Thank you for confirming I'm not the only one disgusted with the government's pathetic response to Reform's latest pile of racism!

First of all, I've no love for Trump - his crimes are abhorrent, his current behaviour shows no rehabilitation or remorse.

That said, are we to say that some crimes are unforgiveable, and those who commit them should be killed or locked away forever? That sounds like what you're saying here?

Not hereditary,I think that's a regression.I'd like life peers, selected based on expertise. The trick would be defining what expertise you wanted, and then avoiding just having retired experts, without having to ask people to take career breaks when they'd rather be doing their actual expert thing!

Here I admit to not knowing the voting records of the peers,and how the hereditary ones stack up against the life ones.I just don't think giving someone a job just because of who their parents are is a good idea.I'd prefer someone who has proven expertise in some field to offer advice on laws

Oh yeah, you're not getting any arguments from me and them being wholly inappropriate. Excellent reasons for reform, right there. It shouldn't be a party political thing, with horse trading among supporters and donors.

Doesn't that run the risk of populism? The redeeming quality of the Lords on occasion at the moment is that you have experts in their fields, able to offer considered opinions, rather than just what the crowd wants. The trouble is entrenching that quality, I don't know how to define "expert"

There certainly are - I'd like an independent process, away from party politics, but I worry that the current proposals are for a democratic second chamber, and how do you then avoid gridlock like the US, or maintain the primacy of the Commons? Genuinely interested in ideas for reform!

But how do you guarantee heredity provides quality? The second house should certainly not be short term, but I don't think anyone should have power purely by dint of their birth

What would it be replaced by,though?I'm inclined to agree with @iandunt.bsky.social insofar as I don't think a democratic copy of the Commons is useful-you want a second house of "experts",the trick is defining what an expert is-certainly having the PM stuff it with supporters isn't right, though

You had me at "intensely nerdy internet shit"

Is that a warning, or a threat?

Or *both*