Penrith, United Kingdom:
British heir Richard Fletcher-Vane, better known as Lord Inglewood, will soon no longer commute the few hundred miles from his country home in northwest England to the House of Lords in London – and he's not happy about it.
“Anyone who's been fired doesn't like it, especially if you think you're being fired for what is in itself a bad reason,” he told AFP at Hutton-in-the-Forest, his huge house dating from 1350, near Penrith. , Cumbria, 300 miles (480 kilometers) from the British capital.
The Labor government elected earlier this year is scrapping the 92 seats reserved for colleagues who inherited their positions as members of an aristocratic family, while the centre-left party is moving to reform the unelected upper house of parliament.
Britain is an anomaly among Western governments in having such legislatures, who bear titles such as duke, earl, viscount and baron.
Lesotho in southern Africa is the only other country in the world with a hereditary element in its legislature, according to the British government.
It is “not in keeping with modern Britain”, Cabinet Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said in September as he introduced legislation that will remove bloodline members from the Lords.
The proposals were quickly approved by the House of Commons and will be debated in the Lords on Wednesday.
Fletcher-Vane, who travels to the Lords by train most weeks, took up his seat in 1989 after becoming 2nd Baron Inglewood following the death of his father.
He was Secretary of State for the Conservatives in the mid-1990s and is a former Member of the European Parliament.
The 73-year-old now sits as an independent cross-bencher.
At Hutton-in-the-Forest, where 500-year-old tapestries adorn the walls, Fletcher-Vane recognized that birthright peerages are anachronistic in today's world.
But he also defended the contributions of many hereditary peers, some of whose titles have been in their families for centuries.
'I HAVE HAD AN ORDINARY LIFE'
“I've always tried to take it seriously,” said Fletcher-Vane, who claimed to be “a voice” for the north of England.
The Lords, whose main role is to scrutinize government legislation, consists of around 800 members, most of whom are appointed for life by outgoing prime ministers, sometimes as a not-so-subtle reward for political loyalty.
Members include former MPs, people nominated after serving in prominent roles in the public or private sector, and senior clergy of the Church of England.
John Attlee, the second Earl Attlee and grandson of former Labor Prime Minister Clement Attlee, is another hereditary peer preparing to return the red ermine robes adorned by gentlemen.
He joined the military in 1992 after a career in road transport and as a member of the British Army Volunteer Reserve Force.
“Because I have had an ordinary life, I have experience and knowledge that others, or very few others in parliament, have,” the 68-year-old told AFP over coffee in the Lords' guest room.
'LIFE OUTSIDE' THE MEN
Prime Minister Keir Starmer's party, which returned to power in July for the first time in 14 years, is reviving reforms begun under Tony Blair's Labor government in the late 1990s.
Blair planned to abolish all the seats of hundreds of hereditary members who were in the House at the time. But he ultimately retained 92 in what should have been a temporary compromise.
“House of Lords reform has been on the political agenda to some extent for more than a century,” Daniel Gover, a constitutional expert at Queen Mary University of London, told AFP.
That left hereditary peers feeling like they were on borrowed time for decades.
“I always expected the system to have changed before it was my turn,” Attlee said.
But reform has proven to be a thorny issue for successive governments, partly because officials have struggled to propose better alternatives.
The government says it wants to eventually replace the Lords with an alternative second chamber that is more representative of Britain.
But campaign groups such as the Electoral Reform Society want much broader reforms.
It notes that the Lords is “the second largest legislative chamber in the world, after China's National People's Congress,” and calls for a “smaller, elected house” to work alongside the elected House of Commons.
Some peers are criticized for rarely showing up. Those who do will be eligible for a daily allowance of up to 361 pounds ($460) plus travel expenses.
Fletcher-Vane said he thinks cutting hereditary peers is a “crude” reform, even though he believes he contributes more than many life peers.
He said his last day, likely next year, will be a “sad” day, but not entirely unknown, as he previously lost a seat in the European Parliament.
“I've been through it all and there is life out there,” he said.