The Joint Committee report on reform of the House of Lords is mostly headed for the dustbin of history – because this mess of arcane proposals cannot be sold to voters

The Joint Committee on reform of the House of Lords has toiled away, but not to much avail, except in recognizing that a referendum is probably inevitable. Patrick Dunleavy thinks this is exactly why the government will end up not doing most of the unpopular and irrational things that the Committee suggests. Two ideas will never work – first, a vast new chamber of 450 senators, infeasible on cost and duplication grounds; and second, a single term for ‘elected’ peers of 15 years, which most voters will rightly see as a complete con.