I have now been in the Lords for four months. In that time I have asked 20 Oral Questions and made 11 speeches. I have set out a number of ways the government could run better public services, save money, increase tax revenues without raising tax rates or imposing new taxes and develop a Growth strategy that could work. Work has been regularly interrupted by the prorogation of Parliament and the various Bank holiday recesses.
I have been impressed by the detailed work the Lords does examining Bills and suggesting improvements. There is a sprit of cross party working to find ways of improving legislation given the government’s aims. There are efforts to seek compromises where the government’s policy is likely to damage or disadvantage large numbers of people and businesses. The Lords rightly does not seek to stop a Bill the government wants to fulfil a Manifesto promise, but can be more critical of legislation that cuts across the government’s election promises. The Lords understands that power rests with the elected Commons, but asking them to think again can produce better results sometimes.
The Lords did do good work in exposing the dangers of giving away Chagos and giving so much money to Mauritius. This was clearly against a Manifesto promise to support our overseas territories. The delays mean this may well not now go ahead, given the changing view from the USA whose consent would b e needed under the US/UK Treaty establishing Diego Garcia as a joint base. The Lords has helped the Commons Opposition point out the follies of closing down our own oil and gas industry, only to import oil and gas from abroad instead. The government announced some movement with its tie backs policy. The Opposition has set out why business has suffered from the two Labour budgets raising taxes and the imposition of new rules and regulations.It has worked with the government on issues like harms of children from too much social media.
May 22, 2026
Good morning
If this government sees the HoL as a good thing, why has it decided to abolish the remainder of the Heriditary Peers ? Surely such people with a long and deep connection to the nation are worth keeping ?
May 22, 2026
Two comments so far reflect on the people who are part of the second chamber. I don’t think hereditary peers should be earmarked for a seat. I am not particularly keen on its title as the House of Lords either. It sounds archaic and ripe for change.
I also don’t agree with how large it has become. It is more of a vehicle for reward and patronage than it used to be.
Clearly there are people there who take the role seriously, but there is no word about those who do little or those who just collect expenses.
May 22, 2026
It always seemed to me that a random lottery selection of people to the Lords with perhaps some basic age and intelligence test filter would give a far better quality of outcome than ones selected by politicians as rewards for services rendered. I suppose hereditary ones are a sort of half way position.
Look at some of the dire people in the Lords Blunket, Archer, Cameron, May, Mandelson, Adonis, Becket, Patten, Heseltine and get rid of all the religious ones please.
A huge lack of people with science, maths, engineering, logic and practical business experience. One of the problems with politicians is that in general those who aspire to it (or to read PPE, politics, law… are so often totally unsuitable. The types who like bossing other people around or stealing their money then wasting it or people on the make for consultancy positions, insider dealing, backhanders, you scratch my back… people.
May 22, 2026
Precisely Mark. That’s the problem the liebour government doesn’t want reasoned comment only yes men or women.
As for Chagos I’m not at all sure that’s over, too many ( unexplained influences? ed) in my opinion.
Speeches from the HoL won’t stop this despicable crowd trying to shoehorn us back into the EU.
Ad our host aptly describes the HoL no longer has any credibility looking at some of the grifters appointed
Our host is an obvious exception but with the liked of treacherous May being rewarded for failure I don’t see the point except as a care home for traitors.
May 22, 2026
@Ian Wragg – Chagos is only delayed. Trump will have had 2 elections for the House of Representatives and POTUS, making it 3 General Elections that the USA leadership has had to seek direction approval before the UK gets its next one. The difference between a democracy and a dictatorship. So Starmer and his friends that will make a massive amount of money from the give away, while causing financial and security harm to the UK are just being patient. They know no one in the UK can stop them.
May 22, 2026
High performance.
May 22, 2026
Well said John. It’s not the Lords that needs reform but the Commons. It’s a disaster zone. Why does no one demand Commons reform?
May 22, 2026
The catch 22 problem again is the generally appalling existing MPs and government in the commons would be in charge of any new system. So likely to made even worse still.
May 23, 2026
Many may feel that before Blair’s 1999 wrecking ball hit the Lords was functioning adequately for very many years with the 700 or so hereditary peers. PMs have muddied the pool by adding their unqualified mates.
The Commons can sort itself out by the popular vote. The current problem is that too many made a bad choice last time or didn’t bother to vote, resulting in the drawn-out nuisance now in power.
