House of Lords reform & Immigration policy

The House of Lords. Photo Credit: BBC News 

In brief, before the mince pies take their toll, there has been a bit of a storm about the House of Lords and expenses.

In this piece by the BBC, Lord Hanningfield a former Conservative peer claims that peers regularly "clock in" to claim their expenses. The article explains the problem well; Lords can't get paid a regular wage and not all the work that they do is in the chamber of the House. Living and working in London is expensive and so expenses are paid (for food and rent etc). The way the system works at the moment is that peers have to be in the chamber for a certain amount of time to claim their expenses for the day.

It does allow journalists (or its critics) to claim that they only are in the House working for a brief period.

Photo credit: BBC News.

Useful for G & P students contemplating the reform of the Lords or Parliament as a whole for Paper 2.

In other news, there has been continuous rumbling about immigration, especially from the Conservatives. In this piece on the BBC web-site, Lib Dem minister Vince Cable says that the Tory policy on immigration (especially East Europeans coming here thanks to the EU) is driven by fear of UKIP.

The current fear is that immigrants to this country are taking advantage of the generous benefits system when they get here rather than working.

This piece in the Guardian from November indicates that despite the current political panic and the media coverage, fewer than 6% of EU migrants to the UK claim out-of work benefit in their first six months.

The piece also contrasts the current Conservative leadership's policy on immigration and expansion of Europe (allowing a free-flow of workers across international borders) with the pro-European policies of John Major.

Great for anyone contemplating the policies of political parties, and the impact of minor parties (like UKIP or possibly even the Lib Dems) in Unit 1.