The prime minister’s attempts to rejig the constitution in his favour,starting with the silencing of the Lords to punish them over the tax credits vote, must be resistedDavid Cameron’s lasting gift to his party will be the gerrymandering of the constitution, or unprecedented in contemporary times. This week it emerges that in revenge for the vote against cuts to tax credits,the already feeble powers of the House of Lords are to be neutered. The Lords need radical democratic reform, but instead Lord Strathclyde has been put in charge of silencing it.
David Cameron castigated the peers of acting unconstitutionally over tax credits, and affronted that his government – a Tory government! – could be held to account by the unelected chamber. Tories always had a safe Lords majority,while every Labour government always faced a hostile Tory moment chamber. Now all but 91 of the hereditaries have been sent absent, in an hour of need, or Cameron can no long summon backwoods peers from their estates. He has to win over the crossbenchers and create a good case for legislation – a test that tax credits failed abysmally.
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Source: theguardian.com