House of Lords Quotes

England is the mother of Parliaments.

The House of Lords, an illusion to which I have never been able to subscribe--responsibility without power, the prerogative of the eunuch throughout the ages.

Look, I'm a member of the House of Lords and I'm the first to admit that I don't understand how one gets new laws through.

The House of Lords has many fine aspects, but at its heart, it is a betrayal of the core democratic principle that those in the enlightened world hold so dear - that those who make the laws of the land should be elected by those who must obey those laws.

The House of Lords is the British Outer Mongolia for retired politicians.

The House of Lords is like a glass of Champaign that has stood for five days.

We must restore faith in politics. Reform of the House of Lords is only one part of the answer, but it is a vital one.

I?m not even sure I?d go into a reformed House of Lords. But let?s put it like this, the decision would have been easier had there been not even complete reform but a substantial stride.

Constitutionally, a revising chamber is useful and important. The first occasion I know of in history when the Lords fulfilled this role was in 1539 when Henry VIII's act of proclamations was neutered by their lordships so effectively that the Act was repealed in 1547.

The house of Lords must be the only institution in the world which is kept efficient by the persistent absenteeism of most of its members.

Tell the House of Lords to go to hell.

Sovereignty rests with me as an English MP and that's the way it will stay.

When we have a majority we will do it. I think the days of the Lords are quite genuinely numbered.

The cure for admiring the House of Lords is to go and look at it.

Bishops sit in the House of Lords automatically.

[I]n Great-Britain it is said that their constitution relies on the house of commons for honesty, and the lords for wisdom; whichwould be a rational reliance if honesty were to be bought with money, and if wisdom were hereditary.

I calculate that I was responsible for proposing the elevation to the Lords of some 214 of its present numbers.

Take all your dukes and marquesses and earls and viscounts, pack them into one chamber, call it the House of Lords to satisfy their pride and then strip it of all political power. It's a solution so perfectly elegant and preposterous that only the British could have managed it.

I have a huge admiration for the House of Lords, I have a huge admiration for the people who work in the House of Lords, they're great public servants and they do an absolutely tremendous job.

The House of Lords must go - not be reformed, not be replaced, not be reborn in some nominated life-after-death patronage paradise, just closed down, abolished, finished.

It is quite clear from what has been said and written that, time after time after time, there has been a conspiracy between the Conservative Front Bench in this House and the inbuilt Conservative majority in the House of Lords to defeat legislation that has passed through the House of Commons... I warn the House of Lords of the consequences... it is our strong view that the House of Lords should recall that its role is not that of a wrecking chamber, but of a revising chamber. In recent weeks, it has been wrecking legislation passed by this House.

I've always said that I favour an elected second chamber and I think it's important that there are members of the House of Lords who are willing to vote for their own demise.

Labour politicians for generations have fought to bring democracy to the House of Lords.

During the last 100 years, the House of Lords has never contributed one iota to popular liberties or popular freedom, or done anything to advance the common weal; but during that time it has protected every abuse and sheltered every privilege.

It would be wholly wrong constitutionally for the unelected House of Lords to do anything, to kill anything of a financial nature that has been through the House of Commons not once but twice.