House of Lords reform

After a lifetime of opposing the existence of an undemocratic House of Lords, I now find myself relying on their Lordships to protect my rights under the Freedom of Information Act to enquire into MPs' activities.

Make no mistake. A second, elected chamber, dominated by the parties that dominate the Commons, would be most unlikely to protect us from the elected dictatorship of the Commons. My solution would be a House of randomly selected citizens with a fixed term of office - a sort of national jury similar to the Citizens' Assembly that reviewed the voting system in British Columbia. Although such a house would be broadly politically representative, none of its members would owe his or her position to a political party, so it would be very difficult to operate a whip system. The house would also be broadly representative by other factors, such as age, sex, ethnicity and religion.