Lords votes to suspend peers over 'cash-for-amendments' scandal

[depakid]

Source: The Guardian

Lord Truscott and Lord Taylor of Blackburn the first to be removed from the house since 1642

Two peers were suspended tonight by the House of Lords for their role in the "cash-for-amendments" affair. Lord Truscott, a former energy minister, and Lord Taylor of Blackburn, who were exposed by undercover reporters from the Sunday Times who recorded them saying that they would help to amend a bill in return for a fee, become the first peers since 1642 to be punished in this way. They were not in the chamber to hear peers debate their fate.

In a debate on the recommendation from the Lords committee for privileges, the leader of the Lords, Lady Royall, said innocent peers were being "shouted at in the street" because of the damage done to the reputation to the upper house by the affair. Royall, said that the episode had left many members of the chamber feeling "sullied".

"I've had members of this house come to me, as I'm sure other leaders have, to tell me what at times it has meant: being shouted at in the street, their spouses being reluctant to go to their local communities because of what people have been saying," she said. At the start of the debate Royall said: "We are at a dark moment for democracy. The trust that people place in parliament and parliamentarians has sunk like a stone. People's disgust at parliament is palpable." Until recently it had been thought that the Lords did not have the power to suspend its members. But last week a report from the committee for privileges said that such power did exist.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/20/peers-suspended-cash-for-amendments

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Now, if Americans could only get after their own corrupt Senators and congress people....

[Vidar]

1. Good for Britain.