House of Lords - How Its Position Has Changed during the Years - Essay Example

House of Lords House of Lords In the United Kingdom, Parliament’s upper house is known as The House s. House of Lords also meets at the Palace of Westminster, just like the House of Commons. The prime function of House of Lords is to inspect and analyze the legislation projected by the House of Commons and also to put forward amendments. The amendments and bills are proposed into either of the Houses. People from House of Lords may also be part of the Cabinet. House of Lords also holds the power of delivering Speech from the Throne. The Lords Spiritual Church Measures must also be scheduled within the House of Lords; thus it also plays a trivial role as Church of England. Members are not elected democratically in House of Lords like the House of Commons’ members. Twenty six senior bishops according to their respected religious roles in the established Church of England become members of House of Lords. The rest of the House is filled by the Lords Temporal; of which the majority is of life peers chosen by the Monarch as advised by the Prime Minister, or are selected on the recommendation of the House of Lords Appointments Commission. History During the supremacy of King Edward III, Edward II’s successor, the Parliament was divided into two sections: The House of Lords (comprising of the dignity and senior clergy) and the lower House of Commons (comprising of district legislature and the shire). During the early 15th century, both the houses of the Parliament have grown to an extent that no one has seen them exercising so much power before. The Lords have always enjoyed more power than the Commons because of their aristocracy and the great authority of the prelates and nobles of the kingdom. As the Civil Wars begin to augment in the late fifteenth century, the supremacy of the aristocrats saw a downfall. Most prominent of these wars was the Wars of Roses; much of the dignity died during the wars fighting in the battlegrounds or were put to death because of taking part in the battles. Also, many patricians were lost to the noble Crown. Furthermore, feudalism was diminishing which was an eminent cause for feudal armies to become archaic. The preeminence of the monarch was thus established by Henry VII (1485-1509) and it continued to survive during the reign of Tudor monarchs in sixteenth century. During the middle 17th Century, the House of Commons reached its peak of power in comparison with the House of Lords. But the House of Lords stayed the most influential at all times in the history. The House of Lords came to an end on March 19, 1649 by an Act was Parliament which declared the House of Lords as dangerous, ineffective and hopeless for the Englanders. This did not happen over night. The House of Lords was loosing its immense power during the English Civil War of 1640s. After King Charles I, when the country came under the reign of Oliver Cromwell, the House of Lords was abridged to an immobilized body. A referenda theory was exercised in the Victorian England until the 19th century that believed that, “it was the lords’ constitutional duty to refer measures to the electorate for its decision when in their judgment the commons lacked a mandate for the proposed legislation” (WESTON, C. C. (1995)). Whatever verdict the electorate gives, the lords will accept it. How its Position has changed during the years? During the 19th Century, several immense changes occurred to the House of Lords. Due to the liberality of George III, the House was greatly increased from 50 members but the power of individual Lord was reduced. In addition, the power of House was reduced to a great extent; however the power of House of Commons increased further. In 1831, the House of Commons proposed a Reform Bill to amend some of the irregularities of the system but the House of Lords discarded it. The ministry did not reject the reform regardless of the fact that the bill was abandoned by the House of Lords in 1832 as well. On the advice of Earl Grey, the King created about 80 new pro-Reform peers to get the bill accepted in the House of Lords. The opposition to the House of Lords was threatened by William IV but he finally gave in. The bill was eventually passed in the House of Lords and the Lords who were against it, abstained from voting. This crisis greatly diminished the influence and power of the House of Lords but did not end it. During the century, the House of Commons became a more influential house than the Upper House of the Parliament. In 1906, the House of Lords gained its original position after Liberal Government elections. David Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer introduced “People’s Budget” in the House of Commons which was a land tax aimed at wealthy landowners; this was rejected in House of the Lords. The powers of the House of the Lords were limited by the Asquith Government in December 1910. The power of the House of Lords to reject or amend legislations and proposals was abolished under the Parliament Act of 1911. This was not an everlasting solution, there were more reforms planned. However, neither the House of Lords nor House of Commons showed interest in this bill, thus the power of House of Lords continued. In 1949, the Parliament Act further reduced the delaying power of the House of Lords to one year or two sessions. The Life Peerages Act of 1958 authorized the formation of life baronies and changed the traditional nature of the House. As there was no numerical limit applied on the Life Peers, the number of Life Peers immensely increased but not at a constant rate. In 1999, House of Lords Act assigned seventy five of the ninety two hereditary peers to the parties of which they are the most prominent members of. Forty two peers from the Conservative party, two peers from the labor party, and three peers from the liberal democrats and twenty eight from the crossbenchers were elected. Lord Brabazon of Tara, once hereditary peer of Conservative party, now performs as a non-affiliated member. He has also become a Chairman of Committees of House of Lords and Lord Willoughby de Broke now performs as UKIP. Two of the hereditary peers which are not elected by the whole House, sits as royal officers. They are Lord Great Chamberlain and Earl Marshal. The former is currently on leave. As of a report in 2007, many members of the House of Lords, especially the life peers, do not attend the meetings on a regular basis. The daily number of people attending the meetings is usually around four hundred and right peers. Even though the number of hereditary peers is restricted to ninety two and noble Lords to twenty six, there is no upper limit as to how many life peers can be members of the House of Lords at one time. According to Guardian.co.uk, 2 November 2011, 21.36 GMT, “At first glance little has changed at House of Lords. Exactly 100 years after a Liberal government promised a "Peers v People" democratization, the half-reformed Lords remains an extraordinary spectacle. The chamber still drips with gold and gothic fantasy and many peers demonstrate what every care home manager knows: that sharp minds can survive within stooped and frail bodies. Yet there is plenty of focused energy around and laughter also survives among the 400 or so conscientious peers who regularly turn up to deploy their expertise on obscure clauses.” Crossbench peers, usually non-political experts, lawyers, distinguished doctors, academics, business or union leaders, retired generals or diplomats from the "great and good", ("grander than dukes, some of them") remain open to persuasion both ways. But they also tend to go home early after dinner, leaving professional politicians to slug it out. Peers who are old are hard to whip into line. "I come here mainly to vote against my own side on libertarian issues," boasts one. When Bassam got 198 Labour colleagues, out of 238,to vote against the Lansley bill last month it was a personal best. 592 peers voted.” (Guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 November 2011 21.36 GMT Conclusion As we have seen the role of House of Lords has changed during the decades. But according to me it has always been a body where the legislatures proclaimed by the House of Commons are approved. In today’s society, it plays a role of inspection in the legislative department. The function of House of Lords is its ability to read and argue over the bills which are already passed in the House of Commons. When House of Commons approve the bill, it eventually becomes a law. It is the upper house of Parliament but has little or no power over the House of Commons; even when it stops a bill from becoming a law, House of Commons can cancel it after sometime. Bibliography WESTON, C. C. (1995). The House of Lords and ideological politics: Lord Salisburys referendal theory and the Conservative Party, 1846-1922. Philadelphia, PA, American Philosophical Society. Shell, Donald (2007). The House of Lords (3rd ed.). Manchester University Press. ISBN 0719054435. Jones, Bill; Dennis Kavanagh, Michael Moran, Philip Norton (2007). Politics UK (6th ed.). Pearson Education. ISBN 9781405824118. Carroll, Alex (2007). Constitutional and Administrative Law (4th ed.). Pearson Longman. ISBN 9781405812313. Loveland, Ian (2009). Constitutional Law, Administrative Law and Human Rights (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199219742. Guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 2 November 2011 21.36 GMT Read More