The hard Brexiters have a peculiar way of expressing their patriotism. They proclaim an unsurpassed love for Britain while trashing its institutions with an unbridled hatred. The supreme court, the Bank of England and the civil service have all felt the white heat of the hard Brexiters’ incontinent rage. The BBC is another of their “enemies of the people”, as are any parliamentary colleagues who have the temerity not to subscribe to the fundamentalism of the true believers. “Traitors”, “wreckers” and “saboteurs” all.
The latest target for their furies is the House of Lords, because peers have performed their function by suggesting some changes to the withdrawal legislation. A particular focus of Brexteria is the 9th Duke of Wellington, who sits in the claret chamber thanks to the hereditary title that was bestowed on his long-dead ancestor as a reward for battling Napoleon Bonaparte. The 9th duke’s contribution was to table a successful amendment that removes the March 2019 deadline for departure from the EU. This is not such an unreasonable idea given where we have got to or, rather, not got to. [...]
On this we can agree. In a less absurd world, the 9th Duke of Wellington wouldn’t be sitting in parliament. It is beyond ridiculous and all the stations to absolutely ludicrous that you get to occupy a seat in one half of our legislature because of the military feats performed by an ancestor more than two centuries ago. You wouldn’t trust your brain to a neurosurgeon whose only qualification for the title was that his great-great-great-grandfather was a neurosurgeon. Yet Britain’s uniquely comical set-up still reserves seats in its parliament for hereditary legislators. The rest of the upper house, the “life peers”, are appointees of highly variable merit, ranging from those who have distinguished themselves in other walks of life to those who have distinguished themselves by being long-pocketed donors to political parties. [...]
The last effort was in the coalition years, when Nick Clegg, with tepid support from Mr Cameron, brought forward legislation which proposed that the Lords be replaced with an 80% elected chamber. That attempt at reform was sabotaged by a rebellion by Conservative backbenchers. And who was prominent in that revolt against democracy? Among the names were one Bernard Jenkin and one Jacob Rees-Mogg, the very same Jenkin and the very same Rees-Mogg who now fulminate against the unelected peers they previously battled to preserve. Also among the saboteurs were Nadine Dorries, Peter Bone, Steve Baker, Bill Cash and other hard Brexiters who now pose as tribunes of the people. Oh, and we shouldn’t forget that David Davis, the Brexit secretary himself, was one too, along with the Brexiter press that now bellows about the “treachery” of the upper house.
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