Ways For Reforming Parliament Essay Research Paper

Ways For Reforming Parliament Essay, Research Paper Parliament is where the British person?s will is expressed, and where the temper, direction and course of our country is set. Parliament is the core of political accountability in Britain. If Parliament is to carry out these functions it go along with the people of Britain. In recent years both the integrity and authority of Parliament have been questioned. Parliament has taken steps to respond to this challenge to its role and performance. The government is a stronger supporter of these changes. ????????? To modernise Parliament the government has made various proposals. The government is putting forward new proposals for a transitional House of Lords following the passage of legislation. The government will appoint a Royal

Commission to make recommendations for wide-ranging reform of the House of Lords. The Government believes a step-by-step approach is need. But at the same time, it is a radical approach one which, taken as a whole, will mark a fundamental transformation of a key part of the central democratic institution of Parliament. ????????? The government is proposing a far-reaching examination of the long-term future of the House of Lords following the removal of the hereditary peers. While that review is taking place, and until longer-term change is implemented, the ending of the right of hereditary peers to sit and vote in the Lords will change the composition and complexion of the House of Lords. Such a radical change will in itself amount to a marked improvement of the House, removing

much of the cause of its deficit in both effectiveness and balance. But the reform will also create the need for a revised, transitional House. ????????? The Government?s proposals for a transitional House will circumscribe it. For the transitional House, the Government will ensure that no one political party commands a majority in the Lords. The Government presently plans to seek only broad parity with the Conservatives. It will: . 1) Maintain the cross-bench representation at around its present proportion of life peers. 2) Establish an independent Appointments Commission to recommend non-political appointments and vet all nominations of individuals to sit in the House of Lords. 3) Forward to the Queen without interference the agreed number of recommendations of the other party

leaders and the Commission. Gregory GeismarIn the House of Commons, a significant programme to modernise the procedures has already been agreed. This has been included changes to strengthen the scrutiny of European legislation. The Independent Commission on the voting system has reported, and its report has already been subject to debate in the Commons. ????????? The Government believes that in Britain, like other large mature democracies, needs a two-chamber legislature. While other major democracies show a wide range of variation in how they form their second chambers, a second chamber is a feature of almost all of them. But the second chamber must have a distinctive role and must neither usurp, nor threaten, the supremacy of the first chamber. ????????? The most distinctive

and important role of the present House of Lords is the specialist expertise and independent perspective it can bring to the scrutiny of legislation. But the House of Lords and work it carries out suffer from its lack of legitimacy, because the presence of hereditary peers creates a permanent, inbuilt majority for a single party. For its functions to be properly performed, the House of Lords need a degree of legitimacy, which it does not now enjoy. This limits the extent to which it can make a proper contribution as a second parliamentary chamber. The out of date (anachronistic) and unrepresentative nature of its own composition is at the root of this deficiency. ????????? Institutions need to change if they are properly to reflect and serve the society, which supports them.