Several weeks ago two events were taking place on a Saturday. One was an interview panel for potential applicants for the Green Party's internal ballot for nominations to the House of Lords. The second was a meeting of Green Left in Bristol to which I put a motion which was unanimously supported. The motion says it all in my opinion. It is completely illogical for the Green Party to be campaigning on the one hand for a changed electoral system and on the other for candidates to be selected in case an unrepresentative committee of government decides to grant the party places in the unreformed House of Lords. One of the leading members of the campaign for supporting AV took this on board when I raised it at a meeting of Lambeth Green Party last month and agreed that the two did not add up. I would urge any Green Party member receiving this ballot paper to spoil it and to write quite clearly on the ballot paper why. The motion is as follows:
On the basis that the unreformed and unelected House of Lords makes a mockery of any campaign for electoral reform and also that it is a discredited body, regarded by many as a retirement home for failed politicians, Green Left strongly disapproves of the Green Party’s current electoral process to select candidates to this body.
Finally, a snippet from Gilbert and Sullivan's 'Iolanthe' which sums up my views of their Lordship's house. Also rather ironic that in the Irish general election several of the major parties are now seriously discussing abolishing the Upper House (the Senate) completely.
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