Hereditary Peers Get Heave-Ho
The House of Lords, under pressure from Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor government, has agreed to abolish the 800-year-old right of hereditary nobles to sit and vote in Britain's upper chamber of Parliament.
After hours of emotionally charged debate Tuesday, the Lords approved the bill on its third and final reading by 221-81. It will now go back to lower house, the House of Commons, for finishing touches.
Â"A long chapter of history is being closed tonight,Â" said Lord Strathclyde, the opposition Conservative Party leader in the Lords. Â"The tale is now told.Â"
The House of Lords has 1,213 members, of whom 759 are "hereditary peers," or nobles who inherit their seats along family lines. Prime Minister Tony Blair had vowed to end the right of peers who inherited their seats in the Lords to be lawmakers.
The House of Lords has long been described as the best club in Britain, reports CBS News Correspondent Richard Roth. It's a place where a bar and a bathroom are never more than 30 yards away -- and where the only credential needed to get in was a birth certificate.
Baroness Jay, the leader of the Lords, said it was Â"time to say thank you and goodbyeÂ" to hereditary peers.
Â"The bill is a central part of this government's program to modernize the British constitution to make it fit to serve the whole country in the 21st century,Â" she said. Â"We believe a necessary first step is to remove the profoundly undemocratic element that hereditary peers represent.Â"
The bill only ends the right of hereditary peers to be lawmakers. They retain their titles and estates.
If the Lords had rejected the bill, Blair could have presented it again in the Labor-dominated House of Commons in the new parliamentary session starting Nov. 17. The Lords can reject a Commons bill, but it cannot reject it a second time if it passes Commons again.
The Blair government has not decided on the composition of a new House of Lords, which is expected to be partly appointed and partly elected. Critics charge that the new chamber will be a gathering of governing party do-nothings and cronies of the prime minister.
"Doing away with the hereditary peers is the easy bit and what to put in its place is difficult," said the Duke of Devonshire. "That's why it hasn't been done decades -- if not centuries -- ago, and I have a feeling the government doesn't really know what to do."
Until the new chamber is set up, 92 of the hereditary peers will remain part of Lords along with the other current members, called Â"life peers.Â" The life peers are mainly former members of Commons and others appointed for life.
The 92 hereditary peers who win a temporary reprieve are being selected by ballots among their fellow aristocrats. Final results will be announced Nov. 5.
On Tuesday, at least one blue blood decided not to go quietly.
At one point during the debate, duke's son jumped on the speaker's historic seat in the House of Lords to declare his displeasure.
Â"Behind this bill for Lords' reform lies a hidden agenda which is treason,Â" the Earl of Burford said before leaping on the Woolsack, a square seat of stuffed wool that has been reserved for speakers since the 14th century.
Deputy Speaker Lord Boston, who was perched on the Woolsack, ducked out of the way as ushers grabbed and ousted the 34-year-old earl, heir to the 14th Duke of St. Albans.
Burford was in the chamber exercising the right of the eldest sons of peers to sit on the steps of Queen Elizabeth II's throne, but not take part in proceedings.
But the earl -- whose family motto is Â"A pledge of better timesÂ" --sprang up from the steps, complaining that the bill removed Â"inalienable rights granted to my family by King Charles II in 1684.Â"
Â"Indeed, the very existence of the monarchy is threatened,Â" he said.
By Mitch Stacy
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