Lord Cromwell (CB)

Settle down, please. On participation, I initially felt that a more detailed approach could be taken, with a weighted metric across all the diverse forms of participation. We might come back to that in the future, because the participation request is, I am afraid, in practice an attendance amount. I now accept the committee’s view that this would make things overcomplex at this stage. I cannot resist, however, being intrigued by the earlier reference to me by the noble Lord, Lord Hamilton, and his suggestion for a solution. I thank him for the prior notice he very courteously gave that he was going to be rude about me, but I will correct his understanding: I was defeated a number of times in by-elections before the one in which I was successful. Perhaps I was too shy to tell him about that. These changes are, as the report points out, just two elements of possible reform. Prominent among the rest, as many have mentioned, is the ability of Prime Ministers and party leaders to treat peerages as a tool of patronage, something that has been exacerbated recently by a rapid turnover in Prime Ministers. Rather as in The Lord of the Rings, the ring of power, once obtained and wielded, becomes very precious and very hard to give up. I believe that, at least for those who accept the existence of an appointed rather than elected House, this wielding of patronage is the greatest single issue for reform, and that is reflected in many comments we have heard tonight. Its continuance is in part due to the difficulty in creating an alternative that addresses the “who appoints the appointers” test. While I still hope that the House will grip this, I am straying from the subject of the debate. As regards next steps, we have a track record in commissioning reviews, notably the Burns report, and then simply shelving them. I really hope that we can do better this time. We should not let perfect be the enemy of good. Implementing this report’s findings will represent definite progress in line with manifesto commitments. In short, I congratulate the committee on the report, I repeat my hope that we can get it implemented and I look forward to hearing the winding-up comments from the Leader of the House.