May 22, 2026
Lord John Redwood is the champion of common sense and strong leadership. Since Churchill and Thatcher there has been a succession of weak leaders in modern day politics. Standing up for what is right and decent, upholding our traditional values, supporting business and communities and telling it how it is, are some of the great hallmarks of Lord John Redwood. A champion for unleashing Brexit while other politicians cross party have done their utmost to demolish it, John reminds me of Churchill in those dark days when he stood alone whilst all around him demanded he do a deal with the Nazis, or Thatcher when her own government and the opposition told her it would be wrong to send a taskforce to the Falklands. The World Bank made it clear that 85% of world trade exists outside of Europe. One has to ask why our politicians are obsessed with throwing away our Brexit opportunity whilst embracing the shackles imposed by the EU. Could it be that our career serving modern day politicians are focussed on job for life opportunities in the EU when the British electorate have dispensed with their services? If so, our self serving politicians have a conflict of interest. Why else are they obsessed with the EU if not to further their sad political careers in seeking a job for life as unelected bureacrats following in the footsteps of Mr and Mrs Kinnock.
May 22, 2026
JR is one of the few who for 40+ years has had a working compass on almost every issue – alas the Tory MPs decided they preferred people with duff 180 out ones like Major, Cameron, May, Boris, Sunak, Osborne, Hunt, Hammond. This has cost the country hundreds of £billions and many lives.
May 22, 2026
John, We are all grateful for the balancing and stabilising activities helping to keep government excesses under control.
The examples you highlight does beg the question, does it really require a chamber of such august people to convey the bleeding obvious? We all hoped those elected to office might possess sufficient nous to know paying someone to take away a prized asst like the Chagos islands and banning energy extraction in home waters while increasing importation of that energy aat great cost was a bad idea.
May 22, 2026
The Lords stopped the OAP murder bill so well done for that.
May 22, 2026
Am I in favour of this bill? I certainly would not want to be deprived of my right to kill myself by some horrible disease rendering me incapable of doing so. But then we know how these things can end up being totally abused by vested interests. The slippery slope argument.
Similarly am I in favour of more legalisation of some drugs. After all having them illegal has made very little difference to availability and does give us both violent criminal drug gangs and very dangerous variability in strength, safety and quality which kills. But then it being illegal must surely deter some people.
Two rather difficult areas, not many policy areas I am on the fence over but these two are rather finely balanced I find.
May 22, 2026
Nobody can stop you killing yourself, and if you have a degenerative disease you are in control of the timing.
The Bill that was killed would have enabled others to kill you and you would not have been in any position to give evidence.
It is a horrific, anti- Christian anti-human proposal and The Lords did well, only because of the few like JR who battle away every day to preserve all that is English and good.
JR does more targeted and fruitful work than some party leaders in the Commons with hopes of entering Downing St.
May 22, 2026
These are all good reasons why HMG should be dissuaded from ‘messing’ with the format of the Lords, and we certainly never want an elected second chamber.
Anyone who even scratches the surface of the work done in the Lords can only come up with the viewpoint that it is a vital component of how democracy should work.
Different governments have weakened the Lords for no good reason, simply because they have been told to ‘think again’. Hereditary peers were no threat to labour, but any hint of inherited privilege is like a red rag to a bull – they had to go to calm the rage of such a notion.
Accountability of Lords is important, if they are not going to attend debates they should be encouraged to resign. Sending political cronies to the Lords should be outlawed. We need only professional people and professional politicians who have already served their country well, selected by the Lords itself on strict criteria.
May 22, 2026
The catch 22 in politics is that those reforming the Lords MP will not be reforming it for the better but for the betterment of themselves, their power and their party. Or at least that is what they will try to do. They do however often get it totally wrong. Blair and Brown thought devolution for Scotland and Wales would held Labour it mainly helped SNP and Plaid as I could have told him at the time had they asked.
It has been a disaster for the Welsh and the Scots.
May 22, 2026
Most reassuring
May 22, 2026
“fulfil a Manifesto promise” I understand that, but it has to be recognised the state of the country is due in large part by Kier Starmer, inventing or sliding things that were in his mind but daren’t tell people about when he was seeking election.
High taxes, high borrowing, Chagos, the EU giveaways, Farming, Fish, Steel, uncontrolled expenditure and refusal to budget, an endless list compiled after the event on the pretext that when his party inherited a fiscal mess.
May 22, 2026
All of those can be opposed and are.
May 23, 2026
@Lynn Atkinson – that the point, Labours majority ensures they cant be
May 22, 2026
Well the whole of the Upper chamber needs to get together and stop Mad Ed Milibands closure of our our North sea drilling operations….pronto
May 22, 2026
How?
May 22, 2026
Lord Redwood, in this new UK common sense is a long hard road of attrition. Just keep up the good work
Thank you
May 22, 2026
That is indeed an encouraging report.
I do think though, that when this Government got rid of the Hereditary peers, who were an important element in the House, because, apart from the recent dependence on election by their colleagues, they owed nothing to anybody for their presence, they should have combined it with a comprehensive and, hopefully, final reform of the upper House. We still need completion of the half-baked constitutional mess left by Blair.
