[Gayle]

I would dispute that it works very well in a lot of those places.

And I looked into a couple of them and they're not quite the same as here - for example, Australia elects their Prime Minister after the general elections. So people elect their local politicians or party and then the Prime Minister is selected from the whole of the senate.

The good thing about the current system, certainly on the surface is, that each person in the House of Lords is independent - i.e. not a member of a political party. I know that in practice that's not quite right as they were 'placed' there by Labour and so have a certain allegiance.

I am just unsure whether an 'elected' House of Lords would be impartial. I know the current system isn't ideal and I know the past system of hereditary peers wasn't either - I'm personally just not convinced that 'elected' by the public would be the right way either.