JOAN Pritchard-Jones is absolutely right to highlight the fact that the House of Lords in its present form is outdated.
It is unelected, unaccountable and unrepresentative. However as she also points out we need a second chamber to scrutinise important legislation before it becomes law.
The recent House of Lords response to tax credit cuts shows how important that this scrutiny can be. I would much rather we had an elected second chamber, maybe elected on a regional basis or via different voting systems. In the meantime the House of Lords still has it's place.
Not long ago David Cameron said that there was no appetite for change. I don't think that is the case. It seems hypocritical of the government to complain about an institution but only after it blocked cuts to unpopular tax credits. It is also worth pointing out that these cuts did not appear in any Conservative party manifesto.
Martin Challender
Bolton
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