100% Elected Upper Chamber Vote For Modern Democracy

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 8th Mar 2007

Speaking in yesterday's House of Lords reform debate, Paul Holmes, Liberal Democrat MP for Chesterfield said:

"In 1973, I was a schoolboy aged 16, studying A-level politics, history and economics. I was enthused by reading about the Liberal Government of 1906 and their battles with the People's Budget, the two general elections that followed and their success in getting that Budget through, along with the Parliament Act 1911, which undertook the first reform of the House of Lords.

"However, in studying A-level politics I was appalled to learn that 62 years after the 1911 Act nothing else had happened and the Lords was completely unreformed.

"In 2001, aged 44, I entered this place for the first time-90 years after the 1911 Act-and found that very little had changed. There had been one limited reform, in that most of the hereditaries had gone, to be replaced largely by appointed political peers.

"I listened in astonishment to arguments advanced in the 2003 debate, when the House unfortunately failed by just three votes to get an 80% elected Lords, and to some advanced in yesterday's and today's debate.

"People have asked why the second Chamber should be elected. I find that incomprehensible, because we are a democracy in the 21st century. I am a citizen, not a subject. I want the people who pass the legislation that affects my life and the lives of my children and future grandchildren to be elected politicians, not appointees.

"My preference tonight is clear. I would prefer to see a 100 per cent. elected second Chamber, in keeping with the manifesto that I, among others, was elected on in 2001, which said clearly that we wanted a directly elected second Chamber-not partly, but directly elected, 100 per cent.

"I hope that tonight we can finish what the Liberal Government started in 1911."

Commenting after the debate, Paul Holmes MP added:

"I am delighted the Commons have voted for a 100% elected upper chamber. This is exactly the result I was hoping for. Now we must make sure that the reforms are put in place quickly and fully."