With so many other grave and pressing national problems to solve - including two highly threatening military campaigns - it seems extraordinary that this government, already on its last legs, should come up with a new so-called reform of the House of Lords designed primarily to remove the last remaining hereditary peers, none of whom are doing any harm and several of whom are playing a quietly valuable part in standing up for civil liberties.
Nor are the hereditaries being pushed out to make way for an entirely elected upper chamber, in line with purist democratic principles. They are making way for a second chamber where a sizeable proportion will be meritocratic appointees - in effect, executive place men.
Better the likes of Lord Levy, it seems, than those dangerous hereditaries, whose elimination from
|
|
|
  |
|
Peregrine Worsthorne
 |
|
Tony's cronies are a new breed of careerist politicians with no respect for history
|
|
|
|
the body politic has become such a national priority. To my mind this is doctrinal egalitarianism, at the expense of historical memory, run mad.
As it happens, the glorious revolution of 1688, which
introduced parliamentary democracy, owed everything to aristocracy, as did the baronial-dictated Magna Carta which established individual liberty.
Far from aristocracy and democracy being mortal enemies as they were in Europe they have always in England been closely inter-related.
That is what is so alarming about New Labour. Tony's cronies are a new breed of careerist politicians with no respect for, and little knowledge of, history.
Aristocracy is a part of our constitution, a symbol of continuity. Surely with the rest of old England dissolving before our very eyes, what little remains should be treasured,
not destroyed. 
FIRST POSTED FEBRUARY 14, 2007
|
