Thread by @mabonapgwynfor

With the number of MPs from Wales soon to be slashed, it's worth looking towards the Second Chamber, The House of Lords, to see how Wales performs there.

A thread
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➡️There are 800 Peers sitting in the House of Lords;
➡️Of the 777 Members included in the June 2019 claims data and eligible to sit, 523 chose to include a broad location for their main residence, 254 did not.
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Of these,
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿84.1% were from England;
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿9% from Scotland;
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿3.8% from Wales;
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁮󠁩󠁲󠁿2.3% from Northern Ireland;
🌍0.8% from overseas

And, of those that provided their residency,
🔷nearly half, 43.6%, came from London and the south east of England.

But not all peers responded, which skews the result.

However, in 2016 a written question asked which
regions writs of summons were sent out to at the dissolution of Parliament on 30 March 2015:
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿87.8% were in England;
(with 47.6% in London alone)
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿7.5% in Scotland;
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁮󠁩󠁲󠁿2.5% in Northern Ireland;
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿2.2% in Wales

Of the peers based in Wales:
🌳Conservative: 1
🌹 Labour: 9
🔶Lib Dem: 6
🌻 Plaid Cymru: 1
🔳Cross Bench: 2
➖Non-affiliated: 1

One could be forgiven for believing that the Lib Dems were a political force in Wales!

Of the 18 peers listed:

➡️75 years old on average
➡️66.6% men
➡️33.3% women
➡️0 BAME

❓So who does the House of Lords represent?
❓Are we fairly represented?
❓Who benefits from this unequal representation?
❓Do the Houses of Parliament have the best interests of Wales at heart?

All data here: lordslibrary.parliament.uk/research-brief…

/Ends