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Archiver > GEN-MEDIEVAL > 2003-11 > 1070196384


From: (Peter Stewart)
Subject: Re: The history is long but is coming to an end
Date: 30 Nov 2003 04:46:24 -0800
References: <1a4001c3b650$4d3f2a50$6501a8c0@PC> <20031129232527.ZYVS2005.imf18aec.mail.bellsouth.net@bob>


("Robert Baxter") wrote in message news:<>...
> Round pointed out that peerages were never intended to be hereditary in the
> first place and that a summons to sit in Lords in one Parliament did not
> mean that a summons would be issued for the next. The simplest thing for
> Blair to have done was simply have the Queen not issue summonses for the
> House of Lords. Then he could start afresh and the Commons would have a
> clean slate to work with rewriting the unwritten Constitution.

Are writs still sent summoning each peer to successive parliaments?
This would give employment to a few calligraphers, I suppose, but I
thought the practice was for a new peer to take his or her seat once
ceremonially, & then stay on for good.

By the way, an Australian I know was prevented from taking his
hereditary seat becasue he wasn't a British resident. Not quite the
same as Lord Mereworth's idea of inalienable right...

Peter Stewart

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