The House of Lords

"No. That is really its virtue. I think it really tries to tell you the history of it, and let people then make up their own minds. I suppose nobody ever writes any book that is completely unbiased – you can usually see a line of where you are. His conclusion is a depressing one, which is that the House of Lords is likely to go on in its present, only partially reformed state, and that there is no appetite for reform. It amazes me that the Labour Party hasn’t made at least one real historic legislative achievement and gone for what is the only one you can get a consensus on, which is a mixed house with some elected and some not elected. But you would have to have maybe 20, 30 per cent appointed. And it would gradually move towards a fully elected chamber in the way constitutional reform takes place in Britain: crabwise movement, slowly changing. But there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that – let constitutions evolve. I’m a natural scientist; I believe in evolution, so although I personally would vote for and would support immediately a 100 per cent elected House of Lords, realism tells me we won’t get it that way. It’ll be slowly, and I would have probably 20 or 30 per cent appointed. Personally, I think they cannot vote – I mean, I have no wish to exercise a vote, but I quite enjoy being able to speak from time to time, I don’t do that very often. I don’t consider myself part of the legislative process. In fact, I even debated whether to go into the House of Lords. I’m glad I did. Wonderful library. That’s one of the reasons I went there. This interview was published on October 3rd, 2009"