Ooh, yes. A second political post. Not sure what that says about me. Frustration? Age? Boredom? Perhaps you should just feel fortunate that I am a person that genuinely tries to engage with the political process.
Anyway, Sally and I had an interesting conversation about the fact that The House of Lords seem to be being pretty useful at the moment. Not only are some peers getting something done about the rubbish lobbying bill, but they’ve also made the entirely sensible decision that it shouldn’t be against the law to be “annoying”!
We were then discussing our dismay with the political process and the fact that it seems to be the House of Lords that are doing the sensible things right now. (Yes, I am well aware that these are just two of a multitude of things that will be passing through the Lords at the moment, I know). And we wondered whether the fact that they were unelected, and therefore not needing to engage in populist politics needed to secure their positions, that they are more likely to do things that are good for the people at large, and in the longer term.
Of course, as @timalmond points out on Twitter:
@magicroundabout @Anjelica1956 But unelected people also have undemocratic power that they can abuse against the people.
— Tim Almond (@timalmond) January 11, 2014
And he’s dead right. I’m not suggesting that a wholly unelected and undemocratic system would work either. But, I don’t know, it just seems to be bringing some sensibility to proceedings of late!