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FEDERAL UNIONPO Box 29113 London SW1P 2WF

info@federalunion.org.ukwww.federalunion.org.uk

Reform of the House of Lords a submission by Federal Union

1. Federalism divides political power between levels of government to achieve the bestcombination of democracy and effectiveness. It is not the bureaucratic centralisation

of popular myth.

2. Federal Union was founded in 1938 to campaign for federalism for the UK, Europeand the world. It has argued since then that democracy and the rule of law should

apply to states as well as within them.

Summary

3. This paper argues that some members of the upper house should be elected by

members of the devolved bodies and regional assemblies in the UK, to provide a

democratic element and to provide a brake on the process of centralisation.

The proposals in the White Paper

4. The proposals in the White Paper serve to strengthen the power of patronage and the

dependence of national political life on the Westminster system. At a time when

patronage is increasingly criticised and the Westminster system decreasinglyrespected, we think this is a mistake.

5. Specifically, the White Paper would strengthen the powers of those institutions

already located in Westminster. Four fifths of the members of the new upper house

would be appointed, and only one fifth elected.

6. Worryingly, three fifths of the members of the new upper house would be appointed

by political parties. The White Paper is silent on how each party might carry this out.

This points the way to a much strengthened power of patronage by the national

structures of the political parties. This is hardly what the country needs. Political

institutions can play a considerable role in shaping the political culture: the WhitePaper suggests that British political culture should become even more centralised than

it is already.

Federal Unions proposal

7. Federal Union argues that the government should accept the principle of the indirect

election of some members of the upper house by the devolved bodies and regional

assemblies.

8. The nature of governance in the United Kingdom has been transformed dramatically

by the creation of devolved parliaments and assemblies. In a number of ways, the UK

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now has some of the features of a federal system rather than a unitary state. Thisshould be reflected in the legislative institutions at the UK level itself.

9. There is a distinctive interest that devolved bodies have in UK legislation, separate

and in addition to the interest of the citizens they might represent. Under our

increasingly complex constitutional arrangements, decisions taken in Westminster

have a considerable bearing on the actions and freedom of action of the devolved

bodies. Without any kind of input into those Westminster decisions, an important

interest goes unrepresented.

10. For example, there is no political forum where the Mayor of London can debate the

future of London transport with the UK government. As a result, the debate has been

forced into the law courts.

11. Paragraph 41 in the White Paper treats the argument for indirectly electing the

members of the upper house merely as a means of selecting them, rather than

reflecting on the fundamental transformation in the British political system that is

currently taking place. In particular, its dismissal of the arguments in favour of

indirect election are feeble.

12. The argument that England does not yet have regional assemblies is absurd: they are

in the process of being created and the aim of reforming the upper house should be tosettle something for the future.

13. Equally, to assert that the devolved bodies themselves have not asked for this power is

also meaningless. Some of them as noted in the previous paragraph do not yet

exist. And for those that do, they are still fairly new and so cannot yet be supposed to

have explored all their powers and potential. And furthermore, there are powers that

those devolved bodies have asked for and been refused: the government should not

pretend that the absence of a demand from the devolved bodies is a stumbling block.

14. Members of the upper house, elected on a specific regional mandate, will be able to

play an important scrutinising role to resist centralisation where it is not needed. TheMaastricht treaty introduced the concept of subsidiarity that the power to deal with

an issue should is held by institutions at a level as low as possible, and only as high as

necessary. The United Kingdom needs this approach as much as does the European

Union.

15. At present, and under the proposals in the White Paper, there is no resistance to the

inevitable attempts by the centre to accrete new powers. Entrenching the influence of

the sub-national levels of government in the Westminster legislative process would

provide an important and much-needed brake on centralisation.

16. It should be noted that indirectly elected members of the upper house would have anundeniable democratic legitimacy, but would not have a mandate that competed with

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that of the House of Commons. The suggestion that is often made by Lord Irvine on24 January, for example that elected members of the upper house must necessarily

compete with the lower house is simply not correct. The role of the general election

in determining the political colour of the government and the legislative programme

that followed would not be affected.

Nominated members

17. The fiasco of the appointment of Peoples Peers shows how carefully the

procedures for appointment must be drawn up. Any appointed members of the upper

house must be selected in order to make it more representative of the diversity of the

United Kingdom and not more representative of the Westminster interests that already

dominate.

Conclusion

18. The completion of the reform of the House of Lords is an important opportunity to

extend democracy and specifically to reverse the process of centralisation that has

done so much harm to British political life. The indirect election of some members of

the upper house by members of the national and regional assemblies and parliaments

would achieve this. Sadly, the White Paper does not propose this course of action.

Federal Union suggests that it should be rethought so that it does.

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