Other Issues
WHITE PAPER PROPOSALS
* The Government proposes that membership of the House of Lords should cease to be connected to the peerage (para 78)[80]
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182. The White Paper, like the Royal Commission, recommended that
membership of the second chamber should cease to be connected
to the peerage. The White Paper expresses it well: membership
should "constitute a commitment to active engagement in the
life of Parliament rather than the acceptance of an honour".[81]
This is obviously right.
183. We recommend that membership of the second chamber should
no longer be linked with any honour, including the peerage.
Name of Second Chamber and Title of Members
184. The changes envisaged in the White Paper and in this Report
suggest to us that a new working title is needed for the second
chamber, and a new designation for its members. The Royal Commission
recommended that this issue should be left to "evolve",
but we believe, and recommend, that it would be better to adopt
the name "second chamber", to emphasise its complementary
role in Parliament. The ancestral name "House of Lords"
would slowly slip into desuetude. The members of the second chamber
could be entitled, on the analogy of the members of the Scottish
Parliament (MSPs), Members of the Second Chamber or MSCs.
80
Cmd 5291 Back
81
Ibid para 78 Back
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