House of Lords Reform: A History

Contents: 1960-61. The Wedgwood Benn Case - 1961-63. The Setting up of the Joint Committee on House of Lords Reform: Conservative Proposals - 1962. The Joint Committee on House of Lords Reform: Draft Report - 1963. The Peerage Act - 1965. Procedures and Functions of the House of Lords: Lord Alport - 1966. The Labour Party Manifesto: Modernizing the Work of Parliament - 1966. Memorandum by the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Privy Seal - 1966. Motion to Appoint a Lords Select Committee: Lord Alport - 1967. The Need for Reform of the Upper House: Lord Mitchison - 1967. Composition and Powers of a Reformed House: The Lord President of the Council - 1967. The Lord Chancellor's Ministerial Committee: Powers of the House of Lords - 1967. The Cabinet: Proposed Reform of the Lords - 1967. Detailed Proposals for Reform: The Shackleton Committee - 1968. Inter-Party Conference on Lords Reform - 1968. Conclusions of the Inter-Party Conference - 1968. The Lords' Rejection of Sanctions Against Rhodesia: A Provocation - 1968. Bill to Abolish the House of Lords: William Hamilton - 1968. The Government White Paper - 1968. The White Paper in Parliament - 1968. The Parliament (No. 2) Bill: The Text - 1969. The Parliament (No. 2) Bill: Debate in the House of Commons - 1969. The Parliament (No. 2) Bill Withdrawn - 1969. The Parliament (No. 2) Bill: Regrets and Reflections.

Peter Raina has been a Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, School of Advanced Study, University of London, and an Associate Member of Nuffield College, Oxford. He is is currently Senior Research Associate at the Graduate Centre of Balliol College, Oxford.

«Peter Raina has written a remarkable book about Lords Reform between 1960-69, those years were part of the long running discussions about the future of the Lords and they are brilliantly told in Mr Raina's book. For anybody interested in the History of Reform this is sensible reading.» (The Lord Carrington)
«What a magnificent opus. From the start, I was gripped by admiration for [the] scholarship, mastery of the English language, and understanding of the British body politic! (...) As one who lived through it all - to have you bring out the differing climates of opinion - in the early 1960s to that of today - fascinating... [This] book is well described as magisterial.» (Sir Michael Wheeler-Booth, Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford)