Jon Bright (London, OK): It's been interesting to watch the writing coming out of the House of Lords blog, which is managing to quickly dispel my initial cynicism about the project (as someone naturally inclined to be cynical about people described as "Lords"). Despite the launch of the (admittedly very flash looking) Politics Home, I think it's this very simple Wordpress blog that has been the most interesting recent addition to the British "blogosphere." They're producing a good frequency of posts about a range of topics, from a number of different people, in a personal, open style - even responding seriously to their commenters. And the subject matter - both what Lords think, and what it is like to be one, couldn't be more perfectly suited to the blog format.
But, above all, the timing is spot on. Even the most unreflective members of the second chamber will have by now realised their status quo is quite seriously under threat, with cross party talks on pretty major reform near completion. An existential crisis is the perfect time to start thinking out loud, and a blog is the perfect place to do just that (the reasoning behind OurKingdom is very similar).
Lib Dem peer Lord Tyler has been doing some of the best of this online musing; one post on subsidiarity (taking decisions as close as possible to the people they affect) was followed up by this piece on the "regional problem." His analysis of regional bodies, originally established by the Conservatives, is telling:
These were established on the colonial principle that they would represent central Government in the regions
They were, therefore (somewhat paradoxically) not agents of subsidiarity at all, but rather reinforcements of a centrist attitude. His analysis of the current situation is equally to the point:
The Government’s latest idea to solve the ‘regional problem’ is to set up Regional Select Committees and to allocate Regional Ministers. Bluntly, they simply do not get it. Regional Ministers are attached to other Departments too, and largely act as Whitehall’s voice in their region, not vice-versa. And so keen is the Government to maintain control over the proposed Select Committees that it insists there should be a majority of Labour MPs on them all –reflecting the balance of political representation on the floor of the Commons, not in the region
Tyler goes on to speculate that one of the functions of a reformed second chamber could be to provide an effective, democratic link between the people in the "nations and regions" of the UK and central government. Furthermore, he calls for these regions to be democratically created - starting from co-operation between local authorities, who would be at liberty to decide (through democratic means) whether co-operation at a higher, regional level is necessary for them, and on what issue.
As Gareth points out below, Gordon Brown's support for a centrist regionalist agenda (to coin a phrase) has much to do with solving the Barnett problem without giving fiscal autonomy to Scotland. His problem is the lack of democratic accountability - could he square this circle, and reform the Lords, all in one fell swoop?
Even if he couldn't - or doesn't - Tyler is demonstrating, at the very least, the power of the blog format to stimulate debate and spread ideas. Even I am beginning to think it might be a shame if the Lords were to be reformed out of existence, just as they start to open out like this.
