Politics

House of Lords: the weird world of hereditary by-elections

Elections, but not as you know them

October 02, 2015
©Suzanne Plunkett/AP
©Suzanne Plunkett/AP
Now read Meg Russell on why we need to reform the Lords

It might surprise even political obsessives to hear that there's a parliamentary by-election going on. As every Westminster-watcher knows, a by-election normally sparks a mad dash of reporters and TV crews, who all descend on an unsuspecting town, propelling it from a quaint regional holiday destination or certified "dodgy area" to national fame in a matter of hours. You won't see the same happening here. 

That's because this isn't a House of Commons by-election, it's a by-election to replace one of the House of Lords' remaining hereditary peers, the crossbencher Viscount Montgomery of Alamein, who has retired. Under Tony Blair's Lords reform laws, passed in 1999, 90 hereditary peers were elected by other hereditary peers to sit in the chamber. The rest had to slope off back to their stately homes, denied the automatic power that their forefathers had. Their only hope of taking it back comes when one of the lucky 90 retires or, more often, dies, and the rest elect someone to replace them.

Hereditary peers standing in recent by-elections have submitted short CVs which are publicly available on the parliament website. Since they tend to have spent their lives outside of the airbrushed world of modern politics, these can be enjoyably unorthodox. Below, I've chosen seven of the funniest, most endearing, or curiously impressive examples from by-elections in the past few years. 

"Oak furniture, rain and Hornblower"

This beautifully dry CV was submitted by the Conservative Lord Ampthill for a by-election sparked by the death of Lord Reay in 2013. He was unsuccessful.

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Dazzling us with logic

This rather understated reasoning was submitted by the Conservative Lord Biddulph for a 2011 by-election marking the death of the previous Lord Ampthill. He was unsuccessful.

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He took a more emotional tack in a by-election this year following the death of the Conservative Lord Luke:

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Again, he didn't make it.

Men of action

Both of these two sound better qualified to run the country than David Cameron, to be honest. Here's crossbencher Lord Harlech's entry to the current by-election:

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And the kite-surfing Earl of Limerick.

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He was going for this year's by-election following the death of Lord Luke. He didn't make it, though he did come in a respectable 5th place.

"Reasonably popular and helpful"

Many of our MPs and Minister could learn from the humility of Crossbencher Lord Tryon in his entry for the 2011 by-election following the death of Lord Ampthill.

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Sadly he wasn't chosen.

Does what it says on the tin

And finally, a return to the persistent Lord Biddulph with this admirably concise and straightforward pitch for the 2013 by-election following the death of Lord Reay.

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