If Blair overrules the Lords on hunting, he should abolish them altogether

We have been told from time to time that one reason why the Prime Minister has been so slow in ‘reforming’ the House of Lords is that he feels it is important to have it, but he cannot decide what form it should take. It is important, it is said, for all those reasons why bicameral legislatures are superior to unicameral ones. It avoids elective dictatorship. The executive and its plans are held better to account. There is expertise in the upper house that can be brought to bear on Bills and can revise common sense into them. Above all, a House not run by the whips in the Commons can, by asserting its independence, prevent constitutional abuses. One such example might be the government, using an unwieldy majority in the Commons, passing a law that gives it a temporary electoral fillip while causing permanent damage to the liberties of the people.