The key principle to win in the current round of second chamber reform is the creation of a democratic elected element. If the price of that is to leave the existing second chamber members in place for now then it is well worth paying. I call this the vegetarian option since it enables the turkeys to vote for Christmas without fear of fatal personal consequences.

Earlier this week I gave evidence to the parliamentary Joint Committee on the draft House of Lords Reform Bill, set up to consider the coalition’s proposals for an elected second chamber. It became clear to me that the search has to be for incremental progress where there has only been blockage and delay. We should not cop out by adopting an ideal position on which we can rest while the debate rolls on. We should instead clarify in our own minds what is important to us and what actions will move us forward.

For the first time in our political lifetime a government has brought forward a solid comprehensive proposal. Unfortunately, it is becoming more evident that the proposal to elect 80 per cent of the House and cut existing members will not get the support of the necessary majority in both houses. A simple and saleable Plan B is needed, hence the vegetarian option.

Such opportunities for change are rare and democrats of all parties must make the best of them or suffer the consequences. An example of this is the 1997 effort on devolution. Then, the newly elected Labour government considered that rapid action was necessary to introduce self-government to Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, and to a limited extent Greater London, but lacked a vision of what the UK could become meant the reform was piecemeal. The regions of England were left out. They, it was believed, did not want or need more democratic control over their own affairs and would have to wait. For want of clarity of ambition a one-off opportunity to use  a landslide victory to achieve a stable, decentralised, federal UK was thereby lost. Fifteen years of the nations and regions working together has been lost, as was the chance to rebuild our legislature and free our local government. We now find ourselves in a crisis, whereby parts of the UK want more autonomy still – or perhaps even to secede – while resentment brews in England about perceived constitutional imbalances. There is certainly an immediate cause for action in this area now; but crises are not always the best times in which to make the most important decisions. We could have avoided the present difficulties had we acted more boldly from a position of strength in 1997, rather than desperation in 2012.

For this reason, all of a democratic persuasion should cut away the undergrowth and embrace the key part of the coalition proposals on Lords reform, creating an elected element. We do not know what problems might emerge in the future, leaving us wishing we had acted when it was still possible to do so. Our guiding principle must be that those who wield power should possess a direct democratic mandate. Working towards that principle should inform our actions not an all-or-nothing choice which is not and never will be on offer. So we should be careful that we make this ideal our strength, and that our various personal interpretations of its most perfect realisation do not divide us. The experience of the AV referendum should teach us that opponents of change will be united in their negative objective, so we must be the same around our positive one.

Establishing the legal framework for an elected element in second chamber would be the momentous achievement in 100 years of attempted reform – far greater, I am sorry to say, than achieved under the last Labour government, or any previous one, in this area. As well as being a welcome development in itself, it would surely create a dynamic for change, both in parliament and the wider democratic environment. Such change could enable us to challenge the biggest political problem that we face the enormous over concentration of power in government and the need to build a plurality of independent legislative, regional and local political institutions. Perhaps one day parliamentary sovereignty might eventually become a reality, rather than a myth, a form of camouflage for executive dominance.

In order to get to where we want to be over the second chamber, we should be willing to offer the existing House of Lords and its members whatever  ‘transitional arrangements’ are needed to secure their consent, without diluting the fundamentals of the proposal.

All of those who currently inhabit the Lords should be left alone, allowed to use the facilities and to speak in debate. At a later stage of evolution they might lose the right to vote on the laws that govern us. At that point only those who have the legitimacy of being elected should be allowed to legislate. This would have the additional attraction to the unelected of enabling them to make learned and valuable contributions to debate, enjoy the catering in the second chamber and then to get home at a reasonable time leaving their elected brethren to the joys of voting, often in late night sittings. Such a prospect may well have the turkeys clamouring to vote for this vegetarian Christmas. We just need to be clear with ourselves, that it is Christmas that is important, not the death of the turkey.

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Graham Allen MP is chair of the Select Committee on Political and Constitutional Reform but writes in a personal capacity

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Photo: UK Parliament