Category: Lords reform and PR

An unelected chamber has no place in a modern democracy, reform of the House of Lords is long overdue

Immediately after being introduced in the Lords she began to use her position to fight for its replacement with a fully elected chamber. She has promoted a Bill that would give the Lords the chance to develop their own reforms

Read on for her latest posts on this topic

House of Lords Reform

Published on by jonesjb

When we have a House that is undemocratic, overcrowded, dominated by silly archaic practices and unrepresentative of the British population, we should be careful about which changes we make. We need a smaller House and a second Chamber that is representative of the regions, elected by a form of proportional representation and operating in a modern parliamentary building, rather than a 200 year-old museum that threatens either to fall down or to burn down. We should have term limits, all be elected and be limited in size very carefully. Getting rid of the hereditaries is only a tweak when our system is still open to exploitation by Prime Ministers, who can give titles to party donors and those who have provided political favours. It is a terrible process, and that is where Labour should have started, if it was really serious about positive change here. Continue reading “House of Lords Reform” →

Reform of the House of Lords

Published on by jonesjb

Labour’s plan to axe peers there by birth is a blunt instrument. Only a fully elected second chamber will give us true democracy, without it the House will remain undemocratic, overcrowded, dominated by silly archaic practices and unrepresentative of the British population. We need a second chamber that is representative of the regions, elected by a form of proportional representation and operating in a modern parliamentary building Continue reading “Reform of the House of Lords” →

Government push on with Rwanda Bill

Published on by jonesjb

We are debating today whether this authoritarian Government can declare that the objective truth of facts decided by the courts can be overruled. If we allow it, it is another big step towards a dictatorship—intentional or not. I know that the majority of people in the House of Lords know that the Government are wrong. I also know that many still cling to the belief that the House should not vote to stop the Government passing the most draconian of laws. We are paid more than £300 per day to come here and talk and vote, but what is the point of all our hard work if the Government ignore us? Continue reading “Government push on with Rwanda Bill” →

Assault on democracy

Published on by jonesjb

This government has launched an assault on our democracy. It is trying to discourage opposition voters reaching the ballot box with Voter ID; it is giving the police the power to ban protests that create “more than minor” disruption; and it is trying to by-pass parliamentary democracy by handing more power to Ministers. Continue reading “Assault on democracy” →

An appeal to Labour’s frontbench: save parliamentary democracy

Published on by greenlordsmedia

This is an appeal to the Labour front bench: please talk to some constitutional lawyers urgently about my Fatal Motion, or even Gordon Brown, who produced such an expert report on reforming the second chamber. It appears that Emily Thornberry MP, Labour’s Shadow Attorney General hasn’t had the full picture explained to her. In a tweet the other day, she argued:

“Labour doesn’t vote in the House of Lords to kill a bill, that’s the Commons’ job. The constitutional position is the unelected Lords is a revising chamber only. If a precedent was set, the Tories could easily use their majority in the Lords to do the same to a Lab govt’s laws.”

Continue reading “An appeal to Labour’s frontbench: save parliamentary democracy” →

My petition to defend rights and democracy

Published on by jonesjb

Only a few weeks ago the Government lost a vote in the Lords on the Public Order Bill to change the interpretation of “serious disruption” of other people’s day-to-day activities to mean “anything more than minor” and now the government are now trying to reinsert this change via secondary legislation which has less Parliamentary scrutiny and can’t be amended in any way. Baroness Jenny Jones has tabled a fatal motion to stop their proposal from becoming law.

Continue reading “My petition to defend rights and democracy” →

Impacts of corruption debate and report launched by Baroness Jenny Jones

Published on by greenlordsmedia

A debate on the impacts of corruption is being held in the House of Lords today at 3pm, in the Grand Committee. Baroness Jenny Jones will use it to launch her new report on corruption in the UK.

Continue reading “Impacts of corruption debate and report launched by Baroness Jenny Jones” →

Jenny 100% attendance

Published on by greenlordsmedia

Times Radio have obtained figures that show more than a hundred members of the House of Lords attended parliament fewer than ten times in the most recent parliamentary session.

“Only two peers attended parliament on all 156 days it was sitting: Lord Moylan, a Tory peer, and the Green Party peer Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb.

Continue reading “Jenny 100% attendance” →