock.