Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester

Mike Ion Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 07:59:33 AM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

According to the Noble Lord Adonis the city of Manchester would make an ideal home for the House of Lords.



In a piece for today's Guardian he argues that moving the elected second chamber out of London would promote a real redistribution of political power.

Now I know it is deeply unfashionable to ever agree with Tony's former Education guru but I think he makes an important point. In a modern democracy there is no absolute necessity for both elected chambers to be in the same city.

Is Andrew Adonis finally trying to make himself popular in the Labour movement?


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Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester | 24 comments (24 topical)

Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#1)

by pipesmoke on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 09:04:46 AM GMT

Combine this story with the Village Life rumour that Mandelson is threatening to accept a peerage in Blair's resignation honours and then with the fact that the Queen doesn't like Manchester and I think Adonis is onto a winner. The West Coast line and Lords deserve each other. A casino thrown in as well  - if ever there was an argument to bring back Stuart Hall and It's a knockout, this is it. He could even do the 'Today in the Lords' slot for BBC parliament.
Perhaps a new theme tune 'Lords Huh! What are they good for? Absolutely nothin'
Aving it


Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#2)

by Glass House on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 10:02:03 AM GMT

Interesting idea. But then I tend to agree with Adonis a little more than some anyway :)


Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#3)

by grimupnorth on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 10:53:19 AM GMT

Is this to make up for the Casino which is likely to be chucked  out ?


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#4)

by Glass House on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 12:04:31 PM GMT

I really don't understand what everyone's problem is with the Casino. Who are we to tell people how they can spend their own money? When did we become so puritanical?


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#6)

by grimupnorth on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 02:52:18 PM GMT

Encouraging people to gamble and get themselves into debt is hardly compatible with principles of  universal brotherhood/sisterhood.


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#7)

by Glass House on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 02:55:19 PM GMT

How is it encouraging people to gamble?

By that logic, the government is 'encouraging' anything that it is not trying to make illegal.


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#15)

by grimupnorth on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 04:28:31 PM GMT

The planned casino in East Manchester is in one of  the most socially deprived wards  in the city.Indeed the UK.The "get-rich-quick" ethos  of casinos is not, IMHO, something to actively  promote in  a part of Manchester where  many people are desperate for cash. Or anywhere,really. I believe the Christian Socialist movement has spoken out on this  one.I understand the jobs argument but surely there are more positve  ways forward than this.


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#23)

by JR on Fri Mar 30, 2007 at 04:06:20 PM GMT

Christian socialism is an absolute joke.

Christianity and socialism are contradictory in terms. Today's Christian church still doesn't allow women to become bishops and it uses every opportunity it can to oppress sexual minorities and continues to deny them equal rights. The Vatican is responsible for millions of deaths in the developing world due to its opposition to contraception. And it's opposition to abortion is fundamentally against women's rights.

Hardly sounds like socialist / social-democratic values to me.

I couldn't care less what the Archbishop of Canterbury has to say on gambling. He's one of the biggest sinners in this country and his 'morals' are anything but Christian. No wonder nobody bothers going to church anymore.


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#9)

by JR on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 02:56:23 PM GMT

Well the vast majority of Mancunians are in favour of this. You only have to read the polls in the MEN to show that.

I think the people of East Manchester probably find it extremely patronising when people say they're too stupid to be trusted with a casino since they'll all go out and fritter away their dole money on slot machines. They may be poor, but they're not idiots.

East Manchester desperately needs these 2500 jobs and if Cameron gets his way today, the city will never forgive him and he can kiss goodbye to getting any votes from Manchester at the next election. Any Labour MP who is voting with the Tories today should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#11)

by Glass House on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 03:58:57 PM GMT

I agree. The subtext of many of the arguements against is "the proles can't be trusted not to loose all their money".

I don't like the term 'Nanny State' but banning gambling because you think that some people will fritter away their money is a stunning example of it.

Freedom means freedom to make the wrong choices.


