In an article published in The Daily Telegraph on February 13, Nigel Farage took a number of swipes at the House of Lords. Alistair Lexden responded in a letter in the paper on February 19.
SIR - Nigel Farage expresses a widespread view that the House of Lords is too large (Comment, February 13). It is, however, smaller by some 500 members than it was 30 years ago before Tony Blair threw out most of the hereditaries, soon to be followed by the 92 who still remain, despite the fine service that so many have given to the nation.
Whatever changes may be made (such as the removal of everyone over the age of 80, proposed in Labour’s manifesto), the upper house must remain an institution in which legislation is scrutinised in detail, which frequently does not happen in the Commons, and in which grave issues are considerd free from party rancour. Last week, as a Lords deputy speaker, I presided over a debate to mark Holocaust Memorial Day. It combined intellectual depth with moving eloquence.
The Lords can be Improved, but it should not be destoyed.
Lord Lexden
London SW1
This letter was attacked in the correspondence column of The Telegraph on 21 February by a Mr Sheridan Smith who asserted quite astonishingly that the Lords should not amend legislation that had been through the Commons. Alistair Lexden replied to him in a further letter published on 22 February.
SIR - I say to Mr Sheridan Smith: remember the guillotine. Not the kind that would cut off the heads of us useless peers, but the guillotine motions in the Commons that routinely cut off debate on Bills before swathes of clauses have been considered
Hundreds of amendments are passed each year in the Lords, with cross-party backing and the full agreement of ministers, to rectify what the Commons has left undone.
Lord Lexden
London SW1
