Jon Bright (London, OK): In his last appearance before the Commons liaison committee today, Tony Blair criticised the idea of a fully elected House of Lords - saying we "benefit from having people who have not necessarily spent their life in politics who come in with broader experience". The comments were immediately lambasted by groups campaigning for an elected House of Lords - "Tony Blair's statement today makes one wonder if he actually reads his own government's White Papers", said Peter Facey, Director of Unlock Democracy.
But support arrived unexpectedly in the form Peter Hitchens of the Mail on Sunday, whose pro-Blair leanings have previously been a closely guarded secret. Presciently publishing a full six days before Tony's announcement, Hitchens warns of the negative consequences of allowing a "half-informed electorate" to take "great national choices". He continues: "for fear of 'democracy', the Tories stood in 1935 on a policy which amounted to national suicide. Their failure to rearm in time changed the course of history. Not many people know, for instance, that the lack of a single aircraft carrier...almost certainly cost us Singapore, and therefore the whole empire".
"Is democracy the same as freedom?" Hitchens asks. No, of course not. Freedom is an ideal. Democracy is a tool. As such it gives power to those governed and conferring legitimacy on those governing. It's two edged, as Blair and Hitchens point out - if you let the public make decisions, you may end up with fewer empires than you started with. Or even wars?
