At a time when the validity of institutions is being questioned, parliament’s upper house should not escape unscathed
In the summer of 2020, Boris Johnson’s understanding of probity and public ethics was highlighted by his government’s nomination of 36 new members of the House of Lords. It remains one of the defining acts of his premiership: there were peerages for such Brexit supporters as the former cricketer Ian Botham, the Johnson friend and former Telegraph editor Charles Moore and the erstwhile Revolutionary Communist Claire Fox, as well as the prime minister’s brother Jo, and the Evening Standard proprietor and social gadabout Evgeny Lebedev.
The chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society said that “by appointing a host of ex-MPs, party loyalists and his own brother, the PM is inviting total derision”. But as deadpan summaries of the way that this great frenzy of patronage shone light on the stupidities of the British system of government go, the best takes on what had happened came from media outlets overseas. “The 36 new investitures include many loyalists,” reported one Italian news agency, “and expand the already abnormal number of members of the upper house, who sometimes do not even go there.”
John Harris is a Guardian columnist
Continue reading...from The Guardian https://ift.tt/3DdJ806
Hello, my name is Jack Sparrow. I'm a 50 year old self-employed Pirate from the Caribbean. 
No comments:
Post a Comment