An early proclamation is an important step in the process… it defends against pretenders to the throne and the lunies getting a foothold on any agenda they might have.
There won’t be a discusion at all,at least not where it matters,the chance was lost toward the end of the 90’s when the monarchy was in dire straights but after the death of diana the palace propaganda machine got a grip and never let go. Not a chance now you only have to readthe comments on here to understand that!
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And a broken heart since Philip went?
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…completely agree…with some mechanism to stop the PM elevating their ex MP mates to the upper chamber.
Maybe only a limited number say 5 per 100 of the mps of a party at the end of a 5 yr parliament.
That mechanism would be that all members of the upper chamber are elected, not appointed.
But it’s easy to talk about an elected upper chamber if you don’t get into the detail where the devil is.
Would you advocate election by the same ‘first past the post’ system the UK has for the Commons? If so, what’s the point? But if you try for a more democratic electoral arrangement, you lay the ground for ongoing constitutional crises, because the upper chamber would claim to be more legitimate than the Commons.
Or would you have more of a delegate system like France?
See my post on different systems of democracy in the ‘Truss’ thread…
In principal and for the vast majotity …but i do think that to be able to appoint a few is a good idea…particularly real professionals, eg scientists, medics, environmentalists etc who could bring some expert knowledge to debate and who might not want to go through an election process
Quite so…something for an interesting thread.
There is, by the way, a logic to the US system. It’s a federation of states, and you have an upper chamber that gives equal representation to each state (whereas the lower house representation is - in theory - proportional to population).
France has some similarities to this.
But of course, the continuous complaint in the US is then that sparsely populated states are over-represented and ‘hold the government to ransom’.
No, I would not advocate FPTP for either chamber.
However I doubt we will ever reform the system, certainly not to the degree that is needed.
Perhaps something less radical could be envisaged which - still appointed but with a max tenure of, say 9 years. Then every 3 years the longest serving 1/3 of the HoL would be retired, and replaced by new members appointed in the ratio of sitting MPs in the HoC.
The present system is too open to abuse, as Johnson has made very clear.
why not just go back to manorialism and have done with it?
Would suit the present Tory administration 
On what rational basis do you proffer that.
Have seen various configurations of this BBC photo, but can’t find the original. I’d like to remember her like this, and would pay to download it, but can’t find it! This one I’ve enhanced from the BBC’s website.
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why not just go the whole hog and throw a few scraps and discarded bones to the peasants 
same meat, different gravy etc…
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Are these the sort of thing you’re looking for Bonzocat ?
My mental image of the Queen is essentially that ell-known Annigoni portrait because it was up above a piano opposite my bed in my dormitory at school.
Thankyou so much Fleur - didn’t realise it was a painting…and my goodness, a print costs £500…! Might stick to the best enhanced download…!
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@graham …i know you are very cynical about much of what goes on in Uk…and such nuanced views can often be justified, but i really don’t think this kind of comment does anything to add to the debate and in fact devalues your normally meaningful comments!
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Anyone else spot Sir Lewis Hamilton chewing gum throughout the minutes silence just before the Grand Prix today? Serious lack of respect.
Izzy x
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I dislike the sight of people chewing gum on any occasion, especially those who seem incapable of keeping their mouths closed while doing so - but it seems to be acceptable these days, sadly.
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