Learn with the Lords

Lower Sixth Politics students enjoyed a 45 minute ‘Learn with the Lords’ session on Wednesday 7^th May with Lady Finlay. Baroness Finlay of Llandaff is a Welsh doctor, professor of palliative medicine, and a crossbench member of the House of Lords. Our enthusiastic Sixth Formers prepared a bank of questions and were able to ask whatever they wanted. The opportunity to quiz a peer ‘live’ supports their A Level course by helping them explore key issues such as the House of Lords reform and enabled them to hear Lady Finlay’s view on topics such as:  Should hereditary peers be abolished?  Should the appointments system be changed?  Should the Lords be elected?  What other reforms short of electing the Lords might be appropriate?

Head of Politics, Richard Duckett, reflected, “It is hugely useful, I think, to ‘meet’ a peer and hear directly from them.  The insight is always valuable in these sessions, which breaks down the democratic deficit of being so far removed from the Lords.  I have always got a sense, from those we have had a session with, of the tremendous hard work that goes on in the Lords, and the sense that they do such a valuable job for the running of the country, which we simply don’t ever get from the negative press and the click bait of unelected and therefore undemocratic over-privileged people who have an unfair influence in making our policies and legislation.”