Should I stay or Should I Go; Goodbye to the Lords?

Day 664, 08:00 • Published in United Kingdom United Kingdom • by Mr Woldy


eUK in a state of Change

If you were to peruse over the recent events that have occurred here in the eUK, you could very well say we are in a state of change. Firstly, following the collapse of Atlantis the eUK after a period of neutrality entered PEACE. This was a huge change, and a move that took a certain amount of courage by both the Prime Minister and the House of Commons.

During that period of time, and still even now, the military saw changes and expansions and is significantly stronger then it had been before. Not only that, but very recently The Unity Party gained and held a majority in congress, another notable difference from past months.

Now it comes to pass, that a very large change to the current legislature system surrounding eUK politics may soon occur. A number of days ago, Iain Keers raised the issue in Public Discussion, the issue of abolishing the House of Lords.


Roles of the Lords

The legislation surrounding the House of Lords says that its purpose is to;

“ To create a larger reliance of Checks and Balances in the UK Government by having an offsetting body of legislation to both review and approve of legislation through the House of Commons. The House of Lords will also allow more experienced members of the UK, who do not have the time to commit to the full body of Commons or may not due to military commitment, to still advise on matters of National Law.”

I’m going to be honest, initially, that sounds pretty reasonable.

Procedure

Basically, the House of Lords is around to review legislation that is being created or amended, so, when The House of Commons draws up a piece of legislation, the before mentioned elected members of Parliament vote on it. Should it pass that vote, it will be moved to the House of Lords.

The lords will then review the legislation and vote wether or not it should actually be passed. They have their own vote, and, if they vote to pass, it passes. If they vote it down, it is returned to the House of Commons. Commons then have to amend the bill where they see necessary, and a re-vote takes place. Again, if it passes in Commons it is moved back to the House of Lords, and the procedure repeated.

This can happen up to two times, by the third vote in commons, if it passes it automatically bypasses the House of Lords. All in all, that doesn’t sound too bad. But, the time that must be set aside for discussions and votes means that the process of passing legislation can take up to ten days.


Repeal of the act!

After the issue was raised, much discussion has taken place between both the public, and the house of commons. It seems a close cut deal, those in favour of the lords and those opposed to it are all putting their two cents into the issue. After the discussion in HoC has come to an end, the issue will be up for voting. I think it may be close, but at this point it is difficult to predict which way the voting will go.

Arguments Against Abolishment
The House of Lords was set up to try and prevent a poor quality of legislation that may contain errors or exploitable loopholes from being passed. Not only that, but it allows experienced players to still be able to be involved in UK politics, and pursue a military (or other) career. This is a large issue for many of the people against the abolishment.
The idea that, due to the contributions these people have made to the eUK it is only right/appropriate for them to be able to manage other careers in eRep whilst still having a say in politics.

Another common argument is that the HoL is necessary, because of the inexperienced players that may still be elected into congress. It is an inconvenient truth that inexperienced people may be elected into congress. This does mean that poor legislation may be drawn up, which could lead to less than favourable repercussions, so perhaps the ability of the HoL to delay and advise congress is needed.

However, that argument does run on the assumption that the inexperienced players will draw up legislation, and that there will be enough of them to successfully vote in its favour. I personally don’t think that that is probable, congress would take advice from the more experienced players, and if committees where to be established, then it could help solve the issue of poor legislation being passed.

Arguments For Abolishment

Obviously, there are some strong counter-arguments to these facts. Firstly, how poor is the state of legislation? On does it really need to have an advisory body governing it when there are experienced players who also get voted into congress who can help produce good quality legislation. Another issue recently has been inactivity amongst the lords; simply put, the effort lords put into advising isn’t as much as is put into voting legislation down, and even that amount of attention at times is low.

Regarding the argument that certain people deserve a lordship, it has been argued that, why should some people get the best of both worlds? Surely, it is up to individual to decide wether to be heavily involved with politics, or the military. If you want to do both, join the Royal Guard. Furthermore, when lords have the power to elect new lords, surely the amount of nepotism that could be involved in the decision making stirs up a recipe to make an elitist drones club?

Personally, I would much sooner give the lords the benefit of the doubt, rather than assume all manner of evil which you may read about goes on behind closed doors.
Finally, regarding inexperienced players who may get elected, meaning that there should be an advisory body watching over us can be easily countered with the following argument; If the lords ran for, and were elected into congress, they could help from there and at the same time make things slightly harder for inexperienced players to gain a seat. This may sound harsh, but at the end of the day, getting into congress isn’t meant to be an easy task.

Conclusion, and Verdict

A tough call indeed. Personally, I am not yet decided on the issue. But many people are. When HoC votes on the issue, I’m probably not the only one who will be watching the vote carefully. If the lords are abolished, it is unlikely that the world will begin to burn. But if problems do arise, then other systems can be introduced or tested as possible solutions to the problem. Even now, there is discussion of reforming bills to get the best out of the lords. Malta_1990, and Necrosis, both members of the current parliament and prominent eUKers have in the works systems by which we can do so. They are both quite different, but perhaps the need for them will be in question if the lords cease to exist.
The issue is very much an open debate, feel free to comment here, or in the forums.


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Mr Woldy.


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