My lords, should the Mother of Parliaments further reform its Upper House?

[Duke Malcolm]

I meant to post this yesterday, but anyhoo...

In the Queen's Speech, HM said that Her Majesty's government shall further reform the House of Lords. I was wondering how my noble (and some ignoble) brethren here thought the House should be reformed, if at all.

The trouble started back in 1997, I think, when Tony had a majority in the House of Commons, but Tories had a majority in the House of Lords, because all the hereditary lords had a right to a seat there, and most of them were Tory. So, Big Man Tony brought in the House of Lords Act 1998, which stopped this autobatic right, and made it so that 90 of the hereditary lords were elected, with the only 2 having an automatic seat being the Lord Great Chamberlain, and the Earl Marshall. Now, they want either to remove all the hereditary lords, making the House all appointed, or making it partly elected besides that.

The Tories want to give MPs a free vote on its composition, and the Liberal Democrats want to abolish the Upper House and make a wholly elected Senate (which is in breach of the Act of Union, but hey, that is generally ignored now-a-days). UKIP, however (who got the 4th largest number of votes, but not a single seat in the election), want to return to the way it was previously, by repealling the afore-mentioned Act.

Website of Parliament

I might also add that the House of Lords is not there to represent the people, but to provide scrutiny on Bills.