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#12)

by DenDen on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 04:01:15 PM GMT

JR - You only have to read the polls in the MEN to show that.

What's MEN?


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#14)

by Glass House on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 04:25:52 PM GMT

Manchester Evening News


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#24)

by ComradeNorton on Wed Apr 04, 2007 at 01:12:57 PM GMT

"The subtext of many of the arguements against is "the proles can't be trusted not to loose all their money"."

Actually I am against super casinos on the basis of:

  1. it makes it much easier to launder the proceeds of crime
  2. I fail to understand the use of a considerable amount of human capital to strip the hard earned disposable income of others
  3. gambling is an addictive activity which cannot do anything other than destroy many households
  4. I would not be suprised if the casinos become a hub around which other vices congregate and prosper.

whilst I am no lefty, I am suprised at the lack of moral fibre here and protection of the working class man or woman in the street.  

It is odd that the Conservatives treat gambling as a dangerous vice, even though it is an expression of the market being able to sell a product of no use, whilst Labour seeks to embrace it.

Even Bush goes out of his way to make internet bookmakers criminals for god's sake.

That said, politicians and common sense are words rarely used in the same sentance.

Oh why do I sound like such a closet Tory, and that Cameron looks like such a nice boy as well, arrrgggg!


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#13)

by jonesythered on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 04:01:31 PM GMT

Do you mean the Lord Adonis who until relatively recently was a Lib Dem councillor in Oxford?


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#16)

by Glass House on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 04:29:04 PM GMT

Give him a break, he's been a party member for 12 years.


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#18)

by jonesythered on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 08:03:58 PM GMT

You mean he defected just in time to get a job working for Blair? How convenient. Indeed, he was selected as a Lib Dem PPC just a year before his sudden change of heart - but resigned just in time when he discovered his burning passion for the Labour party.

You're right, what a stalwart of the labour movement.


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#19)

by Glass House on Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 09:46:09 AM GMT

I'm just saying I think the guy does good work.

And a lot of people had a Road to Damascus moment in 1994/9 - not, as you say, so they could get jobs, but because the Labour Party moved sharply in the direction of modern social democracy.


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#21)

by grimupnorth on Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 04:05:50 PM GMT

I think a lot of us have had other Road To Damascus moments rather more recently. Oh, BTW, social democracy was what we had BEFORE New Labour.Mind you 1994 New labour was pretty "left" compared to the right-wing b**** the Govt is talking now.


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#22)

by jonesythered on Fri Mar 30, 2007 at 12:22:16 PM GMT

True - it supported renationalisation of the railways and end to the internal market of the NHS, for a start. Surreal, if you think about.

Only one leadership candidate used the term "socialism" in their manifesto in 1994.

Guess who it was?


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#5)

by JR on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 02:33:47 PM GMT

Well considering they're going to rob us of our casino, then they may as well give us the Lords.

Of course, the good people of Manchester are too proud to accept stuck up nobility and hereditaries coming to our city. We would only reluctantly accept if we get a fully elected Senate(!).


Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#8)

by Glass House on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 02:56:07 PM GMT

You at Manchester Uni JR? Which one? (if you don't mind me asking)


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#10)

by JR on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 02:57:56 PM GMT

I live in Greater Manchester (except in term-time), but I don't go to uni there.


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Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#17)

by JR on Wed Mar 28, 2007 at 07:40:44 PM GMT

Well, well, well. So it's the Lords who rob us of our casino whilst the Commons supports it.

That just about sums up the state of democracy in this country when the elected majority get overruled by unelected toffs.

I tell you what Adonis, instead of moving the Lords to Manchester, why don't we just scrap the entire thing and do us all a favour.

No doubt when Gordon takes charge, his Presbytarian ways will get the better of him and the whole casino experiment will be scrapped.

Goodbye to 2500 jobs.


Re: Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester (#20)

by Glass House on Thu Mar 29, 2007 at 09:46:55 AM GMT

It's a real shame.

**ing Lords.


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Adonis: Move the Lords to Manchester | 24 comments (24 topical)