Oh Lordy

The government recently published the House of Lords reform bill which proposes  radical changes to the Upper Chamber.  However, there is one area that remains unaltered: the unique privilege awarded to the Church of England. Although there will be a reduction in the number of free seats for the Lords Spiritual, (from 26 to 12)  this matches the overall cut in numbers to the Lords.

I am in favour of reforming the Lords but believe reform should include the removal of automatic representation for the Church of England (CofE). 

Currently, the Lords are split into Lords Spiritual (CofE Bishops) and Lords Temporal.  The Lords Spiritual are in the minority making up just 4% of the total.  Interestingly the 2007 Tearfund report on church attendance in the UK found that only 4% of the public regularly attend a CofE church. Church attendance is in decline and it is estimated that when the Lords transition is complete in 2025, church attendance will have dropped by a third.

If the Lords was set up for purely religious issues this proportion would  have been fair, five years ago.  In this scenario, in addition to the CofE bishops, there would be 72 leaders of other Christian religions, 39 leaders from other faiths, and 305 leading atheists. With 205 'cultural' Christians all 650 Lords would be Lords Spiritual and there would be no Lords Temporal! 


In reality, none of these other groups get free places and the House of Lords does not arbitrate spiritual disputes. The CofE representation is therefore totally inequitable and out of all proportion.


One would imagine that the Lords Spiritual would be amongst the hardest working of our peers, to show their appreciation for their privileged position. Well actually, they do very little in the House.

Reviewing the attendance records for bishops over the last three months,  they clocked up a total of 224 days  or  19.1% of the days they could have attended. Not only that, but their contribution to debate is poor and they only vote on 4.5% of issues. 

A clue as to why there is a huge mismatch between the attendance and voting can be found in the report of  the Joint Committee on the Draft House of Lords Reform Bill

"They attend as their episcopal duties allow and a rota system ensures that there is always at least one bishop in the House each day, to read prayers at the start of the day's business."

Essentially, the Bishops turn up to churn out their prayers, collect their expenses and leave.

It makes no sense to give the CofE disproportionate representation. They don't appear to be anything other than an expensive ceremonial throwback. This bill needs to be amended.   If you feel the same, you can pass on your thoughts on the matter to your MP at the Holy Redundant website.

Is it time the Government lost God?

Alastair Campbell famously told Tony Blair "We don't do God". The current Government certainly does. I blogged last month about Cameron's claim that the values of the Bible are the values the UK needs.

Following last weeks elections, which were bad for the coalition, the Tory right has identified the cause for voter unrest and has identified the cure. The reason that the coalition did badly was their support for Equal Marriage and House of Lords reform. Dropping these will, they suggest, bring back the electorate. The signs are that the message is getting through. Were these the real reasons for the decline in votes or is this simply people with an agenda exploiting the traditional mid-term drop in support for the ruling party?

The London assembly vote gives an interesting insight. 'Christian Peoples Alliance - Supporting Traditional Marriage' fielded 25 candidates for the 11 available top up seats. I guess believing five loaves and two fish will feed 5000 renders this particular bums/seats problem trivial! The addition of  'Supporting Traditional Marriage' to the party's name brought the equal marriage issue to the fore. If this was a real concern then the votes would show it.

The results must have been a blow for the anti-equal marriage brigade. The Christian Peoples Alliance polled 1.7%, down from the 2.9% they achieved in both 2008 and in 2004. This 41% fall in support even managed to eclipse the catastrophic losses of the Liberal Democrats. Christianity is declining but not at the rate suggested by these results. This result shows one of two things. Either Christians have lost the appetite for mixing religion with politics, or maintaining discrimination in marriage is not an issue they can support. 

Similarly the support for Lords reform does not appear to be an issue which has alienated voters from the Government. A recent Yougov poll showed that only 5% support the current Lords appointment system. Perhaps this is the place to insert a plug for 'Holy Redundant' the humanist campaign to remove the automatic right for Bishops to sit in the Upper Chamber. Their website contains an email generator allowing you to express your opposition to the "Lords Spiritual" to your local MP.

Whatever reason people deserted the Government in the last round of elections, there is no reason to suggest it was down to Equal Marriage or Lords reform. Nadine Dorries suggests in the article above that that the Conservative party needs to drop these issues so they don't appear out of touch, inward looking and self interested. What appears to me to be out of touch, inward looking and self interested is Dorries and other Christians attempting to derail natural justice by trying to "do God" in politics.