Help the BHA get the Bishops out the Lords!
ByWhat’s going on?
You may have seen that the Government has now published their new proposals for House of Lords reform, proposing to retain Bishops. You can read the White Paper at http://tinyurl.com/5tudqb.
Unfortunately, Government proposes in its White Paper to retain the right of Bishops to sit in Parliament and even to give the Church new powers to decide precisely which Bishops will represent them.
The British Humanist Association has now stepped up its campaign to lobby Parliament, in order to get rid of the reserved places for Bishops sitting in the House of Lords, however that chamber is reformed – and we need your help!
What’s the problem?
The UK is the only democratic country to give seats in its legislature to religious representatives as of right. We want a reformed chamber so that Bishops no longer sit as of right in the House of Lords.
The presence of Church of England in the House of Lords entrenches a privileged position for one particular branch of one particular religion that cannot be justified in today’s increasingly diverse and increasingly non-religious society. It is at odds with the aspiration of a more legitimate and representative second chamber.
It is not simply a matter of deep principle that unrepresentative Christian leaders should not sit in the Lords; they are able to (and often do) exert disproportionate influence on democratic law making that often will not represent the view of ordinary Anglicans, let alone the rest of the population (less than 6% of the population attend Church and this figure is declining year on year).
What can be done?
You can support the BHA’s campaign to remove the right of Bishops to sit in the Lords by emailing your MP at our specially designed campaigns site at http://tinyurl.com/2e6y6b. On that site you will also find more detailed information about why it is vital that pages you will also find more information
If you are a member of a political party, get in touch with your Local Party and get involved in the policy making process for the next election manifesto.
Send a response to the white paper with a short email to lords.reform@justice.gsi.gov.uk Use the arguments found at http://tinyurl.com/2e6y6b.
Thank you for your help with our campaign.
Theresa May is the Conservative MP for Maidenhead. Here is her reply to the email:
“[U]nfortunately I will have to disagree with you. Both the Conservative party and I welcome the unique place that the Government intend to reserve for the Church of England Bishops in a mainly elected, reformed second Chamber and will continue to do so.”
Sadly predictable.
Hi there. The e-mail address for the Lords Reform committee is actually – lords.reform@justice.gsi.gov.uk (extra dot) NOT lordsreform@justice.gsi.gov.uk. Thanks, Jason
Thanks Jason
Typos should not delay our communication. Hope it is now correct.
From Rob Wilson MP for Reading East
Thank you for your recent letter regarding the House of Lords reform, with particular reference to the places of the 26 Lords Spiritual, from the established Church of England.
Whilst I do not entirely rule out the possibility for the improvement of the functioning of the House of Lords, I do believe that it functions rather well for its current purpose.
The Lords Spiritual do not normally vote in the House of Lords, but they have done so in special cases, such as during the passage of the Parliament Act 1911. The main issue with their membership of the House of Lords pertains to the establishment of the Church of England. The Church of Scotland which is Presbyterian, along with the Anglican churches in Wales and Northern Ireland, which are no longer established churches, do not have representatives in the House.
In light of this, any efforts to remove the Lords Spiritual from the House would lead to questions of the status of the Church of England and could be considered as being disestabilshmentarianist.
I therefore believe that any reform of the House of Lords would find it very difficult to –remove the Lords-Temporal in their -current conditions. This is counteracted -by the fact that the Lords Spiritual do not tend to vote.
I hope that I have answered the questions you raised in your email. If I can be of any further assistance with this or any other matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.
I found your site on technorati and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!
Your blog is interesting!
Keep up the good work!