Sir, Jack Straw has reiterated his support for an elected House of Lords. The Conservatives said that they would seek cross-party support for a substantially elected Upper House and the Liberal Democrats have promised to replace the Lords “with a predominantly elected second chamber”.

The need to reform the Upper House is clearly overdue but the main parties’ proposals are profoundly mistaken. To introduce a wholly elected chamber would destroy at a stroke its present strength, which stems from its membership encompassing men and women of outstanding achievement and knowledge, who together represent practically every area of human endeavour; be that in medicine, scientific research, trade union affairs and industry, to quote but a few. Such talent is seriously lacking in the Commons, which has too many “professional politicians” with no experience of the real world outside.

The Lords also has the strength that adversarial party politics are much less to the fore than in the Commons. There is a feeling in the country that the relationship between government of whatever party and private enterprise is far from satisfactory, owing no doubt in part to lack of understanding between the two sides. Furthermore it is evident that legislation is enacted too often by Parliament without proper consultation.

The continuing arguments about whether a partially elected/partially appointed house should be 50/50 or 80/20 are beside the point, which surely is that any elected element would erode the long accepted supremacy of the Commons. Which MP wants that? No one has yet explained how the overlapping constituency responsibilities between the Lords and Commons representatives would work. The electorate are fed up with excessive adversarial party politics and an elected Upper House would only exacerbate the situation were it to consist of “Commons clones”.

Reform of the Lords should provide for members to be appointed by an independent body with the aim of building on its present strength, not destroying it. Candidates would be nominated by each of the main national associations that cover such areas as business and manufacturing, trade unions, the financial world, scientific and technical research, education and training, professional bodies and many others, that represent those in the forefront of planning and managing the country’s future. It would ensure that they contribute more effectively by their representatives being part of national decision-taking. Far from being undemocratic, it would lead to more effective government and thus strengthen our democracy.

To abolish the real strength of the Lords would constitute a disaster for which future generations would not forgive us.

Sir Harold Atcherley

London W2

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