A step too far?

I know it's Tuesday but for various reasons I've not managed to post this before now.

In the Sunday Times this week it was announced that the following a recent scandal in which four peers allowed themselves to be entrapped by journalists, the Government intends a modest reform of the House of Lords. It's promised to tighten up on declaration of outside interests, 'political consultancy' and make it harder for peers to accept money in return for parliamentary favours. It also intends to get rid of non-domiciled peers on the grounds that they can earn substantial incomes whilst largely avoiding tax. So far so good.

However there is one proposal in the legislation which should cause alarm amongst right thinking and fair minded people who cherish those liberties which happen to make Britain a great place. It is a proposal, which will have retrospective effect, to remove membership of the House from any member who serves - or has served - a prison sentence. This strikes at the heart of the acknowledged principle that a judicially imposed sentence is a sufficient punishment for a crime once an individual has been found guilty in a court of law. Jeffrey Archer - or rather Lord Archer of Weston Super Mare as he's more properly known- who has served a prison sentence for perjury will find himself excluded from the House of Lords if this proposal becomes law, as will Lord Black who is currently serving a sentence abroad. I'm not a great fan of Jeffrey Archer, other than as a cracking good author, or Lord Black for that matter. However I wouldn't wish to see either of them excluded from the House of Lords on the grounds that they've been to prison. In both cases the prison sentence was a judicially imposed punishment and should be considered sufficient for the crime. To punish a man further upon release by stripping him of some no doubt well earnt honour is a step too far and one which undermines the sufficiency of judicial punishment. It is a proposal which sane, fair minded, right thinking people can only condemn.

Comments

well, are they well earned? im not sure of the figures now but have labour finally got all the inherited peers out? i agree about punishing a man after the sentence but if it stops the embarrasment of having dodgy lords then so be it. British government does not help me and no party represents me so no peer is going to either, sp personally i couldnt care less
 
I think in some cases, certainly, a peerage is well earned. Labour adopted a policy of getting rid of as many hereditary peers as possible although there are still a few left - 63 I think at the last count. However the hereditary peers have often been the best ones, not infrequently people with specialist knowledge, no party axe to grind and an eye for the underdog. In short, some of the best peers in the House and the last ones the Government should conteplate getting rid of. The Sunday Times leader rather foolishly suggested that the time had come for a wholly elected second chamber. Experience has shown though that election is no guarantor of fitness for office. Most of the world's dictators and despots were elected at some time or other.
 
"This strikes at the heart of the acknowledged principle that a judicially imposed sentence is a sufficient punishment for a crime once an individual has been found guilty in a court of law."

All to do with credibility dear chap:
A drug addict as your physician?
A fraudster as your financial advisor?
An adulterer as your moral compass?
OR a pedophile as your childrens' teacher?

GOTCHA!!! If there was such a concept "sufficient punishment" there would be no sex register.

Let me assure you - politicians - (all of them), should be publicly flogged on an annual basis. Not for what they might have done - but for what they WILL get up to.
 
I get your point but I don't think either Jeffrey Archer or Conrad Black are likely to knowingly repeat the crimes of which they were found guilty and for which they were jailed. One might argue that stripping someone of a peerage was justified in certain circumstances but not as the automatic consequence of a spell in prison.
 

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