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The House of Lords

Not since the demise of the NHS has a single institution turned into such a lightning rod of an issue among the political elites of the eUK. Nothing new has been offered by any of the critics -- or the supporters -- and we're all pretty much sick of hearing about it by this point.

"It's undemocratic!" many say. Well, guess what. If you take a look at the turnout ratio for congressional elections compared to the population or, for an even more dismal comparison, if you compare forum active members to the forum, not a whole hell of a lot that we do in eRepublik is terribly "democratic". Honestly, you'd think these people creamed their pants or got a dollar every time they used "undemocratic" in a sentence. Is the House of Lords undemocratic? I suppose it is, using their perspective. It's not directly voted on by anyone in the eUK. What it IS, however, is a fairly good representative body of the top shelf elites in the eUK. And that's exactly what it's designed to be. The Lords is not designed to be the "people's house" as the Commons is. Like pretty much every other upper-house in the real world, the upper house in the eUK is designed to be farther away from the sudden shifts in public mood. It is meant to ensure that one of the hands on our tiller is a calm, experiened hand and won't veer wildly from one extreme to the next every month.

The House of Lords ensures that we have a calming and stabilizing force in our government. It is meant to be more conservative, it is meant to be a force to slow things down a bit, and it has done a great job at fulfilling its role. If you really want to look at it for what it is, it's meant to encourage people to think. The House of Lords adds a stopgap into the process and keep people that have managed to eek into an easy seat in Congress from upsetting the apple cart. At the same time, it lets those same inexperienced people into Congress so that some of them may learn how things really work and, one day, become the same sort of experienced player that we all actually value while decryin their existence. Inefficient? Show me one instance where it has blocked an action in a detrimentally slow manner. It's the Lords electing themselves? Well, yes, that's the point. We're older and more experienced, and we're more likely to welcome a Woldy into our ranks than the newest noob that just joined the forums and OMG LETS RAISE THE MINIMUM WAGE.

If you want to abolish the House of Lords, well, I honestly question your motives. Do you know why I want to keep it? This is the reason most near and dear to my heart: it adds another element of gameplay to this game that we've al become at least partially addicted to, and, thus, it's fun. To some of us, the Lords was always an acheivement and a goal, and we worked hard to get into the Lords. Being a Lord is fun for us, and really, isn't this game meant to be fun as it's main premise? Lets stop arguing about the House of Lords and go out and do something that's fun, like invade Ireland or some other stupid idea that would give us amusement.

That is all. I have monocles to polish and serfs to trod upon.
Lord Wellington