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Peter
Viggers, Member of Parliament for the Gosport constituency,
will be voting in favour of a wholly nominated House of Lords
on Tuesday 4th February. He said today: "I have come
to this decision after a great deal of thought and discussion.
The Government set out to change the House of Lords without
having the faintest idea where it wanted to end up. Having
destroyed the former House of Lords, the Labour Government
cannot itself decide what form a second chamber should take.
I
am persuaded that we must avoid a situation where a second
elected chamber comes into existence without clear rules spelling
out the inter-relationship between the Commons and the second
chamber.
A
wholly appointed second chamber will have no democratic credibility,
but it will be able to fulfil the important role of scrutinising
Parliamentary legislation. If the appointments are on a fair
political basis, this would make for a useful second chamber.
One further point: in order to allow good co-operation between
the Commons and the second chamber, it is important that the
second chamber should contain a significant number of people
who have had Parliamentary experience in the House of Commons"
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