Most of Britain's Parliament is not elected... Meet THE LORDS

here in the UK you might think that we live in a democracy because after all we have elections and we get to vote but that's only one side of the sea in fact over there in the houses of parliament the majority of politicians have not actually been elected so in this video I'm going to investigate the House of Lords does it still have a place in the 21st century or is it just a club for posh old men and rich elites the media have a caricature of the House of Lords they always show the picture of the peers in robes at the opening of parliament you really couldn't make this stuff up it forms in a Harry Potter movie not on the house of parliament I'm on my way to meet a British politician who sat in Parliament for 48 years that means that he's seen nine Prime Minister's and twelve elections but here's the thing in all that time the British public have never actually voted for him to be there welcome to the manor of the Earl of Selborne [Music] hello this is John Palmer but officially he's called the Earl of silver he's part of the British nobility who have inherited their elite names and privileges over hundreds of years now he's aged 79 and he spends most of his time here on a 6,000 acre estate in the south of England surrounded by his beloved fruit orchards we can live with badgers that's not a problem we're looking for a badger pod right now this is a badger latrine and how much of this land do you own how far does it go not to the horizon but it goes about a mile in that direction as a member of the House of Lords he's been able to have a say on almost every new law that's been brought in from crime to brexit banking the Health Service and even the British Armed Forces in 1971 your grandfather died and that's when you then became a hereditary Lord so what how does that work I had to write to the clerk of Parliament and I had to show my birth certificate and the difficut from a grandfather and I was duly therefore then a member of the Lord's so what's going on when people talk about the UK's houses of parliament they're normally talking about the House of Commons that's where the Prime Minister goes every week to answer questions from other political parties but Parliament actually has two chambers the other one is the House of Lords and that's where the Earl of Selbourne is members of the House of Lords are often known as peers and there's almost 800 of them in total now you can spot one of these peers are mine because they go by these ancient I tools like Earl's Baroness Juke and by count and out of all 800 of them none of them have been elected by us the public there are three main ways you can become appear in the House of Lords the most common way is to be appointed as a life peer another way to get into the House of Lords is to become a bishop there are 26 seats reserved especially for the Church of England and finally you can get a seat in parliament just by well inheriting it from your parents and that's how the Earl of Celle board got in he's one of 92 hereditary peers who were born into a ruling establishment class and given powerful positions in Parliament and I've been ahead repair by an accident of birth and I think that I've made a contribution but I have no case for saying that her dreaded trees have any more expertise than anyone else so if you had been elected at various elections during that time how would that change what you would have spoken about remember you see an MP is elected by his constituency and they are always thinking about the next election but in the Lord's you're not responding to those immediate pressures you can take a step back and you can sometimes promote issues which wouldn't necessarily be very popular for your constituents but when it comes to the rather boring nitty-gritty of trying to win an election I'm afraid I've rather lost interest over the years there have been calls for the House of Lords to be reformed but is being undemocratic really so bad and if so what could be done about it to find out we need to dig a little deeper if you are writing the laws of the country that you want the citizens to live under then the citizens should have a say in who you are I think the hereditary peers have literally had a born to rule attitude towards it all they can only get this job because of the family they were born into and it's not on any particular thing they have done it's based on what other forefathers did which you know that's just not the way the world works anymore so I think it's a real hangover from a different age so ever since 2002 there have been elections for the hereditary peers now I know what you're thinking that sounds like great news at last the House of Lords is finally democratic right wrong these elections have a little catch you can only be a candidate if you're part of the elite aristocracy or they've got to do is to write a brief personal statement like it's University or something that's all they've got to do to get a seat in the House of Lords and some of those personal statements are well see for yourself I wish to come and give my support for brexit I have been in farming this Lord wrote I wish to inherit her seat as promised in letters patent by the monarch all my ancestors on both sides have served and as if it's not a prerequisite he adds I reside in Westminster and can attend the House of Lords this Lord said always willing to serve Lord Cadman didn't bother to write anything at all and the earl of limerick for his personal statement well you guessed it he submitted a poem the Upper House knows none so queer a creature as the seat 'la spear flamingo like he stands all day with no support to hold his sway and waits with covert eagerness for 92 to be one just to be clear we haven't made these up those people think that submitting those personal statements should be enough to secure them a seat in parliament for life i don't defend the her integer system obviously you can't defend it logically but equally I don't apologise clearly this system is kind of undemocratic so can we really cool the UK a democracy and for people like the