The Joint Committee on the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill could have saved itself a lot of bother if, instead of producing a lengthy report, it had simply quoted the words of Lucius Cary, 2nd Viscount Falkland, in the House of Lords in 1641: ‘When it is not necessary to change, it is necessary not to change.’
That was the attitude of the British people, expressed as eloquently as can be through a ballot box, the last time that a proposal to change the British constitution was put to them a year ago. The alternative vote system was rejected as emphatically as Lords reform would be if the public were given a say. But Nick Clegg has learned from his mistake over AV. His latest scheme, to reform the House of Lords in a way that would give Liberal Democrats the balance of power, will not be put to the public.
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