Member

My Amendment 11B calls for a referendum on whether the public want an elected House. I love the hypocrisy of the Lib Dems’ Amendment 11. It is to introduce a democratic mandate and give the public a say in who is sent to a new House of Lords. They propose consulting all political parties in both Houses, all territorial Governments, 400 local authorities and goodness knows how many organisations that are supposed to be representative of local authorities in the UK. Everyone is to be consulted, except a little group of people—48,200,000 of them—who are the electorate of the UK. They will have no say whatever on whether they want an elected House of Lords foisted on them by the great and the good, who know what is best for the plebeian herd, and we know why: because once the public get the facts, this Lib Dem proposal will face the same fate as their PR plan—soundly rejected in a referendum.