its an AWESOME letter.
As mentioned elsewhere, I’d a relative who held a hereditary peerage & indeed held it through the Lords reform. I’m not sure if posters are aware, but on their death there was a by-election rather than the seat simply passing to my relative’s child. To be fair, I consider the one time it was inherited - & the person to whom the peerage was initially granted - genuinely were the sort of people we want in the second Chamber: fiercely intelligent; principled; extensively qualified in fields outwith politics that would be hugely useful in the legislature… Anyway, my main point was that the hereditary peerages are much better balanced than they used to be; Peers voting for their peers is, I think, helpful, as they understand the job & the skills needed.
What I’d really like to see is reform of the Lords Spiritual. It’s absurd that 3.3% of the seats in the HoL are held by people whose attendance rate is so abysmal & who - rightly, frankly - see their diocesan work as their priority. The second article I link to there would essentially have us believe that the clergy move [others] in mysterious 4D chess ways. None of that contributing to debates or putting things in writing 🤨 (Plus they’re totally consulting with other faith leaders. Yep. Uh-huh.)
If the C of E has to have a presence in the Lords - & at the moment they can’t start work without a bishop saying the magic words - it should be someone whose priority is that; who will (barring disaster) be present every day Parliament is in session; & not someone who should be busy with their [Arch]Diocese. A couple of clergy who were dedicated to the work would be more use than a couple of dozen who’re distracted. Perhaps making it what the Archbishop of Canterbury does on retirement; & having some kind of sabbatical option for bishops where they can do a stint in the HoL when between dioceses. Then 20-24 seats could be reassigned. I would like to see one go to a representative of each major faith group in the UK plus the Humanists - I know lots of posters would abhor that idea, happily for us all I’m not in charge of reforming the HoL so you don’t need to try to convince me it’s a terrible idea or otherwise express your disgust. I just think it would be preferable for there to be actual faith representatives in the HoL rather than random individuals being called on to speak for their faith community (& the inevitable lack of balance that results from that). It comes into a surprising amount of legislation; & tbh is again just about that balancing of cultures, qualifications & experience.
Returning to our sheep - or the letter, anyway - some absolute nugget on TwiX who fancied themselves some species of web dev more weird div tried insisting that the Baroness had in fact not written the letter herself, but rather, there’s some kind of industry churning out letters from members of the HoL. Eejit.