House of Lords - Bashing the Bishops

[MillionMilesAway]

The problem really is not with the fact there's bishops, it's that a secular society only 1 religion - CofE - has representation

Of the 30 million Britons who give a religion on the census, 5 million are catholics, 4 million muslim, 1 million Hindu, 500k Sikh, 300k Jewish, 300k Buddhist.

They should bump it up from 3% of the Lords to 5% and create about 25 lordships for Imams, Catholic bishops, Rabbis, Gurus, Pujaris etc.

As for the bigger idea of a House of Lords replacement, the absolute first step is removing all hereditary peers.

Then you just decide on a total number you want, ie 750. Then split that into the areas we want representation from. Religious leaders. Business leaders, Civil Servants, Judiciary, Military, Politicians, Arts. Give them all an amount of seats and then require a supermajority to appoint someone so that 1 party can't ram everyone through.

That would be better, yes - I'd expect many of the bishops would support the move too. The argument seemed to be for religious representation or against - including the others seemed a slightly different point which I thought would clutter.

Hadn't thought much about how things are formulated - just strongly against a wholly elected body which has no expert opinion. These people are going to have to assess complex law and need to be competent to do so.

Something like you suggest would make sense. Arts, yes, forgot the arts - also a minimum for each region seems wise, and also a bar on recent party's large donors (say, 5 or 10 years). No Cruddases.

I like the country having hereditary peers for the colour, but the majority don't offer much. If they are in as experts, then fine - I'm mildly amused by the argument that they are at least elected, whereas most of the Lords aren't! So experts or out.

Oh, and an upper age limit or maximum time as a member too.

 

[El_george]

Best thing we could do is stop buying stuff from China and mainly trade with our closest geographical neighbours. Oh, wait…………

Well that is one viewpoint (and I get your sly dig at Brexit by-the-way) but we have been buying stuff from China for years, not just since 2016.

On a more serious point - which I have made before (and to argue against myself for a moment) - Britain, Europe, America - most of the world in fact rely on China for production of goods. Basic stuff & techno items - toys to iphones and everything in between - so there is no wonder they need all these power stations as they need all that energy to make these things. We have basically contracted-out our pollution! The whole world needs to become less materialistic, but that isn't going to happen. As poorer countries become richer it's just going to get worse.

But don't try to twist it and make it a Brexit thing, that's just ridiculous.

 

[The Future’s Blue!]

What a surprise that you think this way...

It‘s an immediate bot, not even got the …

Why should we care?

 

[bluethrunthru]

"seasoned political commentator" seemingly unaware of the makeup of the Lords