Proportional Representation in the Lords

There are many kinds of proportional representation. One of the worst is the Party List system as used in the European Elections. It gives the power of whether an MP is elected or not primarily to the parties not the people, so it is too the parties not the people that a politicians loyalty will lie. This is not some horrible conspiracy, merely the fact that politicians, like everybody else, follow their own self interests.

My bitch MP is Adrian Sanders, and he is a very good, responsive, local MP. As can be seen from his record. This is what you would expect for somebody with a majority of only 2000, making him 566th safest out of 643 MPs. If his seat, and all the goodies that go with it, where mainly the gift of central office then he would be working as hard to please them as he does to please his electors.

It does not therefore come as much as a surprise that the centralising control freaks of New Labour have chosen the same party list system to complete their 'reforms' of the House of Lords. It is hard to think of a system that is worse than a legislative house based on hereditary privilege, but after 10 years of experimentation it appears that New Labour have found one.