The really big question is how people should get appointed to the House in the first place: Should there be a democratically elected element? Should appointments be made by a body that is independent from the Government? One certain thing is that far too much patronage is left in the hands of the Prime Minister and the Government of the day.
Then there are more cosmetic aspects: there are the questions of the names of the House and its members, surely the term ‘Lord’ is out of keeping with the democratic spirit of the day? And in fact the hereditary principal has not died entirely: as I understand it, the children of Life Peers are entitled to the courtesy title of ‘Honourable’. So there is still a lot of work to be done.
May 22, 2026
O/T if I may please:
The Government’s Great Summer Giveaway looks very much like the bread of a bread and circuses exercise. So what is the circus? Is it the Labour leadership race or the World Cup? If it is the former would it not be more sensible, much cheaper and less disruptive for the country to run the leadership contest first and then run a by-election if necessary?
May 22, 2026
Indeed take ever more taxes off people waste a fortune in collection and admin. costs then give then 50p off a trip to Lego land or the Zoo or for a bus trip (and that only if they can afford the rest of the costs). My daughter recently cashed in her baby bond (an evil attempt by Gordon Brown 18 years back) to buy votes by giving people a tiny bit of your own cash back £250 (for your baby) tied up for 18 years. It turned in to £500 over 18 years not much more than inflation. What an evil farce this was this is another one from Labour. Tax people then try to buy their votes by giving them a tiny bit back but with numerous strings attached. Similar to how the EU worked!
Just leave the damn money with those that earned it. No collection or admin costs, no strings attached and so much more efficient and a far better incentive to earn it!
May 22, 2026
I don’t mind the Lords being composed of appointees from all parties who achieve a 5% or more share of the vote at the GE. But the number of appointees allowed to vote for each party should be in proportion to their party’s vote share at the GE.
May 22, 2026
I believe they are. I hate ‘appointees’.
May 23, 2026
Millions of people vote Reform UK, yet the party has zero representation in the Lords.
May 22, 2026
Personally I think US politicians and Elon Musk are doing a better job of critically reviewing UK government and public sector than anyone in the UK including the House of Lords.
And we can all see it.
May 22, 2026
It is good news to hear we have many diligent members of the H of L, including yourself. It is good to know that the H of L does have some impact on changing and improving legislation. But what can it do about the absolute stupidity of Net Zero, the refusal to use our own energy resources and overtaxation? Let me see the Lords demanding that income tax allowances are linked, at the very least, to inflation. Let me see them demanding we use our North Sea oil and gas. I know it is a revising chamber, but with this appalling Labour Government, is it not time to demand some sensible legislation? IMO, the hereditary peers are a great loss, since they brought independent expertise and could speak out without worrying about what the party line was. I do believe we have too many peers in the H of L, and it should be reduced to 500 maximum. Keep up the good work.
May 22, 2026
it is a pity that when effective Prime Ministers are mentioned one is never.I can only assume that many
posters are of a younger generation.Attlee.A great asset to Churchill as his deputy and owed a huge debt
of gratitude for putting our country on the steps to recovery after WW2.He,wisely,gave his ministers their
heads to get things done but did not hesitate to rein-in extravagance.A modest man(I know the quip
“much to be modest about”) but an admiring Churchill said feed a drone on royal jelly result etc.
May 22, 2026
Unfortunately the U.K. was not put on the road to recovery after WWII as we can see by comparing it to Germany, which was.
May 24, 2026
You do not state the huge benefi of the Marshall Plan.
The UK shriven of gold, forced to sell assets at knock down prices.
The USA were determined knock us down and they certainly did.
We paid a very heavy price to the US, remaining debt to them was finally paid off around 2007 if I remember correctly.
May 22, 2026
Attlee – through the radical socialist ministers he appointed – caused the collapse of this country’s economy, swallowed Beverage wholesale, nationalised at enormous cost, gave the unions immense powers, taxed the productive to blazes, and destroyed the private enterprise that would have energised us.
He subsidised Labour voters in the same ways Starmer is now doing, with free this and that, and huge, populous urban social housing projects that guaranteed a left-wing majority, to the extent that in order to have a chance of a parliamentary majority the Tories had to shift the Overton window sharply to the left, where it has remained, shifting ever further leftwards.
That was Attlee. Looking mildly bemused was merely a ploy of his.
May 22, 2026
There are many who, unlike Sir John, are not conscientious enough to take a full part in the business of the HoL, and indeed also in the Common, I read today that an MP has excused herself as she feels too mentally unwell to engage in Westminster or constituency business – but not too unwell to forfeit an MP’s salary for her projected months of absence.
Should there not be some nominal employer (such as the Speaker’s Office or a specially constructed authority) to decide how to adjudicate these matters? The potential for abuse is simply too great.
May 22, 2026
typo – Beveridge, not ‘Beverage’.