House of Lords in stalemate over voting reform

"Labour says the bill is so rushed it will leave 3.5 million off the electoral register. They insist that if the government separates the two pieces of legislation, then legislation paving the way for a referendum on the alternative vote system would go ahead."


"The Labour party's commitment to cleaning up politics, to political reform, is a complete and utter farce."
Nick Clegg is showing himself to be a wanker and the very worst of politics by constantly using emotive and provocative language rather than reasoned debate.


"Sources were not ruling out that a guillotine motion could be used in the Lords. Though this would be unprecedented, coalition peers already deployed the highly rare procedure on the first all night sitting by moving a similar sort of motion - a closure motion.
A guillotine sees a government stipulate in advance of how long parliamentarians debate an issue the time by which it needs to be resolved. This has never been done in the Lords."
So the coalition government is willing to stop the debate and force its legislation through. That's a bit bad really. If ever anything in modern times showed the need for reform of the Lords it's this. The Lords exists to be a check on and balance against government, but with a majority in the Lords the coalition has unchecked power, which they are enjoying and showing what they think of those who stand against them.

I myself am in favour of AV on the Roy Jenkins model. The closer the coalitions AV proposals are to the AV+ that Jenkins came up with the more I support it. The other part of the proposals about constituency sizes I will not support (not that it matters what I think or support)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jan/18/house-of-lords-voting-reform/print