For people in other countries to understand what the House of Lords is:
In your countries you have important, long-lived, venerable politicians, right? They might not even be that important - they've just been around for a long time and maybe been in a few governments and cabinets. Maybe they haven't even been in cabinets, they've just been influential. A guy I'm thinking of after doing some googling would be
Democrat Congressman John Dingell. Dingell has been around for a very long time (the longest-serving congressman currently in the house - he is a WW2 veteran) and he is not seeking re-election after his term is up. If Dingell was a British MP and the Democrats were the Conservative Party (they basically are anyway), who are in government right now, they would say that instead of Dingell retiring from politics completely he would now become Baron Dingell of Dearborn, Michigan or something and have the power of revising Congress' legislation and filibustering. Forever. You have to wait for him to die. On top of this imagine that he's joined by influential ministers and preachers from across the USA - 26, to be exact - who have the same powers he does. He would also be joined by 92 aristocrats - people who sit in that House by birthright, not appointment - no matter their views. They have been appointed by god, so what are you going to do about it? The other appointed Peers sitting alongside Dingell would number at over 700. Currently the House of Lords is the biggest assembly in the world besides the Chinese National People's Congress.
John Prescott was Labour Deputy PM during the Blair/Iraq War years. He was pretty terrible and very unpopular, basically a British Dick Cheney with prostitutes and sex scandals and eggs and boxing. Instead of disappearing from the mainstream political scene after he stepped down he is now "The Right Honourable Baron Prescott, of Kingston upon Hull in the County of East Yorkshire". He sits in the Lords and will only leave when he dies. The Right Honourable Baron Cheney of Jackson, Wyoming anyone?
Of course, the Lordship thing may be a bit more likely with Dingell if he was in his late 60s, early 70s - it can be rare for men in their late 80s to be elevated to the Lords. But yeah this means you will never, ever get rid of Dingell - you have to wait for him to die. John McCain would probably have become Lord McCain by now if the Republicans were in power. Occasionally women or sometimes people from ethnic minority backgrounds, who are no longer cabinet material or whatever, would become Lords to make the House more "representative" of the population. Of course that rests entirely on the whims of the government.
On top of all this imagine the US government could dish out titles and knighthoods and Lordships and even peer titles (i.e. being able to sit in the House of Lords) to wealthy party benefactors and people they think deserve it. They just take it to the Queen and she does what the government asks her to do. So even though she's giving out knighthoods on her own terms, the PM is effectively knighting people just as much. If you have enough money you can basically bribe your way into a knighthood or peer title with well placed donations, so if you have enough money you can become a part of the country's legislature for life. This is called
Cash for Honours. Tony Blair was particularly bad for this.
So yeah, in Recognition of your service to the working class,
in Recognition to your party loyalty...In Recognition of your 100 million album sales
In Recognition of your popularity
You take your gaudy prize from people you said you despised
You wear your self-respect upon your bended knees.
In spite of all your claims
It looks like you're just the same
As every other clown, who likes put the crown
Before or after their name.
In Recognition of your service to the working class
In Recognition of your party loyalty
You get an ermine robe and you declare when you are probed
You only took it so the missus would be pleased
In spite of all your claims
It looks like you're just the same
As every other clown, who likes put the crown
Before or after their names.
Ohhhhhh Vanity
It gets them one by one
Patronage and Monarchy
And all they entail, rarely fail
In Recognition of your bravery up on the stage
In Recognition of your bank ability
You get to wait in lines with soldiers crippled by land mines
And you think it's the yanks that don't get irony
In spite of all your claims
It looks like you're just the same
As every other clown, who likes put the crown
Before or after their names.
In spite of all your claims
It looks like you're just the same
As every other clown, who likes put the crown
Before or after their names.
Their name
Their name
Their name
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Topic: Sheb's European Megathread: Remove Feta! (Read 1749548 times)