So long, hereditary peers – but the Lords is still full of absurd anachronisms | Polly Toynbee

So long, hereditary peers – but the Lords is still full of absurd anachronisms | Polly Toynbee

Two-thirds of voters want an elected second chamber. The government needs a radical legacy: it should use its rare majority for this Goodbye (almost) to the hereditary peers, voted out on Tuesday night. But they didn’t go without a vicious tooth-and-nail fight. Labour should be making much more noise about how the Tories blackmailed and threatened to the very last to hold on to the hereditary peerage (almost all Tories), despite 66% of voters wanting a democratically elected second chamber. T...

By Polly Toynbee