Today marks the 98th anniversary of the Parliament Act 1911. The first serious attempt to restrict the powers of the unelected House of Lords, in its preamble it includes the immortal words “whereas it is intended to substitute for the House of Lords as it at present exists a Second Chamber constituted on a popular instead of hereditary basis, but such substitution cannot be immediately brought into operation.”

Nearly a century later and we’re still waiting. Successive governments have tweaked the House of Lords here and there and in 1999 Tony Blair even evicted all but 92 hereditary peers. But despite the ‘loans for Lordships’ scandal in 2006[1] and even the ‘cash for amendments’ scandal earlier this year[2], progress continues to be slow.

Unlock Democracy continues to lead the campaign for House of Lords reform. Our Elect the Lords campaign – powered by you – played a pivotal role in getting the House of Commons to vote in support of an elected Second Chamber in 2007. All the political parties now agree that it is no longer a case of if there should be political reform, but when.

To ensure that reform comes sooner rather than later, we continue to rely on the support of people like you. To mark this anniversary, we’d like you to do just two things:

• Email a friend this page, tweet it or share it on Facebook.
• Make a small donation, be it £5 or £50. We urgently need to raise £10,000 to help fund our general election activities. Every penny will count.

On 26 August, Unlock Democracy and the Guardian will be hosting a lecture from the minister in charge of House of Lords reform, Jack Straw (you are welcome to attend but places are filling up fast). By helping us mark this anniversary now, you will help us to send him – and his political rivals – a clear signal that we regard House of Lords reform to still be very much on the political agenda.

Best wishes,

Peter Facey
Director, Unlock Democracy

[1] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_for_Honours
[2] See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_for_Influence

House of Lords Reform – a timeline

1909 – The House of Lords causes a national outrage by blocking the government’s ‘People’s Budget.’

1911 – Parliament Act: Asserted the supremacy of the House of Commons by limiting the legislation-blocking powers of the House of Lords.

1949 – Parliament Act: Further limited the power of the Lords by reducing the time that they could delay bills, from two years to one.

1945-1951 – Salisbury Convention: Established the principle that the House of Lords will not oppose the second or third reading of any government legislation promised in its election manifesto.

1958 – Life peerages Act: Increased the ability of the Prime Minister to change the composition of the House of Lords and considerably lessened the dominance of hereditary ‘part-time’ peers.

1963 – Peerage Act: Allowed the disclaiming of peerages, and permitted female and Scottish hereditary peers to sit in the House of Lords.

1999 – House of Lords Act: Removed right of hereditary peers to sit in House of Lords, however, 92 hereditary peers were kept.

2007 -The House of Commons vote overwhelmingly in support of either a 100% or 80% elected House of Lords.

20?? – Success: With your help the UK has a fully elected second chamber!