House of Lords
Jul. 11th, 2011 09:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sobriqueSo, one of the things that I was pondering, after the last time the 'appointing people to the House of Lords' came up.
The House of Lords, to my mind, serves a very valuable purpose - in much the same way as the 'tenure' system does. It allows people to stand for something, without having to worry about losing the next popularity contest.
Which is why it's _always_ going to be flawed if it's done by election, or by appointment from Parliament.
So why not make that a 'national lottery' instead? Same selection criteria as jury duty, although maybe with ability to opt out?
'Winners' are appointed, and receive a 'tenured' seat in the house of Lords.
It'll mean you'll get all manner of people, from all walks of life in the mix.... but isn't that really what's needed, when acting as a feedback mechanism on legislation? That you've a representative sample of the population, who are able to say 'hang on a minute'?
The House of Lords, to my mind, serves a very valuable purpose - in much the same way as the 'tenure' system does. It allows people to stand for something, without having to worry about losing the next popularity contest.
Which is why it's _always_ going to be flawed if it's done by election, or by appointment from Parliament.
So why not make that a 'national lottery' instead? Same selection criteria as jury duty, although maybe with ability to opt out?
'Winners' are appointed, and receive a 'tenured' seat in the house of Lords.
It'll mean you'll get all manner of people, from all walks of life in the mix.... but isn't that really what's needed, when acting as a feedback mechanism on legislation? That you've a representative sample of the population, who are able to say 'hang on a minute'?
