The Government's plans to relocate the House of Lords up north (Morecambe?) took a serious hit yesterday as the BBC's Lewis Goodall came out against it:
- NEW: The Lord Speaker has allowed the upper House equivalent of an urgent question about the potential relocation of the House of Lords. Will take place at around 1500.
- Their Lordships must be worried. But they probably ought not be. I suspect the Lords will be the first of a long list of institutions whose relocations will be floated by the government in the name of levelling up but never actually happen.
- Besides as relocations go what’s the point of moving the Lords? Moving 800 (in the main) pensioners whose power is limited. Not much of a message, unless it’s accompanied by wider constitutional change which would include enhancing its power and (probably) elections.
- Moreover, it’s not clear that an institution just *being* in a place makes the local population more connected with it. It’s not as if the vast majority of the population of London feels any connection with the House of Lords.
That's the Government told then. The Lords will be staying put for Lewis has spoken.
The thoughts of Labour Lew have become required reading.
ReplyDeleteOf course if by some fluke it were to happen, and Morecambe were the chosen seat for the second chamber, then the blasts of wind and rain off the Irish Sea would likely see a cull of the 800, which would at least benefit the public purse. Remainer logic being applied there!