Daily Express – 9 July 2012

The threat by the Liberal Democrats to vote against the constituency boundary changes (an entirely separate issue) if I and my Conservative colleagues vote against an elected House of Lords perfectly demonstrates what we can expect if we are rash enough to create an elected Second Chamber.

As the Second Chamber would be elected by a proportional list system, the Liberals would probably hold the balance of power in it. They would then be able to block legislation on any given subject, unless their demands on completely different matters were conceded.

This would apply even if Labour or the Conservatives won an overall Commons majority in a General Election.

We would indeed be foolish to set up a system of institutionalised blackmail of this sort.

(Dr) JULIAN LEWIS MP
House of Commons
London SW1A 0AA