so old-fashioned and anachronistic as to alienate and baffle vast numbers of voters who might otherwise be more engaged with the democratic process. In the light of such crimes, there can be only one verdict: guilty.
This being a court concerned with restorative justice, the judge must now consider a sentence. While deliberating, they consider some mitigating circumstances, including the fact that the defendant didn ' t willfully conspire to commit these offences. Despite the periodic attempts of concerned relatives( the Commons) to help, most witnesses told the court that the Lords had always acted like this, and no matter what they said, wouldn ' t change. Character witnesses attested that the Lords carried out the role of scrutinising and improving often faulty Commons legislation impeccably, due largely to the many expert members who were the best in their fields. Under cross-examination, even prosecution witnesses conceded that a lack of a democratic mandate had the welcome side-effect of ensuring that the elected Commons enjoyed a clearly delineated constitutional supremacy over the Upper Chamber.
But these can only mitigate rather than overcome the negatives when sentencing. Given the charge sheet and the immediate threat which the unreformed Lords poses to democratic life, immediate release or a suspended sentence is out of the question. What alternative sentences are open to the court? The chief contender, proposed by most reformers at the time, including the Liberal Democrats and Labour, was a fully-elected House of Lords. But this would create a chamber with its own mandate and legitimacy, leading inexorably to a reformed Lords challenging the dominance of the Commons. The supposed improvement of electing the Lords by proportional representation using a party list system would actually entrench rather than eliminate the worst aspects of political patronage and cronyism.
Rule of the people, by the people
These problems stem from a misguided over-reliance on the belief that a system which selects politicians through free elections is, necessarily, the best. This received wisdom obscures different conceptions of democracy, one of which is relevant in this case. With its genesis in ancient Greece, democracy literally means‘ the power of the people’. The rallying cry coined by Abraham Lincoln-“ rule of the people, by the people, for the people” – elevates the broad idea to a challenging belief and call to action. But public outrage about MPs’ and peers’ expenses has come to fuel the belief
revolutionise. it 30