Earl of Selborne can he really justify being in Parliament when the public has never voted for him to be there no one is seriously suggesting that her editors should remain but we will remain there until they make up their mind what they want what really angers people about the House of Lords is that it's not just undemocratic it costs taxpayers loads of money for one thing it costs millions just to keep that building up and running and the place has been plagued by expensive scandals most unelected peers can claim up to three hundred and five pounds and expenses every day just returning up and a few are given a full salary complete with chauffeur driven cars so I came down to Westminster to meet a peer called Baroness de Sousa she joined the House of Lords in 2004 after being appointed by committee and she went on to become the speaker I wanted to find out about why the place has a bad reputation I mean you yourself have made extravagant expenses claims at times didn't you know so when you charge 234 a chauffeur-driven car to take you to the ballet do you know how many people were in that car at that time how many five but you say you stand by that that means it was absolutely race I was Metro spent seven thousand pounds on flowers okay that was accumulated over five years in the end it worked out I'd spent about and pounds a week and you know I would have thought that having a bunch of flowers in your room to cheer up distinguished visitors is kind of okay did you need a chauffeur-driven car to take you to the Opera yes why did you need show because I had with me a Russian speaker of the Federation Council whose security required to drive in a special car even though it was a very short distance absolutely she doesn't go by public transport I tell you that when I went to Windsor for a state dinner it's quite difficult believe you me you're a man you probably don't know this to wear a ball gown on public transport on a rainy evening and hope that there'll be a taxi dare to take you up through Windsor Park I do not accept that I was in an expensive scandal there is so much that was not incurred I mean have you looked at the expenses of some other you know senior politicians and senior people in various or local government have you looked at those but compare that with what what this comes down to the idea of they're elected they're accountable people can then say you know what you misused your expenses I could vote you out of office but people like yourself can't be voted in on out of office when you say we're not accountable to the public that's a very of course that's right of course that's right that said again I would argue that much of what the Lord stars in terms of bringing up issues which are really a lien to the government in the sense they didn't want to address it because it's embarrassing what's in difficult in that for instance female genital mutilation which for years and years and years was off the agenda the house ought to put it back on the agenda amongst others they really put it back on the agenda now we should be clear baroness de Sousa didn't break any rules over her expenses and she says the House of Lords is essential because of the work it does preparing legislation the question is even though we are a democracy and lots of things about the UK are genuinely democratic are we democratic enough the public doesn't on the whole think a lot about course I mean when I say it doesn't think a lot bigger it's been a lot of time thinking about the House of Lords it's outside their sphere of interest however when it's brought before them as it is being currently because of the political upheavals we're experiencing I think they probably think it ought to be a democratically elected house without thinking through what the implications of that are there was a very good sense of stun not so long ago where the question was do you think that the House of Lords should be democratically elected and their answer was 95% yes and then another question further down on the same census was do you want more elected politicians the answer was no so I'm not sure that the vast majority of people don't really know what the House of Lords does so is it time to change the House of Lords or is the UK democratic enough already it's a democracy or on paper but actually for very easy changes we could make it a much richer and more more more meaningful and healthier democracy if we will prepared to make the changes that that are so obvious to most voters who say these are the sorts of things they'd like to see changed so there we go that's the House of Lords but obviously that's only one part of the UK's political system and we're going to do another video asking how democratic is the rest of it so let us know your thoughts and ideas in the comments below and let us know if there's anything you'd like us to cover thanks for watching and make sure you hit the subscribe button for more of these videos [Music]

Channel: Channel 4 News

Views: 827,439

Rating: 3.2893577 out of 5

Keywords: Channel 4 News, house of lords, uk news, brexit, brexit parliament, brexit commons, news, brexit news, uk brexit, brexit vote, brexit 2019, brexit latest, uk, house of lords debate, house of lords explained, house of lords brexit, house of lords reform, lords, news uk, house of lords uk, baroness, d'souza, selborne, parliament, democracy, hereditary, peers, elections, house of commons, politics, expenses, expenses scandal, uk expenses scandal, MP expenses

Id: xgMRiA9dZQs

Length: 10min 58sec (658 seconds)

Published: Tue May 14 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/GaveUpMyGold]

The UK monarch has also been "Defender of the Faith" since Henry VIII.

You know, that guy who started his own church because he wanted to fuck someone other than his wife.

[u/barelysentient-]

There are many anachronisms in the UK but the House of Lords is one we should get rid off sooner rather than later.

[u/EasternGirl8888]

Well they havn't done a good job since the country is now full of Heathens.

[u/koolbeans3ds4e]

You don't follow pedogate?

[u/SpeedrunNoSpeedrun]

Well if it ain’t broke...