# "In God We Trust" in schools? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 13, 2003, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-god-we-trust-in-schools/154731 "2003-02-13T02:07:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2003, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-god-we-trust-in-schools/154731/61 "2003-02-15T12:49:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Monty \* > \*\*amarone: I frequently watch “Prime Minister’s Questions” as it’s quite interesting. I did watch a telecast of the House of Lords. Well, I started watching it and it put me to sleep although the beginning of the debate was good. IIRC, it was about changing the makeup of the Lords. \*\* That movement ended in disarray. See [here](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/2727847.stm). There were nine diffferent methods of reform proposed and they were all rejected. ---
**Author:** ![Mandelstam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Mandelstam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mandelstam)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2003, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-god-we-trust-in-schools/154731/62 "2003-02-15T14:45:43Z")
I’ve been trying to rein in this House of Lords hijack, but what the heck! I’m not surprised to see that kind of reform agenda fail since it is incoherent. If the House of Lords is to be elected then it’s basically a different kind of Commons and what’s the point of that? If the House of Lords is to be appointed then it’s just going to end up a kind of echo chamber for the kinds of opinion most favored by the ruling party, and what’s the point of that? Completely pre-modern though it is, the current compositon of the House of Lords is actually closer in spirit to a different kind of principle that was still valued when Parliament was modernized in the 18th and 19th centuries. It’s the idea that there is some value to having a deliberative body of individuals who stand apart from elective self-interest as well as the duties of patronage (being appointed). Of course, the current Lords fall far short of any ideal of high-minded, distinterested individuals ever dreamed up in the nineteenth century. And it is indeed almost impossible to justify why hereditary peers should have any attention paid to them at all, unless one is just attached to tradition for tradition’s sake. But unless reform of the Lords were to articulate some appealing principle distinct from Commons, I think it’s as likely that the Lords will just be abolished entirely as that they’ll be reformed along the lines suggested in the link. (And I actually don’t think either is very likely for the foreseeable future.) (It would be nice to hear what some English people think about all this, but that would be a total hijack, and of a thread that is about an American motto no less.) ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2003, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-god-we-trust-in-schools/154731/63 "2003-02-15T15:10:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mandelstam \* > \*\*I’ve been trying to rein in this House of Lords hijack > (It would be nice to hear what some English people think about all this, but that would be a total hijack, and of a thread that is about an American motto no less.) \*\* New thread opened [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=163296). ---
**Author:** ![Mandelstam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Mandelstam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mandelstam)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2003, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-god-we-trust-in-schools/154731/64 "2003-02-15T15:19:30Z")
Addendum to what I said (since amarone has now made this topic official) about unlikely for the foreseeable future above. I was going by memory and also trying to keep my remarks brief; but it does seem as though as though for the last 4 years, the hereditary peers are _officially_ on borrowed time. That is, they can only sit until such time as whatever reform takes place is completed. Yet the quite recent attempt to complete that reform, to which **amarone** refers have gone nowhere. My thoughts on the matter are clear–but it’s likely that in the new thread some posters closer to the debate will weigh in! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-god-we-trust-in-schools/154731.md?page=3)