Changes coming to the UK’s House of Lords

0:00On the latest episode of Newsmakers, Jamie Diamond predicts A.I. could give us a three-day work week. If you look at the history of developed nations, we went from working six and a half days a week to five days a week, twelve hours a day, eight hours a day. I do think that you could chance me three and a half days a week in many years of believing wonderful lives. Jamie Diamond on Newsmakers, our new podcast with NPR's biggest interviews. Today on State of the World, changes coming to the UK's House of Lords. You're listening to State of the World from NPR. We bring you the day's most vital international stories up close where they're happening. I'm Greg Dixon. The Upper House of Britain's Parliament is called the House of Lords, and it's full of old traditions. Some clerks occasionally wear powdered wigs. There's a gold throne for the king, and lawmakers address each other as noble lord or baroness. One tradition carries real privilege.

1:00The legislature still includes dozens of aristocrats who inherit their seats. But not for long. Here's NPR's Lauren Frayer in London. Charles Courtney grew up in a village in southwest England. There's a young man. He left the drizzle behind him moved to California. I am a surfer. Obviously in California, I lived ten years in LA, so I surfed to Panga Beach very often. He met his American now ex-wife in a bar in Vegas and didn't tell her much about his background. Just took her on a trip home to England one day. Yes, two months, maybe. I just drove her up the drive. Drove her up the driveway of his family's 12th century castle. Is there a moat? There's a moat. Because the man who insists I just call him Charlie is also... The Earl of Devon, and I live here at Poundrum Castle. Forgive me. You don't need forgiveness for being an American. He inherited all this through a male bloodline.

2:02So even though he's got three older sisters, he gets the title and castle. It was besieged twice, once in 1450, and again, during the English Civil War in the 1640s. A sign in the entry says long leave the Earl as in him. I was very embarrassed when that got put up. Now the gig also comes with political power. A seat in the House of Lords, the upper chamber of Parliament, equivalent to the U.S. Senate. Courtney's one of 92 Lords out of more than 800 in Parliament who have inherited their seats. This is part of a feudal system that goes back to the Norman Conquest of 1066, when monarchs began doling out land in exchange for military service and council. We had the walls of the roses, the House of York and the House of Lancaster. In some ways, Courtney is the stereotypical Lord. White male, he went to Eaton and Cambridge, he lives in this castle. But in other ways, he's different. He got beheaded in 1538.

3:04He's lobbied to change the rules so that women can inherit titles. One of his great, great, hard to say how many greats, uncles, was exiled for being gay. And Courtney offers up his castle for LGBTQ weddings and public concerts. Coldplay, Mumford and Sons, Stormsy. And in the House of Lords, he once gave a speech calling the legislator itself. The gendered discriminatory. The title of the word for lawmaker changed the name, he said, in a speech to Parliament. The step away from the negative associations with nobility and high rank associated with land and power. This spring, Parliament is doing just that, by kicking out Courtney and the rest of the lords who've inherited their seats. In a compromise, some of them will be allowed to stay till they die, but won't be allowed to pass down their seats to descendants. It only took a thousand or so years, right? Right, the patriarchy puts up lots of barriers to its removal.

4:07But come on, if you really believe in equal rights, what on earth am I doing? It is seemingly so wild that anybody in this day and age could inherit the right to legislate. It's quite bonkers. Eleanor Dowdy wrote a history of the modern British aristocracy. And she says that despite a civil war in the 1600s, Britain never had a French revolution, never be headed its equivalent of Marie Antoinette and her friends. We had our civil war and we did chop the king's head off, but we didn't get rid of his peers at all. We never go that far, we don't go as far as France. So they've just sort of carried on. And so the medieval aristocracy remains largely intact here. They own disproportionate amounts of land on which they collect rent, fueling intergenerational wealth. They dominated elite private schools and cultural institutions, which is not a good look for democracy. And so the House of Lords power was scaled back in 1911 and again in 49.

5:08In 1999, Tony Blair phased out most hereditary seats. And the last 92 of them are now being abolished. The whole world is a mess, nothing big, nothing big. More room for new faces. I'm Carmen Smith, also known as Baroness Smith of San Vice. Carmen Smith is the youngest member of the House of Lords. And I took my seat when I was 27. The average age of members there are 71. And it's a chamber of 70% men. So I suppose I stand out a little bit. She also has pink hair and grew up in public housing. A lot of people in the Lords do come from a very different life to me. I don't get invited to their houses. Even those who don't inherit their seats, they still aren't elected. Most Lords get appointed by the Prime Minister. There are even seats reserved for bishops. Smith got her seat allocated through a Welsh national party. But she calls that unfair. Don't stop with the inheritance, guys.

6:09Reform the whole house. Make them all elected, she says. That's the mission at the moment. I'm working to get rid of my job. And I don't believe that my position should exist. I've been reforming the institution from the inside. But then such reform was Prime Minister Kier Starmer's campaign promise two years ago. A abolish hereditary seats then set a mandatory retirement age for the Lords. And eventually replace them all together, with an upper chamber that's more representative of the country. The family coat of arms. Back in his castle, the Earl of Devon acknowledges his time is up. Yes, I'm not very diverse, right? It does need to be more representative, and it really needs more voices. But he still wants to be part of the conversation about reform and what to replace the Lords with. He's got lots of ideas, select seats by region, or by profession, maybe even through a lottery, a jury duty type system.

7:09After centuries of family service and government, he says he can offer something. A little bit of that longer term memory, because we work in generations not in five-year electoral cycles. We are, by our definition, somewhat longer term. And as we walk out of his castle, chatting... ...on other stories and other people's... The chimes of a very old, very fancy grandfather clock interruptor. Does that ring a two-time or something? As if calling time on my visit, and on this chapter of British history. Lauren Friar and PR News at Powderham Castle in Devon, England. That's the State of the World from NPR. Thanks for listening.