Make out the case against an elected second chamber Essay Example
The UK currently has a system of Parliament whereby there are two chambers who can pass or reject (or, in the House of Lords just delay) bills. The House of Commons is a fully elected chamber and it is made up of representatives from different areas in the United Kingdom. However, the House of Lords is made up of people who have earned the right of being a Lord through merit. They also have a number of hereditary peers (although there will no longer be any hereditary peers appointed. There have been many calls to make the House of Lords into an elected chamber as people say that the fact that it is unelected reduces the democracy of the United Kingdom and that it is unfair to have an unelected as the peers may not actually represent the views of the people.
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However, there are also many arguments as to why the House of Lords should remain unelected. The first and possibly most convincing argument is the fact that an elected second chamber would actually be completely pointless as it would be exactly the same and the House of Commons. This means that instead of making the House of Lords elected, it would probably be more practical just to get rid of it all together and just have the House of Commons. Also, the fact that the current chamber works perfectly well would suggest that it is very unnecessary to make the second chamber elected.
Another argument against an elected second chamber is the fact that you would lose all of the expertise that the members of the House of Lords
have built up over the years. This knowledge has made them very good at making political decisions that will be for the good of the whole country. However, the fact that they cannot actually prevent a bill from being passed but only delay a bill slightly contradicts this because their expertise can’t be used to actually decide whether a bill is passed or not.
Another advantage of having an unelected second chamber is the fact that the House of Lords actually represents the British people much more accurately than the Commons. This is shown by the fact that there are far more women and ethnic minorities in the Lords than the Commons. This is very good because it allows the views of the minorities in the United Kingdom to get across in Parliament. If it were to be an elected chamber it would be very unlikely that as many women or minorities would be able to get elected meaning that they would not be able to get their views across as easily.
However, there are also plenty of arguments for having an elected second chamber. One of the main arguments for this is the fact that by having an unelected chamber the democratic legitimacy of the UK governmental system is significantly reduced due to the fact that people who have not been elected by the people are making political decisions for the country. This means that they could make decisions that go against what the people of the UK want.
Another argument for having an elected second chamber is that it would mean that people in the UK may become more interested
in politics and getting involved in politics because they would know that the people they elect are completely in control of the political decisions of the country instead of only being half in control. The reason they are currently not completely in control of the political future of the country is because the unelected Lords still have some control of if (or more specifically when) a bill is passed.
Overall, I think that although I can see the arguments for having an elected second chamber. I feel that we should keep it the way it is in simply because of the fact that an elected second chamber would be rendered completely pointless because it would be absolutely no different to the House of Commons. It would also cause a power struggle between the House of Lords and the House of Commons which I feel would be bad for the country.
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