On which basis should the house of lords be reformed

Essay from the year 2005 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: Western Europe, grade: 66% (1,7), University of the West of England, Bristol, 11 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: House of Lords reform has been talked about for over a century, but the subject has been of most recent attention as, in 1999, Tony Blair's New Labour Party introduced a reform for the Upper Chamber to make it more representative and democratic. But the government only conducted the first stage of this reform, consisting in a merely partial abolition of the hereditary peers. Since then, the composition of the House of Lords is only temporary while proposals for a second reform stage are being discussed for five years now. The aim of this paper is to analyze on which basis the House of Lords should be reformed.