adam . # .

Size: The various sortition proposals for the House of Lords were an inspiration for my suggestions as it happens. The Queensland Legislative Council is the only world parliament less powerful :)

The current House of Lords is larger than the House of Commons by about 100 members. It used to be much larger, with a kind of amateur idea that though the most political may be there full time, many peers would just drop in on the issues that interested them.

Seems to me the Tories could grab this issue of constitutional reform from Labour, and appointment by sortition might better suit their traditional conception of the house as an amateur venue (whilst obviously ditching the hereditary nonsense). There\'s plenty to criticise Blair and Labour with their half-hearted reform of purely appointed life peers - \"Tony\'s cronies\" seems to be the nickname. Last I checked though, the Conservatives\' policy was a 100 seat upper house inspired by the US Senate.