Time to abolish archaic and anti-democratic House of Lords
It’s long past time to abolish the outdated, broken and anti-democratic House of Lords, says Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie.
Mr Harvie’s comments followed the UK Government publishing a list of 38 new lifetime peers, including former MPs who were rejected by the electorate.
Mr Harvie said:
“The House of Lords is an archaic, anti-democratic and farcical relic of an institution, and it should have been scrapped long ago.
“It is simply staggering that we are in the 21st century and are still using a system that allows the government to appoint cronies, donors and friends into positions of immense power and privilege for life, and we have no way of removing them.
“It is made even more ridiculous when someone has just been rejected by their constituents and is appointed straight after. That practice must come to an end. It is an absurd way to run any country. We can and must do better than this.”
Mr Harvie added:
“One of the many benefits of Scottish independence is that it would allow us to move on from this broken system and build a proper modern democracy where all politicians can be held to account at the ballot box.”