Democracy

I went to a meeting at the House of Commons yesterday. It was arranged by Unlock Democracy on the topic of reform of the House of Lords. The most impressive speaker was Paul Tyler who is in action in the photo below. He's in the House of Lords but is a democrat of such conviction that he sees that it needs to be reformed into an elected body.

While I also see the need for reform, and would love to see a totally elected body, I came away more convinced than ever that the party system is real problem with our democracy. Unless we fix that we'll have a second chamber of self-servers (sorry Lord Tyler - you are one of the few exceptions) and very little chance for independent voices to be heard.