Reform is a great tradition to follow. World2Rights shows the way.

Monarchy

1. We benefit from having a widely supported, non-political head of state.

2. If the monarchy did not exist, it would pay to invent something like it.

3. Succession should be to the first born child and not the first born son.

4. Democratic checks and balances - if both houses of parliament vote for it*, a monarch should be forced to abdicate or an heir-apparent should be over-looked. (* possibly with two-thirds majorities.)

5. The royal family should pay the same taxes as everybody else but their public duties should be adequately financed and they should receive generous payments for their work.

House of Lords

1. The House of Lords should be reformed to include both directly elected members and democratically appointed senators. The number of appointments and their party balance will reflect the existing balance within the Commons and the need to achieve a similar balance in the Lords. Furthermore, the number of voting members or votes per party would be varied each session to ensure that the party of government had a reasonable underlying majority.

2. Directly elected members will make-up less than one half of the membership of the Lords. There is more to democracy than the electoral cycle.  Senators, appointed through a democratic process and on the basis of their public service, will have a valuable role to play.