Nearly a quarter of Scottish peers have failed to speak even once in the House of Lords chamber in the past year despite claiming £300 a day just to turn up. According to the attendance records of 63 Scottish members of the Lords, 14 of them have failed to utter a word or table a single written question to the Government in the past 12 months. A further eight peers have spoken only once in the past year.
Commenting, the MP who exposed the cash for honours scandal, Angus MacNeil, said: "When you have a situation where the UK parties see no problem with appointing people to the House of Lords who have donated vast sums to their parties, it is clear that the system is very badly broken. The money involved simply reinforces the public’s perception that if you’re wealthy enough, you can just buy your way into Parliament. A Yes vote for independence means that people in Scotland can get rid of the expensive and unrepresentative Westminster tier - which means better and cheaper government."
Continuing Mr MacNeil said: "The UK parties often promise reform of the Lords, but the cronyism culture just goes on and on with no end in sight. It is an affront to democracy for Westminster to be stacked full of party donors and political apointees when Scotland is able to elect just 4% of Westminster’s parliamentarians. With so many Scottish peers doing so little work, it is clear that they are simply serving their own interests rather than those of people in Scotland. Why should people in Scotland be paying the costs of such an undemocratic body that does so little on their behalf?"
The Scottish National Party has no members of the House of Lords.
