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The House of Lords is Britain's only effective opposition. Discuss. - page 1
Keywords: house of lords britain uk opposition role
By exploiit on 19/06/2010
Level: A Level (Year 12) / AS Level
Page Number: 1 of 4 pages: 1 2 3 4The House of Lords serves as the second chamber to the House of Commons in the United Kingdom. It is comprised not of elected representatives, but of appointed peers who work to scrutinise and legitimise in a similar manner, though more extensively, to the Commons.
The House of Lords is often looked to in comparison with the House of Commons in order to estimate its power of opposition to the government. Although the Lords is criticised in terms of composition, its functions and efficiency are seldom in question. In contrast, the Lords is not subject to such a high level of surveillance or influence. Committee meetings and debates are not over looked by a regular Whip, and this leaves the House without the intimidation that could persuade them to vote along particular party lines or speak one-sidedly in confrontations. In fact, peers in the House of Lords are usually oblivious to party politics and so committee meetings and debates are much more civil than we see in the House of Commons. This of course has an affect of establishing good, diplomatic relations within the House by which work can be done effectively and impartially, and in this sense, proves the Lords to be the real opposition to government.
The passage of the 1958 Life Peerages Act has also had a positive impact on the Lords’ power of opposition. This strengthened the House by abolishing the old conservative method of appointing peers by birth, and instead allowing peers to serve a lifetime in the Lords, which would cease upon death and not be passed on through generation. The 1963 Peerages Act further added to this, allowing original hereditary peers to acquit themselves of their title. The full impact of both acts was evident (and reinforced) through the 1999 House of Lords Act. This removed all but 92 of the House’s hereditary peers, making room for a much more representative House of appointed life peers. The subsequent result of this legislation was the inclusion of professional and experienced peers in the House of Lords, who were very much equipped with the collective knowledge to effectively fulfill the functions of scrutiny and legitimisation. Although not elected as in the Commons, the Lord proves itself as a serious body of opposition to the government through this ability.
The general make-up of the Lords is also crucial in its authority of opposition. The abolition of the once conservative hereditary-peer
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