I AGREE with your editorial condemning the undemocratic status of the House of Lords ("Some less than noble elevations", The Herald, August 2).

Yet another 30 peers have been appointed entirely through the patronage of the Prime Minister, most of them ex-politicians or major financial donors to one of the three main parties. This brings the total membership of the House of Lords to 785, not one of them democratically elected to their lofty and privileged position by the British people.

The House of Lords now has 20% more members then the elected House of Commons, and is still referred to as the Upper House. It is almost eight times as big as the fully-elected US Senate, and has more members than the entire US Congress, which administers a nation of 300m citizens. Although the Lords' legislative powers are severely limited to modest revision of bills, to become law every piece of legislation passing through Parliament must have its formal assent. The House of Lords is a political dinosaur and an anachronism that should have been abolished at least 100 years ago. It has no relevance for any modern democratic system of government, and is a little more than caricature of pomp and privilege. Its continued existence makes the UK Parliament a laughing stock in many properly constituted democracies around the world.

The sooner Scotland opts for independence and escapes from the shackles of this out-dated, undemocratic and grossly unrepresentative institution the better.

Iain A D Mann,

7 Kelvin Court, Glasgow.

IF ever proof was needed that the Labour Party has deserted the principles of its founding fathers it comes with its plans to sever their ties with the trade union movement while embracing the House of Lords. Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrats, who sit at 4% in the latest opinion polls and fear the loss of four of their Scottish MPs at the General Election will have dug themselves further into a bottomless pit with their new additions to the red benches of the Upper Chamber.

It is incredible to think that the House of Lords is larger than the European Parliament, indeed second only to the Chinese Politburo.


Of course, one knows not to have great expectations of the Tories, but I never thought that when David Cameron talked about creating a Big Society he intended housing it in the House of Lords.

Ruth Marr,

99 Grampian Road,

Stirling.

Passed over for a peerage once again. I know I should really have got around to selling those raffle tickets sent to me by a local political party.

R Russell Smith,

96 Milton Road, Kilbirnie.