SECOND CHAMBER SHAM MUST END

“If the whiff of corruption is to be permanently removed this should be the last nomination list to the Lords in its present form.   There is no need and no time for further extensive inquiries.   It is clearly essential to disentangle membership of the legislature from the honours systems as quickly as possible.

“Parliament could begin work immediately on pre-legislative scrutiny of the fully drafted Second Chamber of Parliament Bill which I introduced last year, endorsed by a cross-party group led by Ken Clarke and Robin Cook, and supported by some 30 Members of both Houses including William Hague and Neil Kinnock. 

“We must bring the curtain down on the longest-running Whitehall farce in the next 12 months, or risk reducing Parliament to a new low in public respect.”

Note:  Paul Tyler published “Reforming the House of Lords – Breaking the Deadlock” with Ken Clarke, Robin Cook, Tony Wright and George Young, and presented the Second Chamber of Parliament Bill, in February 2005.  His Commons career – culminating as Shadow Leader of the House and constitutional reform spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, and a member of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Lords Reform – ended when he retired at the 2005 Election and he became a “working peer” in the Dissolution Honours.