Vocal Voices

After a bashing from the HoL over tax credits the government is to hold a 'review' over the workings of the upper house.

Now, as someone who champions for change to the HoL, you would think that I am all for this. Not in the slightest. This is a knee-jerk reaction from a government which does not want to be challenged in any way.

The review by Lord Strathclyde, Tom Galbraith, former Conservative Chief Whip and leader of the HoL and now Hereditary Peer, is not likely to be impartial. He might call in "experts", but I am tempted to think that any result will be in favour of lessening the impact the Lords has on government.

If anything the Hol has to be strengthened, and for me that is an elected chamber.

Yes, this is all very interesting. As a matter of principle, I was pleased that the Lords rejected the Tory tax credit cuts proposal and sent it back to the drawing board, and I think in the long run they have done Osborne a favour. Assuming the forecasted cuts to individual incomes was accurate, it was an appalling piece of legislation. No austerity programme is worth imposing that amount of hardship, IMHO. I believe that last night, the Lords eminently "did their job" as a brake on the excesses of the Commons.

I suspect that the Tories anger is heightened because there was, and this is my take on it, an underlying message. Osborne had, before the vote, signalled that yes, he would re-look at the tax credit cuts if the Lords nodded through the legislation on the night. The fact that they didn't sent the underlying message: "We don't trust you ..." - and I think that has really rankled.

Now they are saying that the Lords may rebel again shortly. This would be over proposed legislation to make individuals responsible for registering themselves as voters, something currently done by the head-of-household, and for some reason Labour and the Liberal Democrats oppose the measure (personally I have no idea why as it seems an eminently sensible move to me, but there you go).

Now if they do conspire to vote the Government down on something as trivial as that, then yes, I would agree that the Lords needed reformation. But not based on last night.