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Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill

If I may say so, I am not quite sure what proposals I am supposed to give an enthusiastic welcome to. Let me remind the Secretary of State that last year the Government published another document—previously we had "Britain deserves better", whereas this one, published on 29 June 2009, was called "Building Britain's Future". Let us remind ourselves of what it says:""We have already pursued a radical programme of reform in the House of Lords, including reducing the number of hereditary peers who sit in the House from about 750 to 92 today."" That is not so radical, we now discover: apparently it is an anomaly, but I leave that one aside. The document continues:""But fairness and the democratic principle require that the people's representatives are chosen by the people. The Government plans to legislate in the 2009-10 session for the next steps on House of Lords Reform by completing the process of removing the hereditary principle from the second chamber. And, building on the Government's White Paper published last July, which committed us to an 80 per cent or 100 per cent elected House of Lords—reflecting the will of the Commons expressed in a free vote in 2007—we will pursue the final phase of Lords reform by bringing forward a draft Bill for a smaller and democratically constituted second chamber.""