House of Lords
Composition
The House of Lords is made up of all the Peers of the Realm. These are the people who have been granted a peerage. A Peer may choose to not sit in the House of Lords, but that will be up to them. There is no cap on the maximum size of the House of Lords, although there is a cap on Peers at 1% of the total members of TRMN. Grayson Steadholders, Havenite Senators, and Andermani Peers will be permitted to sit and participate in the House of Lords as well.
If a person is elevated to the peerage while they are serving in the House of Commons, they will be permitted to serve out the remainder of your current term in the House of Commons before they are able to be seated in the House of Lords. If they quit their seat in the House of Commons before their Term is up, a Special Election will be held to fill their seat.
Rules of the House of Lords
Lord Speaker
The Lord Speaker shall be elected by the members of the House of Lords, and must therefore be a member of the Lords. This person shall serve for a term of one year, and may be re-elected twice.
The role of the Lord Speaker is as follows:
- Set the Agenda for Discussion
- Moderate Discussions in the House
- Share recommendations with the Royal Council
Forms of Address
- Lords are not to refer to each other by name and instead always refer to “My Lord/My Lady”.
- If you’re talking about someone from the same party they can be referred to as “my honourable friend”, while members of the Royal Council – and usually ministers –are “the right honourable” followed by
Lord/Lady <Peerage Land> if applicable.
- The exception to this is the Speaker, who can refer to anyone he likes by name.
- Unlike the House of Commons, who are only allowed to speak to one person in the House of Commons, the Speaker, Peers may address other Peers. This, however, is suspended during Prime Ministers Questions, when all questions must be addressed to “My Lord Speaker”
Acceptable Language
- Parliament has strict rules on “unparliamentary language”.
- One banned word in particular stands out: ‘liar’.
- Lords who who accuse each other of lying are usually asked to withdraw the remarks by the Speaker, or face a suspension.
- You’re also not allowed to call a fellow Lord a ‘hypocrite’.
- This may be related to the conventions of Cabinet government. Under cabinet collective responsibility, the Royal Council must publicly support every decision the government makes or face the sack.
- In reality, not everyone always supports every decision the Royal Council makes and thus hypocrisy is practically built into the system.
- Additionally, on the list Parliament’s banned words are the following archaic Sol expressions.
- Pipsqueak
- Swine
- Rat
- Tart
- Fuck
- Ass
- Dick – Depends on Context
- Pussy – Depends on Context
- Tits
- Boobs – Depends on Context
- The following words are expressly permitted during the course of debate:
- Fribble
- Huckster
- Fatuous
- Nincompoop
- Flapdoodle
- Foozler
- Hornswoggler
- Meater
- Vazey
Responsibilities of the House of Lords
- The members will be responsible for reasonable requests and questions. These requests and questions can be added to the Agenda by the members submitting them to the Lord Speaker.
Unacceptable Topics
- There are a few topics which the House of Commons may not bring up as requests or questions. These are as follows:
- Changes to the testing requirements for ranks, positions, and billets
- Punitive actions against other members
- Structural changes to the existing organization
Acceptable Topics
- This list of acceptable topics which the House of Commons may bring up as requests or questions is not exclusive, and is more to be used as an example, than a definitive list. These topics include, but are not limited to:
- Recommendations for New Peers and Peerage Elevations – Except to Grand Duke
- Recommendations for types of Civilian Chapters, and changes to existing ones, specifically relating to Peers
- Recommendations for New Civilian Billets within Peerage Lands
- Recommendations for Home Secretary (2/3 majority needed for recommendation)
- Confirmation for House of Commons recommended Admiralty House Events (50%+1 to confirm)
- Questions on why a policy was adopted by the Royal Council
- Recommendations for additional Acceptable Topics to the Royal Council
- Additionally the House of Lords must review the recommendation for possible elevation to the peerage submitted by the House of Commons.
- Finally, the House of Lords will vote on any nominations for the Parliamentary Medal of Valor. The vote must be a 2/3 vote of the Lords. If both the House of Commons and the House of Lords vote to award a PMV, the First Lord of the Admiralty, on behalf of the Monarch, will issue the award at their earliest convenience.
House of Lords Questions
- The Second week of every other Month, beginning in January, the Chamber shall be opened to the public to come and view the House of Lords Questions. These questions can be asked on a specific forum channel or the House of Lords Discord Server in the Public Discussion and Debate channel. A special forum channel will be established for this purpose.
- The Lords will have an opportunity to ask questions of the Board of Directors, Steering Committee and the Executive Committee. These questions are for clarification of existing policy, and do not have to be tied to any proposed bill within the House of Lords. Due to the asynchronous nature of both the forums and Discord, the leader of each group shall have 2 weeks to answer.
- Any group of 3 or more Seated Peers may propose a question in the Seated Peers Business, Lord’s Conference room. After a week, they can move that question to the Public Discussion and Debate channel. After two (2) weeksthat question, they may ask for a vote by Seated Peers posting yay or nay on the question, as modified by the discussion. If the question passes with a simple majority, the Lord Speaker must present the question to the appropriate group. .
- he only acceptable responses to not answering questions are the following:
- “My Lord Speaker, please inform the right honourable Lord/Lady <Peerage Land> that I do not know the answer to that question and will defer to the .”;
- or,
- “My Lord Speaker, I am unable to answer the question from the right honourable Lord/Lady <Peerage Land> as it would compromise information covered under a non-disclosure agreement.”
- or,
- “My Lord Speaker, I am unable to answer the question from the right honourable Lord/Lady <Peerage Land> as it would be a violation of the Official Secrets Act.”
- or,
- The Steering Committee [ or Executive Committee or Board of Directors] is looking at updating and clarifying the wording.
- “My Lord Speaker, I am unable to answer the question from the right honourable Lord/Lady <Peerage Land> as it would compromise information covered under a non-disclosure agreement.”
- or,
- “My Lord Speaker, I am unable to answer the question from the right honourable Lord/Lady <Peerage Land> as it would be a violation of the Official Secrets Act.”